Do-overs

I'm in love with refashioning! What's not to love when thrifty meets crafty and rendezvous in the wardrobe? I found Wardrobe Refashion a while back and have been mulling over lots of ideas, but after a play-date with my seamstress friend Arla I finally got the guts to put a couple under the needle.

Here's what I came up with:

This is all that's left of a corduroy jumper I bought at the thrift hoping I could alter it. (My camera corrupted the "before" picture I took of the whole thing. bummer.)

The shoulders proved to difficult to try to petite, so I cannibalized it to make elastic waist church pants for L.B. I created the pattern by minimizing instructions for adult pajama pants I found in Sew What? Fleece. Great series, by the way, if you're into sewing without patterns.

Sissy is really hard on jeans and I was going to cut the bottoms off her latest victim and add a ruffle to make capris.

Arla suggested I make a skirt instead. I had done this before for myself and followed the same instructions found here. But, of course, I couldn't stop with a simple skirt; I went cowgirl princess! I left the bottom of the denim rather ragged, added some eyelet lace I bought on final clearance when our Walmart closed, and sewed on some cotton flowers I used on the curtains in her nursery. The added length should give her at least a year of wear since the jeans were still a bit large in the waist.

I'm going to try a couple more "safe" projects for myself and then I want to try some of the wilder stuff over at Wardrobe Refashion. Not sure I want to take their pledge, but who knows? I'm feeling some eccentricity coming on...

It's in the bag

The bag for my Bible was completed yesterday. It's a bit bigger than I need, but seeing that I made a few errors trying to adapt the bag tutorial posted here, it turned out fine. In order to keep my things together, I wanted to add a back pocket for any study guide or book I'm reading but I forgot to sew the pocket on before sewing up the outside seams. I also wanted to use a magnetic closure but couldn't find one that was to be sewn on (much like a snap) instead of poked through the fabric. I edge stitched the flap instead of adding trim and added additional rows of stitching on the strap to strengthen it.

The outside material is the left-overs from the border on my curtains in our family room and the lining is material gifted me by our pastor's wife from her late mother-in-law's sewing stash. I think they go together beautifully!

It has an inside velcro pocket for little ditties and a slot on the side gusset for my pen. I probably should have made more slots for additional pens and pencils. Next time!

My new little bag holds most everything I need for my study--Bible, pen, colored pencils, notebook, and book.

One thing off the list! Yeaaa! But I did get this book for Christmas...

More Handmade Christmas

Thing are buzzing around here, including my sewing machine. Now that my folks are in the car and headed this way, I can post what I've been working on for my mom for Christmas. It's a case for her knitting needles.

I got the idea from Handmade Holidays on Sew Mama Sew in November. I made some adjustments to the pattern, but pretty much followed the tutorial Angie posted on Multicrafty.

Thrifty

Found this fun guy at the thrift store the other day. He looks like he has a purpose,like he should hold something, but I've no idea what that would be.

Also decided that after five years the kitchen needed some curtians. I made these out of dish towels from Big Lots. The whole ensamble, rod and all, was about $13. My kind of price.