Late Spring Cleaning

Late is right.  It’s just about Summer.  For the last few days I have been busily cleaning out my closet.  It involved literally washing every piece of clothing most of which had to be done by hand, sorting and resorting, then packing or tossing.  I had a huge pile of stuff to donate/giveaway and a larger pile of mending.  I now have it mostly done and I can actually see the closet floor.  Still more to go, and I still don’t understand why I have so much clothing.  I guess it’s because I don’t wear things out and people still keep giving me “hand-me-downs”.  It sort of builds up.  Oh well, have a toast to a great Memorial Day and clean closets to all.

Read More »

Fill‘er Up

The most important thing one needs for school (besides books, pens and a brain) is a bag to carry everything.  I wanted a bag that would work for all my needs and still be cute at the same time.  Being insanely cheap also wouldn’t hurt.  So I whipped this one up with some fabrics I got at this one little thrift on Main St.

The fabric is printed to look like woven straw and was intended to be for outdoor projects.  Still, I couldn’t resist the irony of using it for a bag.  If you look at it from a distance and squint your eyes, it does look like a straw bag.  Maybe I can use the scraps to make little “straw” baskets.

Anyway, I used some of the material from my binder cover to make the strap and as an accent.  Now the binder and bag match.  I wonder if it’s a little too much to be coordinating school supplies?  Hmm.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Nine down and out.  Now I just have to wait,  Summer classes start next week.  Should have my next list up by then too, assuming I need to make anything else for class.  Hope so. 

Read More »

Cute Tee, ‘Nuff Said

Finished a couple of clothing recons.  First up is this t-shirt.

It was a simple white t-shirt I got for 25 cents.  It fit me perfectly, but I like my tees to be more on the pretty side.

Here’s the after shot.  Since this t-shirt already fit me well, I didn’t have to remove the sleeves to adjust it like I usually do.  I did cut the hems of the sleeves off at an angle before re-hemming them and adding lace and elastic.  I cut the the neckline in a slight square shape being sure not to cut it too low, did that one before.  I trimmed the neck with the same lace as the sleeves.  You probably can’t see the lace very well in this photo, but it will pop up again.  I recently brought it from SAS.  A humongous spool of pretty lace for only $1.  It will last for many years and hundreds of projects.  I think it works wonderfully for this t-shirt.  Now it’s a simple tee with a touch of cuteness. 

Of course I need something to wear with my cute new t-shirt.  A simple full skirt works  well with it.  I made this skirt from a large pillow case I bought awhile ago at a rummage sale.  I had been planning on making a skirt with it for months but only now got around to it.  It’s a basic rectangle skirt with an elastic waistband and just a touch of lace at the hem.  I love the print on the fabric.  It’s tiny green flowers and from a distance they look kind of like moss.  I tried to make a matching headband, but it didn’t turn out quite right size-wise.  I’ll probably give it to my niece, she loves headbands and little girls can never have too many of them.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Eight down, just one more to go. 

Read More »

Clean and Covered

More with the school crafts today.

Believe it or not I found this old binder in a small recycling bin on campus that was marked “paper only”.  Someone had dumped a huge amount of large sized binders in the bin.  They were each full of paper so I guess that’s why someone thought it would be okay to toss in them in binder and all.  What’s remarkable is that these were the same sort of binders I see selling at Office Max for $5 or more.  Roughly about $50 plus worth of binders.  I was thinking “Why? They’re plastic,” and  “Aw, such a waste of money,” and “Whoo Hoo!  Free binders!” all at the same time.  Of course the real point, I found this binder in the recycling bin and it needed my special touch.

And it certainly got my special touch.  After cleaning the binder, I made this cute cover for it with some green plaid and ribbon.  You can probably tell that I still have trouble sewing ribbon to fabric, see the not so slight puckering of the fabric.  Maybe I should have glued it on instead.

Anyway, you can see here how the binder slides into the cover instead of the cover being glued to the binder like in similar projects I have seen.  This way I can remove the cover to wash if it gets dirty.  And if the binder itself breaks, which is likely to happen eventually, I can use the cover on a new binder or even a book.  Yay, it’s reusable and pretty.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Six down, three to go.  Almost done!

Read More »

Pretty Pens: A Tutorial

This post may contain affiliate links, please check out my disclosures page for more info.  Thanks!

I’ve already made a zippered pouch, I just need a little something to put in it.

Like pens.  These pens were ones I snagged from work, with permission of course.  They were for promotional use and we had way too many.  Who could pass up a freebie?  They just needed a personal touch so I tweaked them. 

You can try it too, here’s the tutorial:

You will need some boring old pens, some thin ribbon, scissors, and a warmed up glue gun (like this one).  Heat resistant gloves would help too, I burnt myself twice.

First remove the cap so it won’t get in your way.  Dab a little glue on the pen just before where the cap would go in order to glue the end of the ribbon to the pen. 

The ribbon should be at a slight angle since it will be wrapped around.  Don’t worry about the raw edges yet.

Proceed to wrap the ribbon around the pen dabbing glue as you go.  It is a good idea to pull tightly on the ribbon as you wrap to ensure it stays nice and smooth.  Just don’t pull so tightly that you rip the ribbon off.

When you get to the end, it sort of resembles the stripes on a candy cane.  If you like it like that, just skip down and finish the ends.  Otherwise, let’s continue.

You need to make sure the end is securely glued down for this part.  You need to fold the ribbon toward the writing end of the pen and then at an angle.  Kind of like how it was when we started gluing and wrapping.

Then you just have to continue wrapping and gluing until you get back to where you started.

Carefully cut the ribbon and glue down the end.  To finish, you can wrap a smaller piece of  ribbon around the pen a couple of times to cover the raw edges, then glue it down.  Trust me, this looks a lot better than leaving the raw edges as is.

What you have now is a pen that’s uniquely yours, comfortable to hold, and really cheap to boot.

It took me a several minutes to make my first one, but after I got the hang of it I was able to make a set of them very quickly.  You will be able to too.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Five down, four to go.  The next should be up by Monday.  Of course knowing me, it will probably be up by Tuesday.  :(

Give it a try:

• ArtMinds Fashion Mini Glue Gun
• Celebrate It 360° Double-Faced Satin Ribbon

Read More »

Zip It.

One of the most important tools for a student is a writing utensil, i.e. pen or pencil.  And an equally important item to have is something cute to use to carry said pen or pencil so it doesn’t get lost in one’s bag.  Enter the zippered pouch.  A lovely item that’s so easy to make with tons of good uses.  I whipped these up with some pretty fabric, lace and of course zippers.  Only took about half an hour each, I guess I am getting better at sewing zippers.

Now I am set with a pouch and just need to fill it up.  The second one will probably go up in the shop.

Here’s the updated list:

• Slippers
• Handkerchiefs
• Cases
• Pens
• Binder
• T-shirt
• Skirt
• Bag
• Background

Four down, five to go.  Next up is the “filler” with a tutorial.  Yay!

Read More »