One By One

Wristlet Box Bag for Mom

My mom recently started taking ceramic classes, and asked if I would make her a box bag wristlet that she could use to put her essentials in, but would be durable enough to stand up to many washings. She is playing with clay after-all.

I figured denim could hold up to the abuse the best. I picked a decorative stitch on my machine, and free-motion quilted (if you can call it that?) the pieces. 

I just love the fabric I chose for the lining...

 

And my mom is a bird-lover so it was the perfect fit!

Mom received her bag a couple of weeks ago and just loves it. And I just loved making it for her.

Be sure to check my etsy store if you want the pattern or are interested in custom-made bags!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Pillowcase Smock

I made this one up over a month ago, but trying to coordinate with Andy to take pictures of me modeling is like nailing jello to a tree. So, please excuse the lack of a modeling shot :)

What started out as a 50-cent vintage standard pillowcase from the thrift store...

Was transformed into a very cute tank smock top for me...

 

I kept the hem of the pillowcase intact and added some scrap fabric inserts to increase the bust width to form the "yoke." The body of the smock is gathered in the front, but not on the back. The tank straps are also from the pillowcase fabric with added ruffles. Then, to add to the overall cuteness, I sewed white rick-rack along the bottom and gave it grosgrain ribbon waist-ties.

My favorite detail though are the vintage buttons that attach the straps to the top. Andy's mom gave me a huge bag of buttons that belonged to his grandmother. Quite the treasures have been discovered in that bag!

 

I like to where a crew-neck tee underneath this top - both long sleeve and short sleeve. It just adds a little cute something to the boring ho-hum mommy-wardrobe! And if it gets stained or splattered with food, that's okay, it was only fifty-cents after-all.

Thrifty Finds

Treasures abound last week!

 

Can you believe that I picked these up during one of my weekly stops to the thrift store? All the pattern pieces have been cut out, taped together and laminated. LAMINATED! Someone spent quite a bit of time putting these together. The best part? They were only $2 each. I was so excited to find these!

In addition to the thrift store, there was a local church rummage sale last week. We got a handful of winter clothes for Jake as well as some sewing books.

 

These are so much fun! I've been on a vintage sewing book kick lately - I guess you could say I'm now collecting them. Anyway, at less than $1 each, how could I pass them up? I've started flipping through the Claudia Ein one, I may just work my way through it - I think I'll learn a lot about sewing and altering women's clothing.

The best find at the rummage sale was a book I found for Andy called "The Principles of Meat Science." Now, for those of you who don't know him, Andy loves all things meat. Seriously. The book is definitely vintage, circa 1975, and certainly a textbook. I figured he would get a kick out of flipping through it every once in awhile. And I was right, he loves the novelty of it!

Box Bags for Kris

I've been a very busy box-bag-sewer! (be sure to check my etsy store if you want the pattern or are interested in custom-made bags!)

In exchange from some fabric, I had the honor of making a couple box bags for Kris. Well, a couple turned into four...

The top two are ones from fabrics Kris chose. The other two were surprise bags!

During an LA Garment District trip I stumbled upon some blue sock monkey fabric. I snatched it up along with some coordinating blue polka dot knowing that blue is Kris' favorite color... and, well, we all know how some knitters can feel about sock monkeys!

 

And, in honor of her beauty-blog (and her ability to suck me into a nail-polish addiction), I found the perfect fabric on etsy for a mini-cosmetic bag...

 

I even added the special touch of doing some custom embroidery on the side :)

 

Thanks for being such a great friend Kris - for sharing your love and obsession for all things knitting (and nail-polish!) with me - it's been an absolute joy being friends with you. I hope you get lots of fun and enjoyment out of your bags!

Delicious Spiraluscious!

Believe it or not, I still knit!

I picked up a kit for Spiraluscious from Dye Dreams during Sock Summit '09 (rav link). My intention was to have it finished in time for my mom's birthday. Well, then my paternal grandmother passed away, and that threw everything off a bit.

Anyway, I got this finished and off to my mom last week. She received it over the weekend and just loves it! It was a pleasure to knit. Beautiful yarn, and a simple but lovely lace pattern. This will definitely provide a bit of warmth for mom.

 

On a side note, my dad saw this and wants one of his one! He wanted to try on mom's, and she kept telling him 'no' - quite hilarious that they were fighting over it. I guess I will be adding a (more masculine) cowl to my Christmas-knitting-list for dad. Has anyone made a manly cowl? Any suggestions out there?

T-Shirt Refashioning Debut

The last time I mentioned the shirt I re-fashioned with shirring, I needed to make a decision on whether or not I wanted to do some machine embroidery. I opted to give it a whirl after poking around on the Urban Threads site (they have some really cute designs!). Anyway, here are the modeled shots:

 

I just love this shirt. So easy to wear, I'm not worried if Jake leaves his marks (because it was only $2 after all), and it's cute! 

I have a blue one on the cutting table now that I hope to get finished here in the next day or so. I also plan on putting a tutorial together for it to :)

Thanks for stopping by and reading!