September 24, 2010

what's in my bag?

I haven't posted in awhile because I haven't had time to make anything lately--lots of things on the to-do list but just no time. Fortunately, Roo at Nice Girl Notes is hosting a "what's in your bag" linkup so now I have something to post about.

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Empty out my purse and snap a picture? I can do that. . .

  1. very large wallet with a broken zipper--I haven't purchased a new one yet because I'm cheap
  2. three pens
  3. Hancock Fabrics ad
  4. small wet bag with fem hygeine products
  5. fabric I'm going to use to make my friend a blanket for her baby--who knows when I might find the perfect coordinating fabric and need to match colors
  6. two sets of keys
  7. two morsbags
  8. calculator--for figuring yardages and such
  9. folder full of work stuff--schedules, days off requests, employee availabilities, etc.
  10. wintergreen Icebreakers
  11. empty watch face package
  12. ChapStick All Natural
  13. empty bottle of hand sanitizer
  14. random key--I have no idea what it goes to
  15. nail clippers
  16. peppermint Dentyne
  17. post it notes
  18. Dum Dum wrapper (cream soda)
  19. mini photo album--the most recent photo I have in there is almost two years old
  20. coupon folder with a broken closure--too cheap to replace this, too
  21. cell phone (not pictured because it was still sitting on the kitchen table from looking up phone numbers last night)

That's actually pretty clean and organized for me. There's usually a mass of receipts and expired coupons in there, too.

September 6, 2010

art smock

When I was in kindergarten (many, many years ago) we had to bring one of our dad's old shirts to use as a paint smock. (Apparently there were budget issues even back then.) Using that same dress-shirt-to-smock idea, I made my son an art smock using a thrifted men's dress shirt. The smock is worn backwards with the buttons in the back. I removed the pocket and sewed it the the front of the smock. I also cut the shirt apart, trimmed the extra fabric, and sewed it back together. This made the shirt small enough so it's not in the way but has enough room to fit over his clothes. (If you used a boy's dress shirt in a size larger than your child wears, that would probably eliminate a lot of the extra cutting and sewing.) The front of the smock complete with crusty play-doh:

The very wrinkled back of the smock (or straight jacket since he can't get out of it by himself):

My favorite part is the elastic around the wrists to keep the clothing underneath clean:

Thanks for looking!

September 1, 2010

menswear bunny

I check out a LOT of craft books from my local library. I know what sections of the library house the craft books and just go browse. One of my recent finds was Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. I rarely buy craft books, but after flipping through the first few pages I was considering spending $23.10 on Amazon for this book. And I'm cheap, so you know it's a pretty good book. Then I remembered Martha Stewart has a website. All of the projects I want to make are on the website. First up is the menswear bunny.

I think the idea is to use menswear fabrics, but I recycled some actual menswear to make this little guy. The main fabric is from a thrifted wool suit jacket (a total bargain at 99 cents). I only had to use one sleeve to make this bunny so I'll be able to make a few more from the rest of the jacket. The (lopsided) ears are from scraps leftover from a men's dress shirt used for another project. I hand-embroidered the facial features and the heart. (I need to work on my embroidery skills.) My son wanted this bunny so much I had to give it to him. It's such a simple project I know I'll be making more for easy and adorable baby gifts. Thanks for looking!

Linked up to Tea Rose Home Link Party #22.