Totes Mcgotes

Happy Sunday Funday, all!

This week there is no clever "Before" picture. In all honesty, I'm having quite the lazy Sunday and didn't want to spend time showering, getting dressed, putting on my pretty face... it was just all too much for today. So I turned my attention to the piles and piles of scrap fabric I got a bit ago from a lady cleaning out her craft room.

I couldn't help but be drawn to a rainbow fabric. She gave me a ton of it, and I had no other thoughts as to what to do with it other than to test out a few ideas. What girl couldn't use another tote?

I cut a large rectangular piece of fabric, and two strips about 3 inches wide for the straps.

I paid attention to the straps first. I folded them in half first, and ironed that down. Then I opened it up and took the left half and folded it in half again, and repeated the motion on the right side, essentially making my own bias tape. I made sure to iron down all my folds. There was a quite a lot of ironing in this project. I wasn't excited about that part.

I then folded it on top of itself and sewed it down to create two straps. I only sewed down the one side, but in my professional opinion (ha ha), those of you that choose to follow these steps should probably sew down both sides. It would definitely look better.

Next, I folded down the top of the bag and ironed it down. I then folded it down again and ironed it down again (see a pattern yet?). I tucked the straps under the fold and sewed it down.

Next, I folded the strap back up and sewed it down again. I should have ironed this down first too, but in all honesty I was over the ironing thing. I had already had the iron on longer at this point than it has ever been on before.

Next, I kept the right sides of the bag on the outside and sewed down the sides. That's right - right sides out! *GASP* I'm sure all you real sewists are freaking out right now and yelling "That's not the way you do it!". But... hold that thought friends - I have a plan. (And since this is finished now, I can actually say with confidence that my plan panned out and worked. It's not something I can say very often.)

Only then did I turn the bag inside out. I ironed out the seam to be flat and then sewed down the sides again. I made sure to sew down the inside of the edges of the seam (that was now on the inside of the bag).

This resulted on a French seam, so the outside of the bag was nice and clean and the inside seam had no raw or rough edges. Boom.

I was quite amazed that this turned out how I pictured in my mind. And now that I have it, I'm actually quite excited about my bag and how good it looks. I also adore the rainbow pattern - it is nice and bright, something that is well needed in this world of white that is January in New York.

I now have a great tote to carry around books, folders, groceries, whatever I feel the need to carry. And, because this has no lining or inter-facing, it is not stiff or bulky so I can roll it up and use the straps to secure it.

I plan on making a lot more. It was a quick and easy project to get my scrap fabric out of my craft room and turn it into something useful. Maybe I'll put fabric in it...

 

Enjoy your Sunday, friends. I have found myself a new book series and have been wrapped up in it all weekend, so that and a glass of wine is my near future. I encourage you all to do the same!

Quick T-Shirt Refashions

Happy Sunday all! Ever have one of those days where you just want to take it easy? That was my day. I'm getting over a cold that has left me exhausted and congested, so I decided to keep this one easy. To the point where 75% of it is no-sew. Non-sewist's rejoice!

This week I went through all my drawers for all my super comfy clothes to lay around in. The answer is yes: I am pathetic when I'm sick. Much to my surprise, I found a drawer of t-shirts. A whole drawer. Of t-shirts. Ones that I haven't worn in years. I know this because they have years on them - 2005, 2007, 2008.... it's just embarrassing how I've squirreled these shirts away. I found myself on Pinterest soon after, looking up easy ways to refashion shirts. Without further ado... here are my findings, and my attempts.

We'll start with the easiest one. And rock my alma mater. Yes; we were the Kangaroo's. It happened.

Do not judge on the pose, the hair, or the face. I finally got a new camera and didn't realize how well it picks up details such as my just out of the shower hair or my no-make up'd face. It'll be fixed in the afters.

My main focus for these t-shirts was to go to tank tops and summer shirts. I'm getting a bit of cabin fever, so I wanted to do a small prep for summer. I made two cuts:

And that is literally it. 

Next up is a t-shirt I got at the 5K for my job. Although I'm proud to wear a shirt that says I'm recovering lives... the weird bubble made it so that I will never wear it. Ever. Chopped it will be!

I made five cuts on this one. Three are rather obvious; the arms, and the neck. The fourth and fifth cuts are to open up the shoulders so the front and back were separated at the neck.

Then, I tied one of the shoulders together, as such, and made one additional cut to the other sides armpit to make it a slightly larger hole. 

Then I put the shirt on, pulled the other shoulder's ends to the side that was already tied, and tied them up to. Ideally (and in real life) the first knot is off the shoulder and the second is on top of the shoulder to create the "cut out" effect. I didn't catch that effect on camera. (Camera fail)

Next came another alma mater shirt. I just can't get rid of these shirts, despite the fact I haven't worn them in 6 years. This project came with a bit of sewing. 

I started off with the three cuts that pretty much every t-shirt refashion on the internet ever starts off with.

Next, I folded down the front about an inch, and did the same with the back, pinned it down and sewed it up. These will serve as a casing for my straps.

Next, I deconstructed the long sleeves to create two tubes as straps, and fed them through the casing using the trusty safety-pin maneaver.

From there, it was just a matter of sewing the ends together.

This next one made me want to make a gym shirt. I have been going to the gym pretty frequently and have been in the market for some gym wear. All I've found are super tight lycra, low cut tank tops or unflattering shirts. When I saw this old Planet Fitness shirt in the drawer, it got my gears spinning.

Unfortunately, I have zero pictures of the process. Basically, I cut off the arms, and cut off the collar. I made the front neckline rather modest, as one of my pet peeves of gym-wear are the low necklines (who could possibly be comfortable working out when you're barely staying in your shirt?!). On the back, I cut a large, long scoop to just about the middle of my back. I then tied together the straps with some black polka dotted satin ribbon I had laying around.

The front looks like a regular ol' tank top, but the back is now a lot more interesting. I put this on over my sports bra, but I would definitely put a tank top underneath for the gym - a bright color that will pop.

So that ends it for today. Four quick t-shirt refashions that I completed in under an hour. Not all of them are glowing successes, but it certainly opens the mind up to a lot more possibilities than a boring old t-shirt. I encourage you all to open up your t-shirt drawer (I know you have one!) and cut away. Feel free to send me the results (thriftysew@gmail.com).

Make it Work - Even if it is Bubblegum

Happy Sunday Funday friends. Today''s project comes from a purchase last night. I had my family over to celebrate my 6th Annual 21st Birthday and brought them all to Salvation Army. Don't I know how to treat them special?

We had a good laugh, for sure, and I found myself two garments rather quickly that had potential. Today's was found for $1.50 (thank you, half off blue tag)

First thing I did was remove the dreadful shoulder pads.

This fabric was a nice sweatshirt like material, so my initial though was to cut it off at the waist and have a short sleeve, overly large sweatshirt. I got out my rotary cutter and went at it.

Soon after it was cut, I put it on and realized I made a crop top. This, folks, would not work - mama doesn't do crop tops. Crop anything, really.

I looked around for fabric that I could use to make it longer. I found tons of fabric that wouldn't work, such as tulle, patterned, silk, lace... all of which would have just looked off. Finally, I found a scrap from my  denim dress refashion when I made my own chamois shirt. This would work perfectly.

I took the two ends and put them together to create a loop. Then, I sewed up the seam to take care of the edges from the skirt and take out the part with the button holes. Voila.

Next, I took my loop "skirt" and bubblegum pink top and put them together. I pinned it up, and sewed it down. See what's happening now?

Once it was sewn up, I pushed the dress down and had my own dress. It is more of something that I would put over leggings, but as all of mine are currently in the wash (laundry day should probably stop being the same day as blog day) ya'll get to see a bit o' leg. You're welcome.

By the way, I'm sure you've noticed that I am now taking pictures in the mirror again. Hopefully this will be the first in a long time and the last forever. My camera is on the fritz so I am now on the market for new. Any suggestions?

(As always, had to throw a belt on it and jack it up!) The more I look at it, the more I know I need to do something else with the top. I'll probably continue playing with this one. It's not the most stylish thing I've ever made (far, far from) but it is pretty comfy. BONUS: I still have the entire skirt to play with.

Let me know your camera suggestions in the comments or, as always, feel free to e-mail your boo's, hisses and praises to thriftysew@gmail.com

Craft Room Inspiration Board

Happy Sunday Funday all! I am certainly feeling more cheerful now that the weather is looking up and is above 0 degrees farenheit- always a plus!

Today, I decided to do something to my craft room that I've been meaning to do for quite a while now - an inspiration board. I've seen this on Pinterest many times and it always seemed to me like a good idea. So I got to it.

Now, here's the before:

Yup, it's a wall. A very boring, very plain wall. I thought it needed some spicing up.

I got together my supplies, which includes fabric remnants from Joann's (about a dollar a piece) and some cork board. I found this set of four at Joann's for about $3.

Next, as these fabric remnants spent the last 4 months in a bag on my craft room floor, I had to iron out the wrinkles.

Once ironed, I laid out the fabric on the floor wrong side up and set the cork board on top of it. I then cut around it, about an inch on each side.

Next, I folded up the edges and, making sure it was tight, stapled down the four corners. Make sure when you staple that the edges don't go all the way through to the other side. Mine went through all of the cork, but did not go through the front fabric, so that worked fine.

Next, I took my hot glue gun and glued all the way around the edges to make sure that baby stayed tight and didn't pucker in front.

From there, it was just a matter of using the sticky hangers that came with the cork board to affix the board to the wall. You can do this in whatever pattern you would like - I went for a plus sign to get a little positivity to the place that I often find myself swearing like a sailor. Now, I can hang any sewing ideas, instructions, inspiration pics, etc. right there in front of my face. I figure this may be an easy way to remind myself of my New Years resolutions as well. Bonus.

Check out my not-so plain ol' wall now!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I was super excited for this New Year to start - not because 2013 wasn't good, but because I'm over this snow thing already. Bring on March and April, when the sun comes out and flowers start poking up, if not in the ground then definitely in stores. Yes - I am writing this as we are receiving a sweet snowstorm. Awesome.

There's no refashion today because, well, I'm at work (shh don't tell!) but I wanted to revisit last years resolutions and see how I did. Additionally... let's make some more!

Here's last years:
1) Work off all the post-holiday extra poundage.
RESULT: ehhhh not so much. However, I did get much healthier and can run a lot longer and harder than I did at the beginning of last year, so I'm going to call this a win.

2) Experience Syracuse.

RESULT: Win. I definitely got out a bit more - not as much as I could or should have, but definitely did more than I used to (which wasn't hard to do more than nothing, really). I also got out and experienced a lot more places - Rochester, Boston, Cape Vincent, Limerick... "gotta catch 'em all!" (No, I didn't watch Pokemon but yes, that sure is a reference to it.)

3) Find more thrift stores!

RESULT: I did super well at this... in the beginning. Then it was back to my trusty ol' Salvation Army. Half of this reasoning is that I don't want to explore Syracuse and end up in the "bad" part and get shot at... which coincidentally is about 80% of this place. So, there's that.

4) I want to post projects on a more regular schedule.

RESULT: I've certainly set a schedule (hey there, Sunday Funday) but I wasn't all that fantastic at regularly posting on it. You may see a repeat in the New Year's list.

 

And last but not least... here's this years list!

 

1) Continue the path to being healthy. I've certainly realized that losing weight does not necessarily mean getting healthier - so I'd like to continue my running and lifting routines. If I happen to lose weight, that's great, but my goal is to just continue to have excellent physicals and not breathing embarrassingly hard on walks up the stairs.

 

2) Take better care of my skin. I admit - I go to bed with makeup on, rarely wash my face in the mornings, led alone at night, and I am seen sorely infrequently putting on sunscreen of any sort. It's not that I didn't know all of this was bad for my skin, I just didn't care because I am young and bulletproof  (obviously). Only recently have I begun a routine of washing my face in the mornings and at night and using moisturizer, and it's pretty scary how my skin has improved in just the few weeks I've started. I would love to see what I would look like had I been doing this all along, but now will only see improvements from now on. Take note, children.

 

3) Post more frequently. I would love to do more than Sundays, but I'll start out by getting on a permanent schedule of Sundays and then work to adding some throughout the week. I don't like letting ya'll down.

 

So, that is it for now. I don't like to go all crazy making promises to myself because you and I both know that promises to yourself are the hardest to keep. I also think that improving yourself and creating habits can happen any time throughout the year - New Years Resolutions be damned - so feel free to see this as a jumping off point. I encourage you to do the same!

 

Enjoy your New Year, make it the best and baddest, be crazy, make your own happiness and all that jazz. Meanwhile, while you're doing all that, feel free to take a break and check out my "Before And After" page. I've updated all the pictures, and in the next week or so will make all the pictures a link to the post that it coincides with. That way, God forbid you miss a post, you can always go back to the Before and After page and be able to easily find it. How's that for a how-do-you-do?

 

I will close with this: Hi Aunt Cheryl! :) Thanks again for reading all religiously and such - I very much appreciate it.