Girly skirts - part 2

Did I mention my neighbor has two little girls? Used the same pattern but cut out some appliques from the book Applique Your Way and created this lovely whale scene. My neighbor friend picked out the material she wanted for the skirt and she's pretty excited about getting to wear it to school on the "casual day" she earned with her points.

girly skirts!

I recently found a cute skirt pattern with pockets at luckypennymake.com. My neighbor's little girl loves pockets... you know, for carrying treasures. She also happens to love unicorns and PINK!! When I finished the skirt I realized it needed some unicorns. When her mom told her that I made her something, she immediately asked "Is it a unicorn?" good thing I put those unicorns on it :)

tea towels

This is one of my latest projects. I'd been wanting to use my Lotta Jansdotter stencils and, after stenciling on a throw pillow, I had my eyes out for other things that could use a good stencil.

I repurposed a tablecloth into several tea towels, hemmed the edges, and stenciled cute patterns. The bags were curtain bags from World Market. Kwik and easy gifts!!

lamps...re-did!

I've been wanting to change out the lamp shades in our bedroom for a while, but after several failed attempts to craft/buy something I was satisfied with, I just ended up with the shades we had before -- $2 shades I found at Goodwill a couple of years ago.

I was looking through an old Ready Made magazine and found this lamp idea-- tearing strips of fabric and simply wrapping them around the shade. So that's what I did!! Same $2 shades with different fabric. So easy and I didn't even have to sew! I just fabric glued the loose ends. happy.

las navidades!

It would seem that I haven't been crafting since so much time has passed since my last post, however, I was crafting, just not posting. Over the Christmas break I was working on a book for school so, the second it was finished, I was like a machine, cranking out the crafts. Plus, for Christmas I got lots of new fabric and pattern and design books which inspired several of the crafts. I'll post a few pics of the things I did for Christmas, then, the crafts that follow, happened the second I finished writing for school.

1)Using paint chips as gift tags! I saw so many uses for paint chips before Christmas that I had started collecting them and had so many that I thought they'd be perfect for Christmas gifts.

2) I saw this idea in Anthropology and figured, how hard can it be? Not hard. I used a craft punch to punch circles from magazines, then I sewed them together on the sewing machine. EASY gift ribbon :)

3) Same idea: Instead of magazine pages, I used paper I could find around the house (more paint chips, magazine covers, cardstock) that was thicker than a magazine page. After I had a ton of red, white and greenish circles, I sewed them together on the sewing machine. This is still hanging in the living room because we (I) love it so much.

4) New backpack with Jessica Jones fabric. This is some of the new fabric I got for Christmas. I followed instructions out of the book Simple Sewing, by Lotta Jansdotter and whipped this up in under two hours I think.

5) I wanted a new pencil bag to go with my new work bag I made (I'll have to take a picture of it, but it's at work). This is also fabric I got for Christmas, also Jessica Jones, and I made a work bag and this pencil bag with it. I only had a purple zipper at the house so that's what I went with :)

6) Another project with Christmas fabric. AND it's in the chair I found on craigslist in Lubbock while we were at home. I added piping so it would look more finished.

7) Most recent craft: new floor pillows! I found two large pillows at an estate sale ($5/each), and a fabric remnant at Cutting Corners (2 1/2 yards for under $10) and these little tree appliques at Joann for 3 bucks a piece and this was the end result! They're tucked away in the corner right now, but they're gonna look awfully fancy the first time someone opts for the floor instead of the couch :)

the clever letter "L"

Earlier this week I was skyping with my friends Lola and Jose from Sevilla, and they were commenting about the blog. When I asked Lola if she knew how to sew, she scoffed and said "Claro." I had forgotten that she sews her own dresses for Feria, a huge celebration in April in Spain. She sent this picture. She's in orange.

I have much to learn. :)

rookie photography, new skirt!

I finished making this second skirt the morning that I actually wore it, so I had to settle for self-portrait photography to get some shots of it. I made some adjustments to the pattern in the previous post to add a ruffle up top and some belt loops. I also used less fabric so it wouldn't be quite so balloon-ey. Next time I think I'll use even less fabric to take out more of the gather. I borrowed the belt from a navy skirt I already have. I don't think it minded sharing.