Been on a sewing kick!

I have lots of crafty passions and one of them use to be sewing!  I use to love to get out the sewing machine and do all kinds of crafty projects.  Then over time I got into other crafts and just left my poor sewing machine out in the cold! Literally, put it at my workstation in my garage and occasionally opened the door and looked at it.  I found that I still sewed but more than anything I mended.  I hemmed pants, took things in or out, but never really sewed any crafty projects.  Well I decided since I have not been scrapbooking lately I would pull the machine out, dust it off and get started!  I showed you last week the 2 bags that I made.  Well this week I managed to make 2 more bags, a wristlet, and a tie t-shirt.  Not to mention that I hemmed 7 pairs of pants!!!  That was a lot of sewing and I did it all in one day!!!
My ideas for the wristlet and tie t-shirt came from my obsession with pinterest, who doesn't love that site!!!!  I do have to confess this is take 2 on the tie t-shirt.  You must wash your tie before sewing it to a white shirt...I learned the hard way and found a really nice pink shirt in the sink.  So I did what everyone would do and I bought color remover and it worked until I forgot about it and left it too long so the tie became discolored.  Out with the seam ripper and took that tie off and dug through my hubby's closet for another one...without further ado I bring you tie t-shirt!

I found that this was the quickest of all the projects.  I did remember this time to prewash the tie and then I just pinned the skinny part of the tie around from the left side to the right shoulder, then started pleading and pinning.  Took it to the poor neglected sewing machine and starting sewing.  I will say that it was a little difficult to sew over the pleads as they were really thick but I just went slow and it worked well.  I am so excited that I now have another shirt to wear.  The first one was a red tie and was super cute, too bad I did not get any photos of it.  I did at least get to wear it to work once!

I made a bag like this last week and the girls from my work liked it so much they wanted one!  I sent them off to the fabric store to get some fabric and promised them that I would find some time to get it done!  Well it only took 2 weeks to muster up the energy and time!!!  I love the colors and the ribbon is so fun!  I used a plain black backpack and cut strips of fabric with my pinking sheers to 3 1/2 inches, then took each strip and basted it with the sewing machine. Then pulled the bobbin thread to create the ruffle, then sewed each strip onto the bag added the ribbon at the top to finish it off, made a fabric flower and the bow.  The bow had a pin back on it so that if you want to wash the bag you can and not ruin the bow.

 This last little beauty is a wristlet made from a men's tie.  My friend Julia actually found this on pinterest and showed it to me!  After the initial ooh's and aah's...I thought I can make this!  Well this is take 2 also...the first one was a sad excuse for a bag, but after my mistake the second one came out great!  I love that it will perfectly fit my credit cards and some cash.  Perfect for those outings when you don't want to carry a large bag...only problem is my keys don't fit or my cell phone!  Oh well, still I like it and will use it often!

As we are nearing the holidays I might find myself with little time to craft or sew.  I am even thinking about ordering my Christmas cards this year.  Usually I make them but just not sure I can find the time.  Just too much to do!!!!

Fun altered bags!

Got a little inspiration this week from my constant looking at pinterest!  It is my latest addiction!  I never actually saw a bag made like either of the 2 I made but there were other things that looked similar and just got me thinking that I could alter a bag or 2.  These are older unwanted bags that I had laying around, might as well try making them cute!!!

I have a feeling that I will be making a few more of these cute bags and giving them as gifts!  I am sure some of my family and friends would love them!!!