Home Ec Project #3

I was lucky enough to be gifted with two of J's old dress shirts. Perfect material to make project #3: Reusable Grocery Bag. I've made a few bags in my time, so I decided to make this one a mini version for a certain 5-year-old. It's already hauled all sorts of important things like stuffies, pj's and small plastic toys that hurt like hell when you step on them with bare feet. Ballet bag trial is tomorrow!

Since I had a bunch of fabric to spare, and I love to try to use as much of an upcycled shirt as I can... I made these cute pouches out of the shirt cuffs! I thought they'd be great for a few lip glosses if you didn't want to loose them in your purse. Or, I could see 5-year-olds finding many tiny things to slip inside.

These were also a great excuse to try out some of the fancy stitches on my new machine. Still need to perfect their use...

I've got a few other recent crafty projects to post about soon too. Hint: felted wool sweaters and fancy scrapbook paper. (Ok, not in the same project!)

New Sewing Machine & Home Ec Project #2

For Christmas, J got me the best toy a girl could ask for... a new sewing machine! She's an absolute beauty and I can't get over how awesome she is! I just finished 5 hrs of classes to learn how to use the machine and learned a ton. Look for all sorts of exciting things in the coming months, like gathering, stretch stitches, blind hems and double needle stitching!! Wait. You don't geek out just thinking about that stuff?! Oh. Maybe it's just me.

Well, because of my fabulous Elna (that's the brand but I think it's a pretty name for her as well!), I have been able to attack my Home Ec projects with a vengence!

At long lost, here it is: Napkins Two Ways! I finished these weeks ago but just haven't gotten around to posting. Honest! First up, single layer napkins. One layer of fabric. Pretty straightforward. These particular lovelies went to a dear friend as a belated birthday gift.

I then tackled double layered napkins. Actually, to be more accurate, double sided napkin. Because one of these babies nearly had me gouging my eyeballs out. So one was plenty! Waaay harder than it looks. Keeping the ric rac (love that word!!) straight and pinned so it would stick out, but not TOO much. Love how it turned out though. Thought it would also make a great pillow cover. Maybe another time when I'm looking to test my sanity.

I'll post again soon about project # 3 and a few other crafty sewing and non-sewing projects I was inspired to tackle lately!