I love a good bargain, and I hate for things to go to waste. Sometimes those two qualities get me in a little trouble, as I end up going down rabbit trails, creating new projects, and causing the top of our dinning room table to disappear for weeks or months at a time. I'm not complaining, though. Trying to find ways to make some of the stuff I dream up, is kind of like a stress relief for me. And so it came about this weekend, that I spent a lot of time relieving stress. :)
On Friday, I found these great tube-top shirts at Old Navy for $0.97. Immediately my head started swimming with ideas--a dress for Emma, a purse for me... So I snagged a handful of them and set to work trying to make something "new" with them later in the day. For a long time now, I've been trying to find a small, black purse. Something casual, and something like a tan crocheted one I already have. But try as I did, I could not find anything like what I was looking for. That's one of the reasons I was so excited about finding these shirts--the material on top was just what I had in mind for the purse I wanted to find! I really had no idea what I was doing, since I had never made a purse before (at least I don't think I had) but it wasn't too hard to figure out as I went along. Like my existing tan one, I decided to make a flap that covers the opening. The flap also created a cute little ruffle on the front, and another ruffle on the back. My only regret was I wish I had made the strap about 2 inches longer. But all in all, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!
After that, I turned my attention to making something for Emma. The shirts were long enough on her that I thought a purple one would make a cute baby doll dress for her to wear with some leggings this fall. I had to take both sides in about an inch and a half, and I still need to add some straps to the top, but it's already looking pretty cute on her, and she wanted to wear it as-is today. (sorry, no picture yet)
I've still got a couple more of these tube tops left, so if you have any fun ideas I should try, please share!
And now, back to purses for the final re-make of the weekend. Emma had a pair of jeans that she wore holes into the knees. Once the jeans had holes, she refused to wear them. (picky, picky!) So I cut the legs off and turned them into play shorts for the summer. Some would say that's good recycling, but I took it one step further. I had these two strips of jean legs left, and just couldn't let them go to waste. So I cut a little more, and sewed up one end on each leg to make two little jean purses--one for Emma, and one for Ashlyn. I let Emma decorate hers with some flower and butterfly iron-on patches I had left over from a previous project, and I decorated Ashlyn's similarly. I put a pink ribbon across the top, and used some other left-over material for a strap. Emma is quite excited now that she and Ashlyn have nearly matching purses that she helped make.
2 comments:
Cute stuff!
You are the craft/design QUEEN! I am so impressed how you can look at something ordinary and re-purpose it! This inspires me to pick-up a cheap-o sewing machine and see what happens. Having a daughter now makes me realize I'm going to have to work on my craftiness!
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