Slippers

S wore out her slippers and I've been promising her for a month that I'd make her some new ones.  Well, we are cooped up because of the rain.  Perfect excuse to sew something!  She picked out the fabrics:

I put some denim on the bottom to make them last longer than the last pair.

They are far from perfect, but she's happy with them.

Last Library bag post... I swear.

So here are the finished bags...

I added some red eyes to the spider (beads from a broken headband) and the orange "S" to S's bag.  Overall, I think they turned out cute (and FREE!) and I'm glad that I dusted off my sewing machine. 

In the midst of these two projects I also got a few other things done.  I opened the box of half finished projects (yikes) and thought I ought to get "on it".  So, I finally hemmed our Christmas jammies (both N's and mine) and I mended a hole in a super cute Hanna Andersson outfit for S.  And I made a couple buntings. 

I'm actually thinking of starting on Christmas bags and maybe even a few gifts.  Gosh, I may even be able to have a relaxing holiday... um... if I start in July. 

Oh and we planted shrubs, baked a ton of bread, moved a friend, I made apple-mint infused simple syrup... I love summer!

R's Library Bag

And here it is:

I wish I could sew other times than at night, but I can't.  So my pictures always come out dark.  Poo. 

Back to the bag... I left the edge of the black fabric rough so that it would fray a bit.  It looked more like spider webs to me that way.  And I had a heck of a time sewing the web on my machine, next time I'll switch to a larger needle.  It was virtually as thick as denim and I hate sewing denim. 

I'm pretty sure S needs a, well, "S" on her bag now too.  Off to cut out some felt. 

Library bag

At the Recycling Center Book Sale (which I always volunteer for) we offered up these lovely free bags to customers to carry home all their wonderful used books.  I made two purchases and so I came home with two lovely American Express bags: 

And since my kids are obsessed with books (big pat on the back to me) they could really use their own library bags.  Enter the bag make-over...

With some fabric and ribbon already in my stash (zero cost) and a few minutes, Ms. S. has a brand new library bag.

I'm thinking it could use her name on the top (perhaps in felt?).  What do you think???

R has requested a spider and a bat on his.  That's my goth 4-year old for you!

Gifts for the children

I adore making gifts for my children.  It fufills both a desire to provide for my children and a creative need to work with my hands.

So, here are a few more goodies for the babes for Christmas...

Wooden tree for R and a Cell phone for S.

S's cell phone is made from an old sweater and various buttons from my stash. 
Nothing purchased for this project!

Hand-me-down Coat

When we lived in Michigan we got a lot of wonderful hand-me-downs and hand-me-arounds.  This little coat was in one box.  It cleaned up pretty good after a washing, but it was missing one button and two others were about to fall off.

 Although my little lady loves pink, I liked that the coat was a sweet blue.  The green lining has pink, white and blue polka dots.  Just girly enough.

After digging into my stash of buttons, I settled on a couple vintage green ones from Nonna's stash.  Pink cotton floss for the added bit of "pinkness" and reinforced the buttons that were still holding on. 

 I love that this whole project (even the original garment) were free. It's got me thinking about another year of "nothing new". I wonder if that would be possible here where we don't have friends (yet) with children. Hmmm. Thoughts?

The little table

The new little table needed some linens.  This is the fabric that R picked out of my stash.  He even helped me cut it.  It's a nice very-day table cloth.

But of course we also needed festive V-day linens.  So I made this little table cloth and these double sided napkins.  All from my stash. 

Waldorf Inspired Crowns

These crowns are for two little girls' red birthday party.

This crown is either for Ronin or will be a gift for another friend soon to have a birthday. I hope she doesn't see this! :)