Drawstring backpacks from scraps

I had previously made my Godson and his brother some pajama pants, each with their favorite superhero.  I wanted to make something to use up the scraps.  When I came across this tutorial for drawstring backpacks (that didn't require grommets!) on Pinterest, I knew I had found my project.  I was a little bit short on material, so on each of them I added a bit of corduroy (also scraps).

I think they're going to love them!

Pinterest sewing project

I've pinned several projects on Pinterest for refashioning t-shirts and finally got brave enough to try one.  I wanted to do the first attempt on a t-shirt that wasn't too sentimental for me.  The one I chose was from my sister's trip to London around 15 years ago.  The London Olympics seemed like the perfect time to pull this shirt out again and give it new life.  The tutorial I followed can be found here.  I decided to finish the edges, and I took one commenter's advice and used the bottom hem I had cut off as the tie rather than cutting off another strip above that.


Here is the before picture:

And here's the after picture:

I've gotten several compliments on the re-do already!

Update:  I wore this shirt recently when I knew I was going to see the sister who had given it to me.  She looked at it and said, "When did you go to London?"  She didn't even recognize it!

Gifts for my Scrap Girls

A few years ago, my sister invited me to scrapbook with her and her friends.  Since then, I've become a regular member of the group, even getting my "official" t-shirt :)
Our group recently submitted a HUGE CM order and I was the lucky party hostess reaping the rewards.  I decided to make a little thank you gift for them--personalized wine glasses with a coaster.
I picked up the wine glasses at second hand stores, and it's a good thing I did, since it took me a few glasses to really get the hang of it (Smoothing out the vinyl stencil on the rounded wine glasses was tricky!) and my husband ended up breaking one.  I made a vinyl stencil in my Cricut using Ashlyn's Alphabet and dabbed on Armour Etch, leaving it for 15 minutes.  This is a pic of one side of the glasses.  The other side is personalized.

I used the tutorial found here to make the coasters that slip around the base of the glass.

Cricut Expression covers

Soon after I got my Cricut, I asked my mom to help me design a dust cover for it.  I had seen some online and knew that I could make one myself, and much cheaper.  We used a piece of old newspaper to trace the pattern and determined that 3/4 yard of fabric and a package of bias tape were needed.  I chose some double-sided quilted fabric.  Here is what I ended up with:

I saved the pattern, thinking I might want to make one for a friend in the future.  I was right--my sister bought a Cricut this year, so I made her a dust cover for Christmas.  Now that Christmas is over, I can post pictures of hers also:

Fabric Advent Calendar

I followed along on an advent calendar blog hop a few weeks ago.  The projects were beautiful, but were all made of paper.  I kept thinking that after spending that much time on a project, I'd sure want it to last a while.

I've had this fabric advent calendar, made by my aunt, for as long as I can remember 

Several years ago I made a similar one for my best friend's son.  (I wasn't taking pictures of my projects back then.)  When her second child came along, she asked if I'd make one for him too, which I gladly did.  This year, her daughter is three, and I made her this one.  This time I changed from a Christmas tree design to a wreath.

Here's the basic info:  The red background is corduroy.  The wreath is fleece.  The fabric strips at the bottom are divided into little pockets and hold the wooden discs, one of which is hung each day.  The wooden discs were purchased at the craft store and painted white.  One one side I glued on pictures I had cut from Christmas cards.  I always enjoyed the two discs on my calendar that had family pictures on them, so I asked my friend for a few pictures of her family for the ones I made.  The loops to hang the ornaments are made of ribbon and the ends of the ribbon are glued under the pictures.  On the other side of the discs are numbers.  My calendar has numbered white buttons to hang the "ornaments" on, so I had to match the number on the disc to the number on the buttons.  On the first two calendars that I made, I sewed on tiny jingle bells.  On this one, I sewed on red buttons.  The bow is store bought and is plastic.  I attached it to the wreath with velcro so it can be detached and won't get smashed when the calendar is folded up for storage.

I still enjoy hanging an ornament on my advent calendar each day.  I hope my friend's children enjoy theirs as much as I do.