New job

I started a new job last night at the hospital, so it may take me a couple days to get back into a routine of trying to post atleast a few times a week. I do have several half-finished projects, so I should be able to stick with my 3 project a week goal...in theory.

I am very pleased with my new job so far...I am not working on the floor I am supposed to yet, but orienting on another floor for a couple of weeks until the other aide on my floor is free to train me. Anywho, just wanted to give my followers a quick update. It won't be long til I will be back up to speed.

Noah's Birthday Gift

In my (extended) family, there are six birthdays in the month of May. Needless to say, May can be an expensive month if I attend every party (usually at a pizza place with games--more money), and purchase a present for everyone. This idea was born from having no wrapping paper for my nephew, Damon's gift. He had been sent a gift by a far away great great aunt, and it was my job to wrap it...with no wrapping paper. I had purchased a small gift that went along with hers, so I decided to put them all in one big bag. I found an old t-shirt and set to work making a bag out of it...then I thought, why not put his name on it and add a drawstring and it can be a present too!

Apparently the idea was a hit, because his cousin is now asking for one as well. The cousin's party is tonight and I had a little more warning, so I was able to plan his bag a little better. Here is what I came up with.

Ok, turn your head 90 degrees to the left--I really have to remember to turn these right side up next time.

I really like the way this turned out, and I wish that I had the time to plan out Damon's bag because I am afraid he will be a bit jealous now.

Here is a sneak peek at another project I am working on.

Tattered quilt.

This quilt was made by my grandmother. She passed away a couple of years ago, and my Dad gave the quilt to me to be used as batting for another quilt or something, but I know he would rather see it salvaged. Some of the blocks are beyond repair, but a few I was able to salvage and will be able to patch, but the batting is almost non-existent, and there is still much to be done. (It won't be the same quilt when I am finished, but will still showcase some of my grandmother's blocks). Stay tuned for the reveal!

Finally just one blog!

I finally figured out how to get my other blogs exported and imported into this one, so I will be cleaning up my blog page a little bit and taking out any duplicate posts. I plan to post another tutorial this afternoon, so keep checking back! I have several projects in the works right now and I can't wait to share them with you!

My first tutorial! T-shirt dress

Today, I met my inner Marissa Lynch (of New Dress a Day fame). I decided to remake a couple of too-small garments belonging to my daughter. Read on to see what I came up with! I have never before written a full tutorial so this will probably be a little choppy, but here goes. My daughter had this dress which was way too short on her and getting too tight in the arms, but she really loved it and it was super comfy because it's made from t-shirt material...add to that, she had a shirt which she loved which was getting too tight all around...the colors coordinated pretty well so I decided to see what I could do to put the two together and come up with a wearable item--hopefully.

See the belly sticking out?

Too short and arms too tight.

First, I cut off the dress just below the waistline (this had a high waist or I would have cut above the waistline to make the finished product plenty long).

Off come the sleeves--since they are too tight anyway.

Snagged a little more of the dress material to sew into the sides of the shirt so the finished dress would not be too tight.

Cutting seams out of the sides of the shirt.

Pinning the pieces from the dress into the sides of shirt (these were a little long...I trimmed them later).

I took the original sleeves of the dress and created a little cap sleeve ruffle with them. I was afraid this part would not turn out well at all, but I liked it when I was finished.

Sewing on the cap sleeve.

Sewing down the sides.

Sewing the shirt and skirt together. (just turn one or the other inside out, and put the other piece right side out inside of the inside out piece--adding gathers where needed to make them fit together right--and sew together, then turn right side out.) I also added a neck ruffle and trim, but forgot to take pictures of the process.

Finished product! The ruffles look a bit off to me, and I wound up trimming a bit more off her sleeve ruffles after this picture was taken, but you can see--she loves it!

Not sure why she is winking, but I thought it was cute, and you can see a bit more of the pieces I added in on the sides.

Well, there it is, my first tutorial. Hope I didn't butcher too badly what I was trying to say/show. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, and thanks for coming along for the (bumpy) ride today! (Also, check back often as I am planning to attempt to make 3 items per week and blog about each--totally wish I had time for a project a day...just not happening right now lol!)

Here are the places I am linking up today:



Finally SUMMER!

A couple of days ago I made a new item. I totally planned to blog about it right after I finished, but hmm, I don't know what happened...I think the summer lazies caught up with me. So anyway, I bought a big bag of material for $5 and in the bottom was some old upholstery samples...I decided to see what I could come up with that just used one sample instead of sewing them all together and making something. So, here is my before picture of what I started out with.

Zipper from the pants, two scraps from the bag I bought, and the upholstery sample.

I had also just purchased a zipper foot (finally!) for my sewing machine so I decided to test it out. Now I wish I had taken step by step pictures because at a couple of points I wasn't quite sure if it was going to turn out right or not. Here is the finished project (a change purse).

I also just created an Etsy shop this week, so the change purse and several of my other creations are available for purchase on Etsy at  http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScrappyBag?ref=pr_shop_more. Or you can search for ScrappyBag on Etsy.com.