Lucas's Christmas Stocking

If you've never been to Prudent Baby, you are missing out. I freakin' LOVE this website--these ladies have fabulous tutorials and super-cute projects that sewing geeks like me love. I made Lucas a stocking using the same fabric as the tree skirt because I had enough leftover. His stocking is by far the coolest one on the mantle right now. (The rest of them came from the Dollar Tree store.) Here is the link to the Christmas Stocking pattern and tutorial from Prudent Baby!

Starfish Tree Topper

I love to craft, and I love to spend countless hours in stores like Hobby Lobby, Joann Fabrics and Michaels. I've been searching for the "perfect" tree topper but never came across anything I loved. Since we have a "beachy" theme I thought a starfish would be the perfect topper. After a trip to Hobby Lobby and a quick whip of the glue gun, here's my gorgeous starfish tree topper! Goes great with the Floridian Christmas Tree Skirt that I made in November.

A Floridian's Christmas Tree Skirt

So, this year is the first year we're actually going to be home for Christmas. We've lived in our house for 3 years but usually we go to New Mexico. Now that we have Lucas, we're going to be staying home so he can have Christmas in his own house. I married a Florida boy and I wanted to create a theme that would incorporate a little of his "beach bum" persona and this is what I came up with. It all started with the tree skirt--a blend of coordinating fabrics that are not "traditional" in the usual sense. I love that Santa has Bermuda shorts on and that there are fish and palm trees on the blue water-colored fabric. I used a tree skirt from Dollar Tree to figure out the size and to back the skirt with and I kind of just made up the rest as I went along! My son thought it was fun to wear as a cape...

Dog Food Bag Purse

My friend Kristin over at Pawsitive U asked me if I would make a few things for her Chihuahua rescue group this year and this is one of the projects. Its made from a "repurposed"paper dog food bag, some fringe and aquarium tubing that I got at Petsmart. I guess it could be used to carry a Chihuahua in too.

The Repurposed Chip Bag Shopping Tote

I run a club at my school called the Ecomaniacs--we just started this year and so far its been a lot of fun. The purpose of our club is to make fashion and crafts from materials that might otherwise be thrown away (for instance, the ridiculous amounts of chip bags that get thrown in the school cafeteria trashcans.) To demonstrate what "could" be done with the bags I made this bag. Its just a prototype. Future models would need some vinyl sewn onto the top to make it sturdier and more durable, but this is the start of something fun! I took this pic from my cell phone so its not the best one but its what I had at the time.

Bulletin Board Makeover

So, my new classroom has ZERO bulletin boards. Not one! All of this gorgeous square footage, tons of wall space, and not a single flippin' bulletin board. And you know me, not one for putting up with that! I headed to the local CCA Thrift Store here in The Colony, TX to see what fun I could have and I came across two yucky, old bulletin boards that belonged to a girl's nursery previously (from what I could tell.) Here's the transformation! I just took some leftover fabric that I had (the black was from Jesse's pirate costume years ago and the calico's were from a camera case I made before I went to Canada for my bestie's wedding.) The bulletin boards cost me a total of $5.00 plus tax and the fabric and bias tape were mine already! What a cute use of an old disaster, right?

Potato Chip Clothespin Bag

Well, let me tell you what summer boredom brings...

Me. Staring at a potato chip bag. Wondering what the heck to do with it but knowing it can't just be another piece of recycled waste.

Here was my issue...I needed a bag for my clothespins. As many of you know, I cloth diaper, and on diaper laundry days I do the eco-friendly thing and hang my dipes out to dry, thus requiring clothespins. I didn't have a bag for one but I needed one. My clothespins were getting spiderwebby (stupid bugs making homes in my 'pins...sheesh.) So ingenuity+ possibly 3 beers=clothespin bag made from a chip sack! Yippee!

I used my awesome pair of snap pliers to attach snaps to the bag and used some leftover seam binding from who knows what to make it cute (and more durable.) You can order your own nifty snap pliers and snaps at Kamsnaps.com if you want to get fancy like I did. They are super fast with their shipping by the way--got my snap pliers super quick! (Good thing too, because my ingenuity has caused me to attempt to start making my own fitted cloth diapers. I'll keep you posted when I'm finished but I'll need the snap pliers to make them look great.)

Recycled T-Shirt Zipper Bag Project

I made my friend Kristin (Lily's former dog trainer) a zippered bag made from an old t-shirt and some cute fabric. Lily was adopted from the Plano Animal Shelter and we are big fans of pet adoption, and since Kristin works with animals I thought she'd like it. (She did! She emailed me after she got it in the mail!)

This was the first project I've used a zipper in since college so I was a little rusty but I think it turned out okay!

Scarf Made From School Spirit Shirts

I've been teaching my classes how to make new things from old things (known most commonly as "re-purposing" or "recycling"). One of my recent projects was a scarf that I made from an excess of school spirit shirts (when you've worked at the same school for nearly 5 years you end up with LOTS of them.) So here is my scarf project!

The Thread Organization Project

My grandma loved to sew, and when she passed away she left many spools of thread, yards of fabric and various notions to me to use. For the longest time I couldn't even open the box of thread and bobbins---it made me sad because I'd catch a waft of her perfume everytime so I'd close the box, push it under the table and decide to come back to it later.

I had some time off (about a week) while Lucas was home sick with RSV so I decided that I needed to do some organizing in my crap...er...craft room. I bought pegboard about 2 months ago so that I could organize the thread but hadn't gotten around to it yet. As I was free to work on it, I dug out the box, opened the lid, smelled my grandma's perfume again and decided to buck up and get on with it.

Many of the spools of thread were very old--so old that they are on wooden spools. I cherish that kind of thing so I took all of those and put them in a mason jar and tied a ribbon on them. They are much more special to me as decoration than sewn into any piece of fabric. The rest got divided up by hue and hung on wooden pegs on the wall. Here is my finished project. I'm proud of myself for finally finishing it, though I cannot say that I didn't cry a few time while I was at it. I love you and miss you, Grandma and I hope my work has made you proud.