Denim Patchwork Skirt

Years of denim from the early days. Mom had envisioned a quilt with squares, and did quite a bit of cutting up from childhood denim from four kids. I took the leftovers...(the good of someone who saves stuff) mainly....and pieced them together.  Plenty of somewhat unorthodox sewing going on to make things fit together on the right...hence a little bunching and some tilt.  Denim patchwork skirt.

I was going to embroider it, after seeing an inspiration piece (that started this project out) of a Chinese embroidery on denim/dark blue fabric from image secured at recent visit to Met, but then the denim piecing took over, and the embroidery seems like it might be a bit much on top.

So...embroidery project to go, but denim fabric ready for skirt ready now. Like I need another skirt....

Mickey Mouse Disneyland Skirt made from Tee Shirt

Saw a well worn Disneyland tee shirt...their classic font......and knew what I had to do.
M-I-C-K-E-Y....

a. Cut across top for straight-ish line.
b. Cut off sleeves.
c. Sew side seams..which really just closes up the holes you made by cutting the sleeves off the
    body...it make a little funky side seaming, but looks like an arrow in a way.  The seam stops at low      hip  (where the cut from the sleeve was), as this tee was circular (no side seams).
d. Cut sleeves in half, sew strips together lengthwise to form waistband for elastic/drawstring.
    You could just fold over the top of the tee, but I wanted "Disneyland" a little lower on the body,
    so I needed to add some "length" via the top to drop the word down.
e. Sew waistband strip to top of tee.
f. Insert elastic or drawstring.
g. Smile.

Found another one...did it again. This time, pictures of process.

Wood and Rocks in Column

Wood and rocks. Little copy-cat. 

Doll and Monkey Quilts

Work in progress, but since it is a long project and I am running out of April for posting, putting it up here now. The inspiration is the two doll quilts Mrs. Trentacosta made for us as kids. My nieces each have a special "friend" who could use a blanket.  The squares are straight forward, with the "characters" on the certain squares being cut out of iron-on repair patches.  The edges are in progress..binding tape, hand stitched.  Mrs. Trentacosta was a far superior hand sewer than I...."patience" being attributed as a virtue surely had something to do with handwork. Gad. 

Leather Clutch Made from Vintage Portfolio

Took a vintage leather portfolio and trimmed off most of the damaged edges, as well as pulled out the insert and removed inner section and edge zipper. Strange to me that cardboard was in between the leather and original lining...pulled that out and discarded. .  Left with leather rectangle with a zipper in it ("made in Germany" says the pull).   

Pictures below outline the steps after that...ironed on freezer paper (that stuff is soooo useful) to block off the parts I wanted to remain black.  Then put a stripe of thin gaffers tape down the center of that and over the zipper. Sprayed two coats of metallic gold spray paint (part of my "let's see what we can do with this can" project series). 

Made a lining, and stitched with trusty Bernina onto top edge, sewing sides of lining together, then tucking inside as I sewed edges of leather together to form rectangle. Fold over top edge, one has herself a golden active stripe clutch! 

  

original

new lining

Process steps:

freezer paper (ironed on) and tape to block certain areas. 

removing freezer paper.

Triple Green

1. Re-used fabric. Green denim for ancient times (well, not Greek ancient, but old).

                            Floral fabric from Mom's stash...sister's dress when she was very young.

2.Cloth napkin.  Cut down on paper use. Yes, does require washing, but with manufacturing 

                          of paper, transport, etc, likely a bit ahead with cloth. 

3. Color.  Green.

Tree

This was the activity I was supposed to do while the little one was putting her circles on the pillow...it didn't quite turn out that way.  This concept is nothing new, but playing with fabric "pieces" to make composition idea...yes, would get a lot more complicated to shade and give depth...but planting seed in my mind. Fabric and stitching on fabric.

Super Long Pillow

Using odds and end of fabric, made five foot long pillow.  Had Alexis put the circles where she wanted...she apparently was a linear thinker this morning, but I can't say that is always the case!

Benches

Benches. Here is one of the benches I created using re-claimed granite scraps from various projects. David and Naomi scoured the granite lots in their area, brought a cache home, and David and I began the process of bench making.