Welcome to everyone who just found us via Lish’s fab blog post on Craft about our appearance at the Ann Arbor Mini-Maker Faire a couple weeks ago.

We had a blast teaching folks to make over 200 t-shirt bags.  We met loads of great people, many who never had attempted using a sewing machine before and couldn’t believe how much fun and easy it was.  Plus the bags were the perfect accessory for Mini-Maker to carry all the loot from other booth’s make and takes folks tried.

To make your own t-shirt bag, grab any old t-shirt (kid’s shirts work especially great, just the right size), cut off the sleeves just on the inside seam and cut out the neck, just a bit below the ribbed collar, keep the shirt lying flat so hole is uniform in size, front and back.

Next turn the shirt inside out and sew a straight seam along the bottom.

If you want to get a little more fancy, you can square off the bottom of bag, by opening the bottom seam and creating a triangle at the corner and stitching this on both sides and trim the excess material.  Repeat on the other corner.

Step 2-3 - Sew bottom & corner

TaDaa! T-Shirt bag is complete!

If you want to do a mass event of turning t-shirts to bags, ask to collect the bags from local schools.  I placed a box near my kid’s school office and in less than 2 weeks I had collected over 200 t-shirts in all sorts of sizes and motifs.  Many parents were thrilled to clean  out their kid’s closets of old sport team t-shirts.  This is a great project for kids and adults to sew.  Let me know if you try this as a school or scout event.

This is the time of year to go through the kid’s closets and try on summer clothes and shoes to figure out what doesn’t fit and move it down to the next child in line. To give the old shoes a little bit of new attitude, here is an idea to remake girls dress shoes.

In our case, we had a barely worn pair of white dress flats that mysteriously had glitter and nail polish all over them, hence making them unacceptable, in the opinion of the next child. Fair enough. So, I went digging and found some leftover bright colored spray paint and went to work.

Step 1: Clean shoes and scuff up surface if it is glossy, then cover any part of the shoe you don’t want paint on with tape (heel and sole) — masking tape or clear packing tape works well. Also think creatively to use tape to create stripes or circle stickers for polka dots.
Step 2: Stuff shoes with newspaper to protect interior from paint.
Step 3: Spray a light coat of paint over entire shoe. You will need to pick up shoe and spray near the sole. Let that coat dry and repeat until shoe is completely covered.

Step 4: Let paint dry overnight.
Step 5: Spray shoe with a clear coat polyurethane for a little shine if painted surface is a little flat. (optional)
Step 6: Let dry overnight to completely cure.

TaDaa! Fun and sassy shoes that make an older sister search for shoes to remake for herself.
Other ideas to embellish is to glue on some jewels or flowers to add more pizzazz. I recommend to start simply and aim for fun and not perfection.

It always happens that in the midst of a sewing or craft project that neat stack of materials and supplies that I have gathered becomes scattered all over the place: thread in one spot, notions covered by fabrics, pattern packet and instructions separated from each other.  Sometimes I feel like more time is spent searching for the pieces I need than actually sewing.  Here is a simple way to be stylishly organized.

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Time: less than an hour

Materials:

• Chunky Picture frame 11” x 14”
• 4 -2-1/2” finish nails
• 4 cup hooks
• 2 clothes pins & 2 1″ finish nails to attach these
  
• Spray paint

Step 1: Clean the frame

Step 2:  Figure out which side will be the top of the frame.  On the sides of the frame, screw in cup hooks, two per side on short sides of frame, 2 per side, place 1 one each side about an inch down from the top a corner and couple of inches from the bottom corner.  These can hold scissors, buttons, safety pins or anything else you might have to organize.

Step 3: Nail 2-1/2″  nails along bottom edge of frame at an angle, you may want to pre-drill so the frame wood doesn’t split

Step 4: Spray paint.

Step 5: Attach clothes pins, by taking them apart and nailing one side into the frame and then assemble again with the spring, this takes a little fussing about but they will be secure.

Step 6:  Hang frame in craft room and add your current project notions, pattern and tools to all the hooks and clips and be a little more organized for your project.

TaDaa!

Finished Sewing Square

First Communion is coming up quickly, only two weeks away, and I just finished the dress over the weekend.  Now it is time to make the veil, a fun and quick project that could also be adapted to make a wedding veil for a little girl’s dress-up box.

• 1 yard tulle 45″ wide-  the finer the tulle the nicer it will drape
  
• 1/4″ satin ribbon (5 yards)
• thread
• fabric padded headband
• assorted millinery flowers -optional

Step 1: Fold in half width-wise to a size 45″  x 18″ and then fold in half again to have a square 22.5 x 18.”  Lay this on a cutting mat and with a rotary cutter cut a gently sloping quarter circle to give the veil shape.

First fold to 45 x 18

2nd fold to 22.5 x18

cutting of veil shape

Step 2: Machine sew 1/4″ satin ribbon to edge of tulle.  Start sewing at the widest point (at edge of 45″ width point.)  It will be gathered at the headband and hidden.

It might be a little difficult to start in the machine, so begin with an inch of ribbon under the presser foot.  Trim excess ribbon prior to making the full circle to overlap the ribbon.  Continue feeding the ribbon over the edge of the tulle and stitch all the way around the tulle.

Step 3: Fold veil to the position where you would like the tiers to hit, about a 6″ difference gives a nice look or keep them even.  Baste along the folded edge.  This will be where the veil is gathered.  I did this by hand but you could quickly machine baste.

Step 4: Evenly gather veil and hand stitch to the headband.  This is most time consuming step (still only about 15-20 minutes).  I found the easiest way to evenly gather was to tack the veil to the headband at the end points and center point and then distribute the gathers between them hand stitching in place. Be sure to stitch evenly in place to the back edge of the head band to conceal stitch and leave a nice edge.

Step 5: Optional additional millinery flowers may be hand sewn to the headband to cover any stitching and add some pop to the veil and customize it to match any details of the dress.

To make a wedding veil the same techniques apply, just with loads more tulle, for example use 60″ wide tulle and 1.5- 6 yards, depending on length and number of layers.

TaDaa!

Finished veil modeled by a very silly girl!