Green Fashion

I follow Eco-Artware on facebook.  They have a couple of fascinating posts this week.  One is an article from treehugger about an art camp in The Hamptons.  The kids there participated in a recycled fashion challenge and created pieces like the one below.

The other post was especially interesting to me because I had just been considering how to reuse medicine bottles a few days earlier.  For me this is a wonderful example of how exciting it is to see something old and familiar used in a new way.  Go here to see recycled pill bottles by LilacPOP.

Slipcover: Finished!

My white slipcover is finished!  To refresh your memory, I got this chair 

at The Sharing Shop for $15 (I got that cute little number to the left of it for $10, but that's another story!) and posted about it here and here.  My sweet friend Lisa had some friends over one morning and taught us how to make a slipcover using this beauty as a model.  We used white cotton twill, bought at Hancock for something like $3.77/yd.  We cut off the headpiece thing and did away with the skirt. Now it still looks feminine but not as dowdy.  I love the way it turned out!  I have some vintage pillows that I've been meaning to list on Etsy so the chair didn't even make it in the front door before I started snapping away.

Oh my.  Look at those legs!

Wow!  That really shows off a pillow!

...Er, the beam of sunlight helped, as
did my mad photo-editing skillz.
;)

Is it just me or is the whole chair like,
"Hey look at this pillow!"
I love "her"!

Did I ever mention she has a sister?

I'm not quite sure what to do with this one.  

The white twill is not going to cover that print.

Remember when I posted about Cassie from Primitive and Proper and the gorgeous upholstered headboard she painted?  (If you didn't follow the link to see the after picture, go do it now for goodness sake.  It's breathtaking.)  I wonder if painting upholstery makes it hard or crunchy feeling.  I welcome any suggestions about what to do with this other chair and its bold print.

p.s. Thanks to all who participated in the first ever Vintage Suitcase Friday!  I'm looking forward to seeing even more participating this Friday!

New Dress a Day

I heard about New Dress a Day from a friend today and I love it!  Marisa has some mad repurposing skills and is on a year-long adventure to turn a thrift store dress a day into a piece of clothing she can add to her personal wardrobe.  Inspired by Julie&Julia but lacking a passion for pheasant, she has sworn off buying new clothes and is instead dedicating a year and $365 to adding 365 items of repurposed clothing to her collection.  Go Marisa!

 

Members Only jacket makeover

 

Blue dress with polka dots

Library Bag

Another follow up to my Preserving and Repurposing T-Shirts post:

  I got this shirt for 99 cents at Family Thrift.  It's a child's large 

and I thought it would make a good throw pillow, maybe for the boy's room.

But then I thought it would make a good bag for library books, although being a child's shirt it isn't super roomy.  Plus if I change my mind later I can still make a little throw pillow out of it.  I sewed a French seam in the bottom of the shirt, which is just a fancy way of saying that I sewed the bottom together while the shirt was still right side out. This assures that you don't have unfinished edges after you sew it together.  Then I sewed the bottom seam right sides together.  Since t-shirt fabric doesn't fray all you have to do is cut off the collar and sleeves to make a bag opening.   

What do you think?

Spoonflower

I have really started to get interested in textiles again and was delighted to find out about Spoonflower.  They will  print fabric from a digital photograph, a scan of some artwork, or a design created in photoshop or illustrator.  It's not just for professionals.  Apparently anyone can design fabric.  If you don't have Photoshop, they have links to some free programs that can be used to create images.  You can opt to keep the images you upload private but there are lots of customer designed images that are for sale if you are looking for something different and don't feel like creating your own.  There are so many to chose from in the shop.  Here are just a few:  

When I worked in a fabric store about 15 years ago it was almost impossible to find any fabric that was unusual.  It was even rare to find fabric to match the picture on a pattern envelope.  So I am particularly excited about Spoonflower!

Rocking Chair Pincushion

This is my favorite find from Value Village's half off sale Wednesday.  I paid 40 cents for it.

I painted it black and covered the back cushion with Alexander Henry's Perfect Pattern fabric and the seat with a scrap of houndstooth.  Here it is in action!

 I am working on recovering a sewing stool in the Perfect Pattern fabric and will post pictures soon.  I love this fabric.

My First T-shirt Pillow

I was inspired by the t-shirt ideas I posted the other day so I bought a couple of 99 cent shirts at Family Thrift to fiddle around with.  I started with this one:

After much sewing frustration (it was the machine's fault) (kind of) I came up with this:

The stuffing needs to be distributed a little more evenly, but I'm happy with it.  

Many people are apprehensive about sewing with knits and to them I say, "You should be!"  I'm kidding.  Just sew knits with a ballpoint needle instead of your standard everyday needle.  It really makes a difference.