Beasley Bed Cover

I made a  Beasley Bed here  five years ago in January.

It was in desperate need of a new cover.

And Sir "Sleeps-a-lot" LOVES minky fabric!

he will steal it when he finds it. So.......

Rather than spend a fortune on fabric, I found this

Minky-like blanket for $20.00 at my local

Dollar General,Cut out a big circle, stitched a hem

around the edge for elastic.

 AND..... now I have a nice looking dog bed,

Plus a happy dog. (+plus extra fabric)

Raincoat Re-make

A needed a shower apron, for helping a friend.

AND.....y'all know I love a good challenge. Oh,

and the local Goodwill !
Challenge+need+Goodwill = sew much fun.

 I found this hideous ugly yellow raincoat on the cheap.

Chopped it up......(bonus) now I have more buttons

and clasps to add to my collection :)

and made a fantastic shower apron!

Kindle Fire

Confession...........

I've been cheating on my sewing machine.

with the Kindle Fire.

 This is the little book I carved out to keep it safe.

You can click here for instructions

I was going to cover the inside with some scrappy paper

but it just seemed to look fine as is.

anyone on the fence about an E-Reader?

this is probably the single most worthwhile piece of electronics

I have ever used.

T-Shirt Scarf 2

 They say that necessity is the mother of invention.

so true.

I was more than willing to pay for a black and white scarf,

but I could not find one exactley like my daughter had in mind.

enter thrifted t-shirts

and yet another reason for me to hoard them.

( a fancier t-shirt scarf here. )



Chicken Wire Bulliten Board

I got this idea from Pinterest.
Chicken wire+oldwood+homedecor= My style
Never been to Pinterest?
DO.NOT.GO.THERE.
you will be sucked into its vortex of ....of everything.
don't say I didnt warn you.

Crate Covers

Here is proof that I did get something done this summer.

I found this crate cover tute over at lauragunn.typepad.com

Genius!

I went to the thrift store and bought old white bed sheets



and made LOTS!
this should take care of the wayward shoes in the back room

Creative Pillowcase

So. My 14 year old came up to me the other day.

And asked if I had any extra pillowcases.

(it just so happens that I had a like new thrifted one)

score 1 for me.

She cut off the corners and made ears

then embroidered a kitty face on it!

score 1 for her.

Re-Do Reveal

Here it is...

Before
After
Before
After
Before
After

Grandpa Pants

You know what I'm talking about!? The kind of mens jeans that are stiff and plain AND just begging for someone to stuff a hanky in them? Where the back pockets are spaced so far apart you could park a Hummer?

Yes, those jeans.

Well, to get to the point.

I've always wanted to try moving the pockets on a pair of jeans

(serious bucket list stuff here)

anyhoo

Enter:free-jeans-my-size-I'm-cheap-I-know

I ripped off the pockets and the small "roebucks" tag.

( a girl has to have some standard ya know)

And sewed on this cute bit of ribbon.

I grabbed a pair of my favorite jeans,

with pockets in just the right spot to use as a guide.

and stitched them right back on again.
only now there's no parking space!

Quick Photobooth

I've been struggling to get good pictures from my camera. As blogland grows I see better quality pictures out there. You know the ones I'm talking about, where you can see every detail of the fabric- the grain-the stitches- the loveliness. I'm really not one to keep up with the Jones's. BUT, I do like a little stitchy eye-candy once in a while.

More than once I've seen someone make a photobooth out of a cardboard box, which is great except for the fact that you have to have a place to store the box when your not using it. So I decided to give this a try.

isn't this a delicious picture!

all I did was lay some posterboard around the bottom and back of my basket. Draped white fabric over the top to soften/even out the light and a little aroung the bottom. Ideally it should have a light/lamp on the sides too for a better pic. But I'm not complaining.

aren't these little peepers darling!

Scraps

One womans trash is another womans treasure.
I volunteer at our local MOPS (mother's of preschoolers)
and as I was leaving the moms were cleaning up after a sewing class,
I overheard one of them say they were going to throw these scraps away.

I'm not sure what it is about such things that thrill my soul

but ~ oh happy day!~

.

Beasley Bed

Mr. Incredible requested a knock-off beasley bed for his

side kick Mr. Comfortable for Christmas.

I'm obviously forgiven for being late :)

FYI i did not take a picture of the inside but lets just say an old pool noodle and 2 discarded comforters (been saving for a while) + 50% off coupon at JoAnns let me do this on the cheap. I put a zipper in the back so I can wash the berber covering and a nice little reversable quilted pad for more frequent washes.

Sweater and a Sidetrack

My daughter love's the british band Muse. But finding thier stuff here in the U.S. is not so easy, so this is my knock off version.

don't ya just love how the little tag on the sleeve makes it look official!

You know they say a picture is worth a thousand words. If you look real close you can see all the medicines I've been taking to stay functional. Instead of the "12 days of Christmas" I'm partaking in the "12 days of Sickness" I'm on day 8 and still going strong, fortunately my autopilot has craftiness mode (all other modes are temporarily out of service) and I was able to finish up some of my Christmas presents in the few coherent moments I have.

I still have 3 more presents to sew................and its Christmas Eve! not sure if I will make it sniffle sneeze cough moan

Hello Kitty

Child no.3 is getting Hello Kitty pj's for Christmas. I could only talk myself into paying for the bottoms, thinking I could be thrifty with the top. And would'nt it be just my luck that Old Navy had long sleeve shirts on sale for $3.oo in the mens department (men's small should fit #3 just nicely)

A little freezer paper

some black paint

and a little pink :) being cheap is kinda fun :)

No-Sew T-Shirt Scarf

Seriously NO sewing what-sew-ever :) Same scarf 2 different looks. My oldest daughter works at a trendy clothing store and has a similar scarf that cost mucho $$, I found an ugly t-shirt on the clearence rack and decided to give it a try for less $$.

1. Did I mention ugly? I dont know who designed this t-shirt but it was the most mis-shaped shirt that I had ever seen. ENTER cheap experiment. (thanks mis-shaped-ugly-t-shirt-designer)

2. Cut off bottom edge and top

3. Re-fold the middle piece so the seams meet. Cut from the edge up to 1 inch from seams.

4. When your done making all those snips grab the shirt by the seams (one in each hand, kind of like one of those rubber exercise bands) and stretch gentley. This will make the cut strips roll around the edges and give it a finished look.

That was easy wasnt it!

okay, now I have to get back to work and do some serious sewing. Wait till you see what I'm finally finishing. Its been a long time coming.

Headboard Re-make

Blogland is harmful to my free-time. As if I dont already have a wish list of things to sew. Now I have a wishlist of things to build. I found My Re-purposed Life which is amazing. This lady can transform anything. You should check out her blog. My power tools were begging me to visit them. so heres what I did.

I found this old headboard at the local thrift store. I removed the thin paneling piece in the back and the pegs sticking off the top.

took some extra wood I had laying around (also repurposed from an old cabinet) and sanded it down roughly and cut to fit my headboard. I added layers around the top "Mantel" to trim it out.

put some scraps in the inside to hold shelves

lots more sanding to rough it up and make all the different wood tones blend

you wouldnt guess that there were two different types of wood and stain at the beggining.

nice primitive-rustic look. My fave

There it is, my new Faux fireplace-shelf-mantle. Now I have to make a screen for the front to hide all of those ugly electronics.