September is National Sewing Month! But you already knew that, right. :/ I found out via a Joann’s Fabrics email. If you cant find a Happy Sewing month cards at Hallmark, you could always make one yourself 😀
My last weekend was originally supposed to be 4 days, but turned into 6 days off… leaving me plenty of free time to do some productive type things and pull out the sewing machine too. The procrastinator in me is very impressed that I could get a jump start on some holiday gifts… and heres a couple projects I did for myself. I have a little less guilt watching TV when I am making something at the same time 🙂
I made this bear while watching the America’s Got Talent finale. It’s technically from a pattern I found online, but doesn’t resemble the original photo of the project, oops. I used one of my favorite old shirts from High School (aka no longer fits, no longer in style, but hard to let go). People say he kind-of looks like a gummy bear.
This is a bag I have been meaning to construct for a while (please excuse my awkard stance and baggy jeans 😐 ). This summer the DIY website ThreadBanger held T-Shirt Madness, a T-shirt reconstruction contest. I had this idea and wanted to enter it, but being the procrastinator I am, the idea remained in my head until long after the contest was over. 😐
First I took the boxy-ist of boxy shirts I had in my Good-Will/donateable pile. Seriously, think big rectangle with sleeves. Inspired by the competition, I really wanted to make something out of a shirt that still resembled a shirt, not just something out of knit fabric. The easiest and most logical part was to sew the bottom closed. I used the reinforced-stretcy stitch, and then boxed out the corners to give my new bag an actually bottom and sides. The neck hole is obviously the opening to the bag, and it slouches over enough I didn’t add a button or zipper or anything.
Turning the sleeves into handles was not as simple as you’d think. Just tying them together at the top made the bag hang funny on my arm on the shirt would fold almost in half on itself a.k.a UGLY. When you think about it, a shirt’s sleeves extend horizontally from the body, but a bags straps should extend vertically from the body. So, after several experiments with safety pins and folding, I figured out a way to make 3 folds and sew one seam per arm to get a natural up-and-down look to the sleeve. Woo Hoo!
I’m not sure how strong this bag is, but I’m sure it’ll hold up fine for light groceries, craft projects on-the-go, or taking my lunch to work. Eventually I’ll add something to it/paint something on it to make it a little less plain. But for now… YAY, New Bag!
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