Crown royal recycling project

My sister in law who knows everyone and everything in our small area just dropped off a trash bag, and a large box full of crown royal bags had acquired from a local man who seemed to really like rum. I assume, he liked it, because the bottles full of rum are missing.....

She asked me to come up with some ideas for what to do with them.

Here are the ideas we came up with:

Coin purse
Golf towels
Golf club covers
I-pad cover
Purse
Coozies


Any other ideas you guys have?

getting close to finished

I've been working on a "spiderweb" quilt since August. I know, it's April and I'm still not done. It's very tedious which is why I took my time. I had wanted it to fit a twin but I know that it would take me quite a while, and I just want to finish it. So, I'm amending it to a small throw quilt.

I'm getting pretty close.

Next is sewing the blocks together, creating a border to make the quilt a bit bigger, and then making a backing, adding some batting and sending it to get long arm quilted. Yes, I know, I don't quilt it by hand or on my machine because it's way too hard and time consuming. It's not the part of quilting that I love.

I'll post more pics as I get closer to finishing.

Ruth

Too small blouse transformation

I had come across a lovely grey and pink blouse at Kohls last week on the clearance rack. It was from their Elle collection. As much as I loved the style and the priced (marked down to $12.00) the size 2 is way too small for my more robust figure. It was the only one there and searching for a bigger size didn't help since it was the only one in the store.

I went back and forth on buying it, knowing it would take a bit of time to "fix" it to fit me. The seam allowances were only 1/4" and were serged so letting it out was impossible. So finally, after putting it back and picking it back up again I decided to embark on a Too small blouse transformation. Of course, in my haste to get it done in time for easter I forgot to take a picture of it before I transformed it.

So, I drew out a sketch of what the original style was.

It's not my best flat sketch but it's been awhile.

I found some very old salmon pink shantung (like may 25 years old) that I have held on to for many many years. It's papery and flimsy but it was all i had that matched. It was shredded in places because I think it may have been treated with a chemical that makes it softer but at the same time degrades it. In any case. I found my fabric and I started visualized how to make it bigger. I settled on cutting down the front and adding shantung panels to enlarge it. I draped the pieces on my ole' Seawolf which says it's a size 12 but is more like a size 10 as far as actual measurements go.

This is my first version but I felt it was lacking something. Onto another version.

The pink looked more "intentional" with the pink
sash but I wasn't quite satisfied.

I almost went with this one but didn't want
to spend much more time handsewing buttons.

I liked the idea of the sash better because:
no hand-sewing necessary.

I eventually went with this one, but altered it a bit.

Here's my final piece, all sewn together.

I sewed the pink and grey sash together. It seemed
easier than my final plan before.

If you are thinking the décolletage is a bit risky well then you didn't know that I had always intended to wear a shirt underneath it. And use the grey blouse as a bit of a light blouse-y jacket. No one was offended by my bosoms. I didn't ever get a picture of me wearing it because I got sick on Easter and took it off immediately after I got to my sisters Easter party and laid down in my sisters bed and watched re-runs of NCIS. I did get a couple pictures of my son picking up Easter eggs and really, that's all I'm required to do and I felt happy.

I did end up doing some hand sewing since the shirt never stayed closed. I put in some hooks and eyes to keep it together under the sash. 

But all in all, a nice piece and I'm glad I did it. 

Ruth