Blue and Jade clutch

About a month ago Daddio and I played an out of town concert. While we were waiting for rehearsal to begin at the theater, we wandered over to a home furnishings store.

It turned out that the owner recently passed away, and the estate was selling everything off in the store... all of their fabric swatches were marked $1! We're talking about 1/4 yd of fabric per swatch of a huge variety of materials. Needless to say I couldn't resist! I ended up picking 10!

One of the fabrics I chose was this gorgeous blue/jade silk blend damask! It is really quite stunning in person.

This week (since my car was in the shop) I had some time on my hands in the afternoon... out came the scissors and machine, and off to work I went!

Here's my creation:

Brown Paisley Tote

Last week, I was able to bang out another item for the shop:

The Brown and Paisley Tote!

I'm really pleased with how it came out. Although this is the second time I've used this pattern (once for myself about a year ago), I think that I can improve/change it. I think the next time I end up with a couple of yards of fabric, I am going to give it another whirl!

Bargains

I love bargains! I love sales! I rarely buy things anymore (non food related) that aren't on sale. Basically, we rarely actually NEED something right away. I have the time to wait till it goes on sale, before I purchase it... or wait for that great coupon to spring up somewhere.

That being said... I did need little D-rings to finish up a bag I'm working on so that I can get it up on my Etsy shop. This meant I needed to stop by Hobby Lobby to pick up a package... and next to the notions is the bin where they put in all the remnants or returned fabric. Okay, if you have a thing for fabric, we all know you can't not stop and pick through it to see if there is something in there that you just can't leave! The prices are usually a dollar or two... come on... you have to look... To be honest nine times out of ten, I don't see anything that I want. NOT TODAY... I hit the mother load as it were!

So what would have been a $3 purchase for the D-rings, turned into a $12 purchase for D-rings, and 4 fabrics! SCORE!!!

Home Ec.

One of my self imposed summer projects is to re-do, fix, or create alternatives that don't require buying something new to replace something old(er).

Things are going pretty well in this regard. If you've made you way over from my family blog then will remember this recent post about repairing my mattress pad/cover!

Next up was the lining for the dirty clothes basket for the master bathroom. We've had that basket for ages (like 5 years). Every so often I would remove the canvas lining that it came with and wash it. Sadly it became dingy and pilly, and it just needed to go. What to do??? Well, like the mattress cover, I went to my stash of old sheets... and lo and behold I had a little purple sheet, that actually is a match to the bathroom stuff we have (we used to be all matchy-matchy with our master bedroom and bathroom... LONG TIME AGO)...

Now, I don't have pictures of the process... but it isn't hard to follow. I simply cut apart the old lining along the seams so that I could use it as the pattern. I cut the pieces from the sheet, and sewed them together.

The original one had a pocket that the elastic fit into, well, the elastic was shot, but there was no good way to get to it to repair/replace it. So I decided when I made my own, that instead of encasing the elastic, I would simply leave it exposed on the underside (it is flipped under, the outer rim is a finished seam) this way I can repair it over time when it loses it compression.
So there you have it... another quick fix with out going out and buying either a new basket with liner, or managing to hunt down a liner that fits the existing basket!