Easy adjustments to workout gear...

In the old days, workout clothes used to be just cast-off regular clothes, right? Giant gray sweatshirts, baggy track pants, ripped and stained T-shirts.
Now, women's athletic gear is more polished: I have acquaintances who swear by Nike Dri-fit clothing, or only will don stretchy, microfiber-woven clothing that wicks up sweat magically like a sponge.
Obviously, I can't whip out that kind of stuff on a low budget and minimal sewing skills.
But what I can do is get bored. Get bored with my plain, elephant-gray pajama pants from Old Navy. I chopped off the bottoms to make three-quarter length pant legs, and then inserted a tiny little pocket on the inside.
Of course, I brainstormed too much, too early, and thought I could create a beautifully lined, zippered pocket. So I could go runnng and have a place for my keys.
About 15 frustrated minutes later, I decided on a much simpler pocket and now make do with using a safety pin to secure a key inside.


(on the other haste-makes-waste note: I also have the bad-habit tendency to take the house key off the keychain to go running, and then forgetting to put it back on...thus, locking myself out of my house, not just my vehicle. But I digress.)

Practical, beautiful...but alas! not waterproof...

In times of haste, I make mistakes.
No joke.
I've locked my keys in my car three times, all under times of duress. Once: on my first day of my (unpaid) intership. Another time: trying to get across town to do a video interview in south Austin. Yet a third time: just discovered that I had to write about an escaped Utah convict who vanished from the prisons decades ago and was now living a secret double life in my town.
So this project suffered the consequences of my hastiness - I was pitching a tent in the Mount Hood wilderness during a camping trip. We were fast losing daylight, the rain was coming down, and I had this adorable, embroidered little pocket snuggling around my cell phone in my pocket.
Next morning: I wake up in a panic, chimes from a pre-programmed alarm ring, I frantically look inside for the phone...and it's outside on the ground. Drenched.

The pocket dried out, but let's just say I need to invest in cell phone insurance. Immediately.
(crafting notes: the yellow embroidered fabric came from a $3 oversized shirt from the Target clearance rack. Big yoke-style neck hole, ugly sleeves...I cut it up to make a bag [what else] originally, and made the cell phone cover out of a scrap of that. Inside I lined it with pink felt, and then attached an embroidered ribbon, scavenged, of course.)

Hoodie goodness...

I spent the summer of 2005 in Duluth, Minn. It was three months pocked with Lake Superior boardwalks, swimming in one of a 1,000 lakes, deep green forests and cheese curds.

At the end of the summer, I came back with a T-shirt with the slogan: "Oh, to see what Bernie has seen," crafted by a talented and creative fellow intern.

I wanted to wear the shirt more often, and reconstructed it into my first hoodie project.

Here 'tis:

(it's hard to take photos of clothes when you lack a live model...or roomates)

Vintage parents...

These are two passport snapshots of my parents in their 20s. They were leaving Taiwan to study in New Jersey, and I've always wondered about their journey. The background is a fabric remnant (broke the embargo!) of a bunch of free scraps that I picked up at a garage sale. At least I didn't spend any money. But now I have even more of a pile of upholstery and wallpaper scraps.

Faux strapless shirt...

This was a beautiful print dress, but the top was way too tight, and I saw the dress passed up on the dressing room rack.
I cut off the sleeves and the high neck, and then added a couple of darts in the front and hand-sewed an eyelet hook in the back.
For awhile, the shirt stayed in my closet because it was too hard to pull off as a strapless, especially since I was worried it would end up around my waist.
But hooray for sales at Ann Taylor Loft: the canary yellow cardigan was a perfect match to the shirt's print, and it helps cover all imperfections.
So here's the combo!

Minnie mouse skirt

This used to be a thrift-store dress with a massive white collar and buttons, but I chopped off the skirt and trimmed the top with a yellow ribbon.
Too much like Minnie Mouse? Or like a 1950s schoolteacher skirt?

A gift for a fellow crafter!

I'm pleased with this one — the fabric was purchased during Memorial Day weekend when I went to Cool Cottons with my sister.

I remember the store co-owner asking us, "What are you going to make?" as she unrolled the bolt. And this print — birds and flowers in dove gray and blue — was so pretty we said we just wanted it to look at.
For some reason, I'm in this bird phase: I'm drawn to bird motifs and sketches everywhere. I told my friend, the recipient of this tote, that maybe it's because my natural nesting habits are kicking in....eep!

Scattered kind of day..

It's been one of those Saturdays where I only have energy in short bursts. Like reading a book one chapter at a time, or eating snacks randomly throughout the day.

I promised myself that I would only do projects that use my scrap fabric, because I have way too much. I did go to Hancock Fabrics, and bought some zippers, a cardboard cutting board (on sale) and some $.99 remnants..those don't count.

So I came up with this little bag, probably one of many in the future. I've got to find a quicker way to dispense the growing pile of fat quarters, leftover bag scraps and secondhand clothing that's building up in a corner in my room. A fabric embargo for now...but let's see how long that lasts.

Summer tote

Another old project: I found a southeast Asian print dress at Goodwill for $5, and was immediately drawn to the bright print. The sequins were part of collar detail.
In retrospect, the bag is quite long on my torso and sometimes feels like a pillowcase; things can get lost in there. Also, I didn't make this bag with lining, so it's super light-weight and I worry that it will tear.
I've just washed it in the washing machine. It looks....okay. I probably should have hand-washed it. But all my stitches stayed together!
Sorry I don't have any 'before' pictures.

Another old project...easy add-on to a blouse

I found the blouse at Buffalo Exchange, but it had several pinholes near the bottom. No worries for me; I managed to get a few dollars off the asking price.
After taking home the blouse, I rummaged through my boxes o' craft and found this blue lace that came from another Goodwill grab-bag.
I remember watching "The 40-year-old Virgin" as I hand-sewed. Fun times.

wine corkboard...

This is a really old project from a few months ago, but I still have the picture.
I found a Ziploc-bag full of wine corks from Goodwill, and then I wandered over to their frames section and found a cheap frame for about $6 that was wide enough to hold the largest cork. (I was laying cork inside half a dozen frames inside the store, which probably looked odd.)
When I came home, I sifted through the best-looking (most of them are from Oregon and Washington wineries, a few grocery-store brands) and added my own feeble collection.
Then lots of craft glue later...some brown and white ribbon...end result!

Green skirt...

So I made this skirt in an effort to impress a boy. I don't think it worked, but I was happy with the end sewing result. Who needs boys when you can make yourself a skirt?

The fabric also came from St. Vincent de Paul, as a round green tablecloth. I was inspired by Craft magazine and cut out the center to make a skirt without having to hem the bottom.

The circular patches were from a flower print of fabric I bought at Cool Cottons in southeast Portland. I made patches by sewing a circle around the flowers using a thicker stitch on my sewing machine, and then cutting out around the border. I hand-stitched the patches on.
The skirt is fastened by a hook and eye that I hand-sewed, and then a button and a ribbon just beneath it, because a good deal of derriere tends to peep out of the skirt slit if I'm not careful.

Messenger bag...and toiletry pouch accessory

This is the newest project. I figured I'd start from today and start backwards.

I made this out of this batch of beautiful blue cordouroy from a local St. Vincent de Paul thrift store. The dark-patterned fabric was from my roommate; I made pockets out of this. It was the first time I made a square-bottomed bag. The lining is made from a solid marigold fabric.

The whole bag is gigantic, but I really wanted something that would function as an overnight bag or a pretty gym bag. I've been using a giant tote, which suits me fine, but totes have a tendency to gape wide open, leaving the whole world open to peer in and see your sports bra and gym shorts. Yuck.

The mini me bag is also made of the same fabric, made with a zipper I had gotten out of a grab-bag stash of craft items from Goodwill.

Now I can safely stash the gym accessories, the bras and contact lens cases covertly....yes!