Water Resistant Oilcloth Aprons

Now I won't get soaked at work! Some coworkers of mine had some oilcloth aprons to help stay dry at work. (A kitchen... and we wash our own dishes usually which equals wet clothes) I made my own bias tape which took awhile, but is super sturdy (old tablecloth up-cycled). The best part of this project is how cheap it was to make. A yard of oil cloth under $10 and I was able to make two aprons from it. The bias tape was free to me so I now have three $5 aprons which usually retail at least $20.

(I found some chalkboard oil cloth ...you can write on it! at the store as well which I bought a foot of so keep posted for a future project using that)

Birthday Quilt for Eric

It was a friends birthday last week and I decided that he needed a quilt. He has given me various fabric pieces over the years from his world travels, usually old clothes so I wanted to incorporate those pieces. I went through my fabric stash and found some coordinating fabric (mostly more old pieces of men's clothing). I had a few pieces of cotton batting left over from another quilt, so that determined the size of this quilt. I was able to have the entire top sewn in a few hours and finished basting and quilting the same day. It is a smaller quilt, (lap sized) but I can't believe most of this was done in only one day. The colors are fairly basic and the shapes geometric, making it a great guy quilt. All the fabric came from either men's clothing (notice the pocket and buttonholes) or old sheets, except for the red fabric. It looks fairly wrinkled and puckered in the pictures, but it just needs to be washed and ironed, due the small size (and maybe my great skills?) there isn't any puckering from the quilting. I also was quite proud of the wrapping of this gift. I used an old map of Albany, NY (not something I likely need to keep anymore) and twine.

Sweater Tote Bag

An old sweater, some old curtains and some chair tape(super sturdy cotton webbing) made this cool tote bag. I actually used interfacing on this bag, which makes it nice and sturdy even without anything in it. I love the lining fabric I used. It's upcycled from a curtain set I bought years ago and is slowly dwindling. It was first used on my first quilt and was recently used as a lining for my twig bag.

Knitted Ottoman

Inspired by these stools that I first discovered on the blog decor8 I set out to make my own version. I found some cheap and mostly ugly stools at my local thrift store for $5 each. The tops were ugly particle board, but at least the legs were real wood.

I used two old throw pillows I hated as the cushioned part. I cut a piece of red fabric and draped it across the pillow on the stool, stapling it underneath. The knitted part is from an XL sweater also found at a thrift store. (I've been saving/buying/acquiring sweaters for another project I'm working on.) Then I stapled the sweater over the red cushioned part. I love my new staple gun, I think it's my favorite new tool.

Now I have some great new ottomans that match my new (to me) couch. Next I need to figure out how to make my chairs match my couch, but that's likely going to be a much bigger project.

Rotary Mat Coasters

I had this old rotary mat hanging around that I never used. I acquired it from somewhere and have a much bigger one that I actually use. This one was warped, so it wouldn't really serve its original purpose anyways. The mat was definitely screaming to be chopped up into coasters. I simply cut them into squares (really easy when there are lines marking exact inches!) and hot glued some felt to the bottoms. The corners are rounded to give it a more finished look.

Another Wedding Certificate

This was my first commissioned piece. I think I might be a professional at these now. I used a feather stitch on the heart outline, chain stitching on all the words and lazy daisy for the leaves. There is also a little bit of back stitching, french knots and bullion stitching (my first time with this stitch).

Monogrammed Laundry Bag

As I live in an apartment I have to travel (down the hall) to do my laundry. We have laundry baskets (one wicker, one plastic) to store our dirty laundry, however it gets cumbersome dragging those down the hall. I used a tablecloth (because I'm always up-cycling something) and sewed it into a basic sack. I added a drawstring and straps for easier carrying. My favorite part is the monogram I stenciled on the bag. Freezer paper is the best stenciling tool ever. Just print, cut, iron and stencil. Researching monograms I found that for couples the monogram would have both spouses first initials surrounding a larger last name initial. For an individual it would be first and middle initial surrounding the larger last initial. This bag was intended to be for me and Nate, however his middle initial is T so I think it should be his bag; that mean I can make him do all the laundry from now on right?

Christmas Tote Bags

I made my mom and my mother-n-law Christmas tote bags this year. They were both upcycling projects. The red snowflake bag is made from a thrifted tablecloth and doily. I had to handstich the doily onto the fabric before I sewed the bag. Then I used some great decorative stitches for all the edging. I really love how this bag came out.

The Christmas Story bag is upcycled from thrifted t-shirts, one a Christmas Story t-shirt and the other just a plain green t-shirt. I used two shirts to make this bag and loosely followed a pattern from the book Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt. This bag is not quite as sturdy as the other, but was able to hold a 9-lb cat comfortably (well, I'm not sure if the cat was comfortable) so I deem it still pretty sturdy.