Little Suitcase

 

I found this little suitcase picture on Pintrest there was no instruction an where I could find so I sort of made it up as I went along.

So here is a piece of the picture I found. The original is quite long but you get the idea.

 

Materials used; I used a pillowcase, a old scrub shirt, a pair of old jeans, and a two longish coat zippers I had kicking around.  For my trial run I decided not to use any interfacing or batting between the layers, to save my poor sewing machine some work (denim is quite thick and I find that the standard home sewing machines do not like to many layers of it at one time,   find three is about the max before I start to have problems).

 

So First things first, because I’m using finished garments/linins I have to cut open the finished seams so I can lay the pieces flat.  For this bag I’ve cut down the front seam from the zipper and all the way around that seam to the back, so that the piece I’m left with is one of the back pockets and one off the front pockets (can be seen better in the next picture).  To reduce a little bulk at the waistband of the pants I cut it open leaving enough fabric to attach a lining fabric to (aka the pillowcase). For the back piece of the bag front (the pocket piece forms a large front pocket on the bag front) I cut a piece of the pant leg the same length as the pocket piece, and again to reduce some of the bulk used the pillowcase to line the unseen part at the bottom( this will ultimately be the inside of the large front pocket).

 

Next I pinned the pocket front to the back piece,  trimmed the edges, added the piece for the inside lining (I used the scrub shirt for this) and basted all the pieces  together.  I also cut the back bag and back lining pieces and basted them together. 

This is also a good time to make sure any pockets you want on the inside are sewn in before you baste the pieces together.  And what kind of of handles or  strap you want to attach.  I used so 1 1/2 inch wide twill tape from my stash. 

 

 

Using the the pant legs for the zipper band I made one long rectangle (long enough to fit around the bag) and the matching lining piece.  With both fabric and lining  cut the band to accommodate the zippers.

Because I used two coat zippers I put the tops together at the center top and stitched them in.

 

Next I joined the zipper band to the bag front and back starting from the center top and working my way down each side. this is the time you would add piping to the out side of the bag if you like, you also could sew you seems to the out side and bind them the same way I did it look pretty good too, I did my seem to the inside and no piping.  I made my Bias tape out of some of the pillowcase so it would match, but you could use store bought if you like.  Notice I've left most of the bottom open and free, I'll show you why in a later step.

 

So here you can see the pockets on the inside front and the stitching for my handles, I’ve also started to pin my bias tape around the seems for a nice clean finish inside the bag.  This time I started from the bag bottom and worked my way all around the seem of the bag.  do the same to both sides. 

 

Next I attached the bag bottom to cover the zipper ends from the out side, for this I used a small rectangle of fabric from one one the pant legs. I’m surer there a better way to do this but all in al this worked ok.  I sewed this piece on by machine, just remember not to  sew over the zipper with your machine if you’ve used a large metal zipper like I have.

 

For the inside bottom I used a piece of the pillowcase to match the bias tape, this piece I stitched in by hand

And here she is the finished bag, I think it’s super cute!

A little knights tabard

   
Well this past Halloween my little man wanted to be a knight, well lets face it not every one has a suit of armor kicking around in there closet, so we got creative.  We went on a Google search for some non-armor ideas and came up with making a tabard.  Now for those of you  not up on medieval fashion, it is the colours they would where over there suites of armor .  So here’s three of our inspiration pictures we used





We had a sword and shield all ready so we decided to use the pattern off his shield for the tabard crest.  I sorta traced the pattern out on a piece of paper and for fun coloured it in with the colours he wanted to use.  And did A quick sketch of the pieces with the measurements and ideas for trim jotted down .











Step number one was to cut all our pieces out and add the trim to the bottom pieces, and sewed to shoulder pieces together and finished round the neck hole.  (remember that your head needs to fit through it.) and finished the side openings.
Next I added the crest to the front of the tabard. I cut it out of felt so it would not fray and gave the pieces a quick top stitch around the edges.
the next step was to attach the top to the skirt, I left the whole side of the top open so that there was enough room to get a jacket under it. The skirt is attached at the waist line.



 












Here is the picture of the finished Tabard, we used a waffle knit long sleeved under shirt underneath as his “chainmail”.  I made him a knit “helmet”, pictured below. when it was all put together it look good and he loved it and still wears it around the house. 

I'm a bad lama

so ive been a very neglectful bloger these past few months but i just finished a new upcycle project to sare as soon as i up load the pics hopfuly this evening.

Quick and dirty window screen and a towel rack face lift

So I have this older window in my bathroom, that I can’t afford to replace yet and it has no screen in it.  So  came up with this quick and cheep window screen using things from around the house or bought cheaply from the dollar store.  The first thing collect all your required tools and supplies, I used some tulle I had lying around for the “screen” part and some square plant stakes from the dollar store.

so now we measure and cut the pieces, I used my handy dandy wood glue and a random nail I had around the house to hold the corners together.

next I draped the tulle over my frame.

I then popped some staples around the edge (just like recovering a chair) and trimmed the tulle up nice and neat

when the hole thing was dry I popped it into the window.  I can now have my window open with out the bugs.

  

This is the before and after of the little hand-me-down shelf I use for my towels in the bathroom. It started out as a bras colour but over the years was starting to look really .. well unattractive.  did I mention I like tremclade all most as much as duck tape!  Well I wiped all the dust and dirt off and started spraying .. a can and a half latter it was white and looks much better in the bathroom that is purple and blue.