Scrappy Sewing ~ Part One

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

I have been outside weeding & decided to pick myself a small bunch of spring flowers to sit on my bench  💗 (Sorry Willie) 😉

I've quite a bit of scrappy sewing to share with you & have decided to split it into 2 parts as I don't want this post to be too long winded.

Scrappy Project No 1 :

In * this recent post * I mentioned that I wanted to make some Christmas Stockings for a charity that I sew for, using up some of my wool blanket scraps.  Once I got my prototype right I was able to  sew up a dozen of them, lining them all with Christmas fabric scraps of which I have many.  

When I am batch sewing, to keep it interesting for myself, I try to make them all different & I enjoyed matching the wool blanket to the fabric scraps - having a good variety. 

Once I'd finished a dozen I thought I'd try some larger Adult sized stockings - you can see by my pic that I just enlarged my pattern to make it bigger.  I made 4 of these & I plan to make more small & large sized ones as I have lots of lovely wool blanket oddments.

I noticed the large Variety Store in my town had big signs on their windows saying 50 % Off Storewide so I took the opportunity to purchase some bubbles & balloons for the children's stockings.   I plan to add a candy cane & a chocolate Santa which will fit nicely.  For the adult sized ones I am thinking one of my knitted washcloths, a soap & a chocolate ???  Still not sure ...... 

Scrappy Project No 2 :

My friend Gail volunteers in our local St Johns Op-Shop & decided to rescue some of the many pairs of Jeans that get tossed in the bin.  She tore the pockets off them & at our last craft group meeting we got to choose a pocket to "do something creative with". Here is the one I chose top left.  It sat in my sewing room for many weeks & finally I decided to revamp/upcycle it.  I found this red truck amongst my transfers so I applied this to the pocket & then filled it with some festive florals. I added 3 rusty heart studs to the pocket & lightly frayed the edges.

My original plan was to mount the pocket in an old frame but then I found this thin dowel amongst my oddments so I thought I'd paint it a Christmas green.  I only had bright green paint but I was able to tone it down by mixing some black with it.  You don't have to go out & buy supplies dear friends - there is often a way around it.  😉

I threaded my dowel through the Jean tabs & then tied some torn fabric & some bells to each end.  I strung a length of rusty wire as a hanger.  

Here is the back view. 

Here is the finished Pocket.  

This is one project that I was absolutely happy with once I'd finished.  (I've been going through a stage, which is lasting about a year, of not being happy with my finished items.) 

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

We had our August meeting last Monday & 2 of the other ladies had finished their pockets.   Sharlaine had made a gorgeous denim feather from hers as well as begun some Sashiko work to be made into a project ... Gail had embellished her pocket & then made it into a zippered pouch.  I love seeing all the different ideas.

Scrappy Project No 3:

One of our craft group ladies - Maureen, bought along a bag of items she'd decluttered from her sewing room to be donated.  I found this cross stitch screwed up at the bottom & asked if I might have it.  I bought it home & went to iron it, then realised it was very marked with what I call age spots.  I soaked it in a gentle mix of Napisan which thankfully removed the age spots without the thread colours running. I wanted to make it into a cushion as I loved it so.

I also wanted to use fabrics I already had & not purchase anything.  This dark burgundy tonal fabric went well with it along with a forest green I had just enough of.  I decided to use the burgundy to make a peeper around the edge.  

Again I am thrilled with how this turned out & love the colours in it.  I backed it with the burgundy & did have to purchase a zipper as I only had white.  In hindsight I should have backed the cross stitch with something as it was very flimsy to work with ... but it's fine as a decorative cushion.  

Last Saturday I met my friend Sue at a cafe at Ohaupo for a catch-up & she presented me with the most wonderful gift.  Sue finds the most amazing treasures in her Op-shop travels & gifted me these 2 Cath Kidston mugs along with the sweet little patchwork hen.  Love, love love ...........  Thank You So Much Sue!!  😻

Thank you, as always dear friends, for your ever-welcome visits here today,

I shall be back soon with Part two which is real scrappy sewing (!!)

Sending much love & friendship to you all,