What's In the Bag?

My sister Rose has an embroidery business.  CB Designs, in Arvada, CO.  She has a beautiful machine that stitches out 10 different colors automatically, and she embroiders mainly for businesses (hats, gear, t-shirts, aprons... whatever).  But when WE get together she is all excited about the fun stuff there is to embroider and we test it out.

  

I like tree frogs.  And I'm not the only one in the family that does. So when Rose found this tree frog pattern... well we HAD to stitch it out.  The only thing she had though (since she doesn't sew) was a scrap T-shirt from one of the rejects of a print job they did.  Bright goldenrod.  The frog literally took an hour to stitch out (57,000 stitches I think), we used 14 colors.  I could not bear to let it sit on a t-shirt that would never be worn... SO I made a drawstring bag out of it.  Everything I used was already on hand.  The blue fabric was from my inventory stash.  Even the drawstring was pulled out of a pair of drawstring pants I don't wear.   I didn't use a pattern, I just made it up.  It was a bit nautical in theme since it was for my granddaughter in Florida who goes boating and plays on the beach a lot. 

And the ultimate recycling kicker is that I put an empty plastic coffee container on the inside.  The coffee can keeps the bag's shape, and keeps my granddaughter's treasures and treats clean, dry and sand-free on their frequent boating outings in Florida where they live.  Even the blue fabric is a wave print!  I love it when a plan comes together!  :D


OH! There's more!  Rose stitched out two of these frogs (two granddaughters remember?).  So the other T-shirt was recycled into a cute little skirt.  Unfortunately the frog is sideways, but hey... I can't even guess how much $$ in thread (57,000 stitches!!) there is in this frog!   Take a look:

Tree Frogs are my favorite!

Isn't she lovely?

For this simple little skirt I just cut the t-shirt across the chest, just under the arm-pits with a rotary cutter.  I folded over the raw edge to make the casing to fit the 3/4" elastic I had on hand, and I was done!  I left the hem of the t-shirt as is, and it's the hem of the skirt.  


Easy and easy care!

Reuse Re-purpose = Receive adorable smiles!

My sweetie pie granddaughter & my recycled T (click for a close-up)

Close up of the tank top (click to enlarge)

I have a few friends who are avid thrifty shoppers.  One in particular is Debbie.  We met up at a local watering hole after work one day, and had an icy cold one while we caught up.  Afterwards, she giggled and said... lets go to the thrift store next door and get you some things!  OMG  I am not a shopper (somehow I am lacking that gene) and certainly not with a slight buzz on.

Well... I landed up with a trash bag sized bag of finds for $30.  Not to mention another trash bag of clothes Debbie had for me in her car trunk too!  Great haul.  And Debbie has great taste.  Just that some of the items were more her than me.  One in particular was this sparkly tee with twill tape down the button placket that I didn't particular like.  I was going to donate it, and took another look.  Hmmm... maybe I should try and recycle it?

So I did.  I got a tank top of my granddaughter's to use as a pattern, and I cut away at the body of the tee, utilizing as much of the sparkles (actually I think they are tiny little metal studs) and made the tee.  But there was still a bit more t-shirt fabric left and long sleeves.  Ahh!  I decided to make leggings out of them to match.  It wasn't hard, and again I borrowed a pair of leggings for a size reference.  I just put one of the legs inside the other, used that as my pattern to cut the sleeves in the shape of the legging (leaving plenty for the elastic waist band casing), sewed the crotch seam, folded and stitched the casing with the elastic inside, and I was done.  I kept the seams of the sleeves, didn't have to hem the bottoms of the leggings, and used the ready-made finishes as much as possible so I didn't have to drag my over-lock machine out and wrestle with threading it!  With my experience sewing active-wear, these were a breeze.  And viola!  Here is a recycled, re-purposed really cute outfit for my granddaughter!

This was last summer, and I didn't think to take pictures of the process.  But I may do the same thing with another T before she (or my other beautiful granddaughter) grows too big! :D