This morning as my sewing machine was becoming possessed by some unknown anti-sewing demon, I started pondering the craft of sewing. I concluded that sewing is one of the most frustrating and fulfilling hobbies out there. When your sewing machine is literally sewing backwards for no reason at all when all you need is ONE INCH of regular straight stitching to finish your last project for the day, I'd say the feeling of frustration is kind of an understatement. But when you exasperatingly try everything you can think of to straighten it back out and you finally finish that last inch, it is the GREATEST feeling in the world! Just to take a step back and say, "Hey, I made this!" It fills that little crack in your heart that only creating can fill. People who have never really crafted before probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's a really great feeling that I'm sure most creative-types know what I'm talking about. When I'm using fabrics or materials that I've thrifted, that feeling intensifies times a million! Nowadays, sewing can be a really expensive hobby! Cute fabric is so expensive, let alone high quality supplies to make a professional quality product. So when you find those materials and fabrics for very little money and turn them into something completely unique and personalized, the feeling you get when you've finished is also completely unique!
So anyway, I'm still on that creative high that comes when you finish a project (or 5) using mostly thrifted materials, so I had to share!
I look through the fabric section every time I go to the thrift store. A lot of times, there's nothing really there (and by nothing, I just mean really low-quality or just plain ugly fabrics). But every now and then, there are some diamonds in the rough! And I grab those every time I see them. Sometimes I end up leaving the store with nothing, and sometimes I've got whole cart-fulls! I especially look for vintage fabric, those adorable prints and color combinations that you just don't see anymore (or you do see them, they're just trying to re-create the actual thing). At this point, I've collected a nice little stack, and I decided to use some of that up on some travel accessories for my upcoming trip to Dallas!
First up was this cute little zipper pouch. I just LOVE the lining fabric. It still had the original label pinned on it, (it was pretty old and yellow), and it was originally like 1.28 per yard or something super cheap like that (it's a pretty good quality fabric, too!). I bought probably about 2-3 yards of it for $1.
I love the light pinks and oranges and blues that it's paired with for the exterior pieces. Everything I used to make this pouch was thrifted (except for the thread!). This one didn't really turn out as great as I was hoping (there may or may not be some hot glue holding some frayed ends together...), so I thought I'd take a second crack at it, but in a bigger size to store my yarn and crochet hook for the afghan I'm working on:
I went a little crazy with this one and had fun embellishing the exterior pieces. I absolutely love how it turned out! I did buy the zipper and interfacing for this one (to make it a little sturdier), but everything else was thrifted (including that AWESOME zebra print fabric for the lining!!!).
Next up on my travel to-do list was this adorable toothbrush travel pouch, because let's face it, who likes to stick their hand into a nasty wet plastic bag when they need to brush their teeth?? Not me. I'd seen plenty of tutorials for these roaming around on pinterest, so I thought I'd give it a go! And I have to say, I love the practicality.
I finally got to use one of my adorable 1940's porcelain buttons that I've been hoarding for months! I did buy the handtowel to make this, but everything else was thrifted. I even have enough of the towel leftover to make for my brother and sister-in-law for their upcoming trip, as well!
The biggest project I did yesterday was this quilted travel document case. I get so anxious standing in those dumb lines in the airport, always freaking out about having all my stuff ready to show them as soon as it's my turn. So I really wanted something that would just have everything I needed right there, ready and accessible (and also allow me not to worry about checking to see if I lost or dropped anything every 10 seconds!). So this resulted:
It definitely did not turn out how I wanted it to aesthetically, but at the end of the day, I think it will serve its purpose well. I do love the back (which was supposed to be the front...but anyway...); I used travel-related words for the quilting detail. Here's a close-up:
It's got lots of pockets and a zipper pouch, so it can hold all of my travel-related documents pretty nicely! And, I got to use some more of those pretty vintage buttons, so that made it ten times better :)
Everything I used to make this was thrifted, as well.
Last but not least (well actually it probably is least), I made this very simple travel tissue holder.
I used vintage fabric for the lining, but the exterior was just a 99 cent fat quarter from Walmart!
Phew, that was a long list! And I still have lots of my thrifted fabric left over! Any ideas what else I could do with it all??
.JPG)