Lucky Star Key Chain

This project was done in a couple of hours, for that is all the time I had allotted.  Since I have been doing all of the Sweater Purses, they have created a lot of scraps that I have been collecting in a bag.  So this project is a scrap project.

Here are the items I will use to make my key chain:

Scrap-a-plooza!

I had printed out a star shape on paper and cut it out, then had denim, pink and gray sweater scraps.  I used washable marker to trace the star on each scrap.


I'm not above tracing, no freehand for me! 

I can't draw to save my life, so I had to trace if I wanted my shape to even resemble a star.  Plus, a star is an easy shape to cut, no rounded edges or fine detail.  Once traced, I then cut them all out.  There are two of each because I will be making this double-sided.

Fourth of July scraps


I cut them all out the same size and then determined what order I would stack these in.  I really liked how the denim looked on top when I did Sweater Purse 3.0, so I decided, Pink, Cream, Denim.  I took my paper star and drew lines about a quarter inch in with a ruler (yeah, I can't even draw a straight line without help) and trimmed it.  Then I retraced the cream stars and trimmed and repeated again another quarter inch in and trimmed the denim stars.



Second round of tracing

 
I totally have Lucky Star from Madonna in my head right now.  I heard she refuses to play her old stuff at concerts, is this true?  I've never been to one of her concerts, but I had heard a rumor that she would charge the venue extra for her to play songs like Material Girl and Lucky Star.  I love those songs!
Anyway, back to the trimming.  I trimmed out all the stars so there are a total of six (6) stars.  I then stacked them to ensure that was what I wanted.

Star stacked action

I thought it made sense to sew from top to bottom, so I sewed the denim to the cream then the cream to the pink.  I did the sets separate.  While I was sewing and thinking that there must be a better way to do this (they were not staying straight for me and so the stars came out a bit skewed), I snacked on one of my favorite snacks: Toffifay.

Yummmmm

Toffifay is described as a caramel cup with a whole hazelnut dropped into, then a chocolate hazelnut filling covers the hazelnut and then it is topped with a drop of chocolate.  I love these!  Vince's mother eats these and I had never heard of them until she got me addicted to them.  I can find them at Walgreen's and Joann's (strangely enough).  Joann's sells them in a package of four, while Walgreen's sells them in a package of 15 (often at a buy one, get one free).  Try them!!!

Again, I digress!  The stars are finally sewn together.  Like I mentioned above, they are not aligned as I had imagined and are a bit off.


How do you read unaligned stars??

I did not like that so much pink was showing; it also made these really large.  I trimmed the pink to the cream star.

Much better!

Now that the stars are stacked and trimmed I then put them back-to-back and took needle and thread and hand stitched them together with a whip stitch.

The Stars Unite!


Once the stitching was done, it was time to make this a key chain.  In my kit of rivets, it contained some colored ones, rather than just silver or gold.  Luckily, there was a red one.  Vince did the honors of punching the hole and affixing the red rivet into the star.

Riveting Star

Once the rivet was attached, then I took a key chain and attached it to it.

A star is born!

This was a quick project, but I think that if I were to do it again, I would do it differently.  I think by cutting out all of the pieces ahead of time, that left me with little to hold onto while I was sewing them together.  I would try cutting out the smaller one first, then sewing that onto the next one, for me it was the cream.  Then cutting the cream out based on the lines of the denim.  Do the same for the cream on the pink. 

When I gave this as a gift, she said, "How did you know I love stars?"  Funny, they were an easy shape. :-)

If anyone tries something like this, let me know what worked for you.  Thanks!

Sweater Purse 5.0

Happy Easter!  Even though this is not an Easter inspired project, it is a project that I did back in February.  Guess what it is?  Yes, another Sweater Purse!  You will never escape this project!  Well, maybe once this year is over, then I will move on to a new obsession for 2012!  Anyway, this is a purse that came from the same J. Crew sweater as my last Sweater Purse.  I took that sweater and some odds and ends that I thought may spice up the purse a bit and went to work.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

I have Santana featuring Michelle Branch's song Game of Love in my head when I was typing this.  I love that song! 

I had made this purse for my friend that I went to The Melting Pot for in one of my previous posts.  Her favorite color is purple, when I thought it was blue.  So, I had to dig around for the purple tulle you see above.  I also had bought a box-o-ties from an estate sale a while back, not sure what I was going to use them for, but when they are only $1, you gotta go for it!  So, I will use one of them for this purse.

First, I cut out a rectangle section of sweater, utilizing the side seam.



I have scaled down my sweater purse size from what I did over Christmas, because I thought it would be easier to handle, but it takes just as much time.  But, scaling it down has allowed me to make more than one purse from a sweater.

Next, I sewed the side seam and the bottom seam.

Upside Down Purse!

I actually flipped the material upside-down so the ribbing that is normally at the bottom of the sweater will be the top of the purse.  I then cut out a section of purple lining to match my purple tulle.  Those purple items were remnants from a dress I made to attend the Sex and the City II movie with my Ladies.  It was a fun night and I wore the dress at least one additional time since, so it was worth it.


Drinking Cosmos before we left the hotel room!!

Anyway, back to the purse.  Always save remnants, you never know when you will need them.  Here is the cut section of the lining:


They should make a no-fray lining-I'd buy it!

I folded it and inserted it into the sweater purse to get a good fit.  I pinned it and then sewed the lining like I did the purse.  I put that aside and tried to come up with some creative idea to do with the tulle.  I already made a rosette for the last one, so not that.  I knew that the tulle would not make a good handle...so I was stumped.  I finally decided to bunch it up going around the circumference of the purse.  I then realized that I would need to unstitch a little of one of the side seams so that I could tuck it in to secure it good.


Unstitching...


I pinned the tulle to the inside of the purse at the seam I unstitched, then periodically scrunched the tulle together with purple thread and anchored to the purse.  I did the same on the other side.  Then turned it inside-out and sewed up the side seam again.


I pinned before I scrunched.

Once I was happy with that I took the lining and folded down the top until it lined up with the purse.  I then iron the lining at that fold, wrong sides together.



Fold and Press.

Then I inserted the lining in the purse and pinned it in place.  Now comes the tie.  I ironed the tie a million times and used startch, but could not get all of the wrinkles out.  I measured a decent length of the tie for a handle/shoulder strap so that it would fit right under the armpit when worn on the shoulder.  I then measured a "closure", using the tie bottom/front (where the V is in the tie) so that would be the closure front.  I pinned those to the purse between the purse and the lining.  

Tie ends-strap and closure.


I then sewed the lining to the purse with a zig-zag stitch along the top edge ensuring that I sewed through the tie handle and closure end.  Since the edge was finished already, no more needed to be done.



Finally coming together.


Once I sewed the lining in, the purse was complete!

Black-tie Purse!

With each purse I do, I like them even more!  See how I scrunched the tulle at the right places so the tie closure could be threaded though?  Nice, touch, if I do say so myself! 

From the top

While I was on a break, thinking of what to do, my cat Julie decided to warm up the purse before I got started.


Roo-girl!  I can't walk away for a minute! 

How can you be mad at a fuzzy face like that!  So, Sheri, if you find some white cat hairs on the sweater, this is why!  I figured she would not mind too much, she has a cat of her own (fellow cat-owners know you can never get away from cat hair)!

I do have more Sweater Purses in my queue to blog about, so stay tuned!

Sweater Purse 3.0

I hope you're not sick of the Sweater Purse yet!  I still have several to do.  Maybe I will mix in other posts so you gals don't get burnt out on the Sweater Purse.  This time I wanted to use a pattern that I had bought ages ago, but had never used.

The Wristlet

I love the wristlet.  I have several that I have purchased, but I have never made one.  Sometimes I get into these funks that I won't do anything with a certain type of implement or concept or whatever and won't go near them for awhile.  At the time I bought this, I really wanted to do a wristlet, then something happened with a zipper project and I swore off zippers for awhile.  So, all of these styles in this pattern collection have zippers, ergo, no wristlet was ever made.

I hope to be over it, so I pull out the basic pattern guide for the front and back and liner.  I cut out the pieces from the pink sweater and liner from Sweater Purse 2.0.  That sweater will probably yield at least one more complete project (a small one from the sleeves).

I could always call this the Boob Wristlet!

I did not realize how this pic looked until I inserted it in.  Well, as you can see, I cut the fabric from the breast area.  Ha ha.  No one needs to know the origin of the fabric, just that it existed.

So, with the same pattern guide, I cut out the liner fabric and chose a zipper from my stash.  I think I got these zippers from my mother or they were leftover from my grandma.  She sews, but does not sew clothing with zippers, so I have a bunch of random ones.  This was a neutral tan or yellowish zipper.


It looked so easy....


So, to spruce this little number up, I wanted to do an applique again.  But I did not want it to be loose on the wristlet, but flush with the sweater.  I chose some scraps from my past felted sweaters (see, you never throw scraps out).  The recipient of this wristlet, her name starts with an L, so this was going to be my applique.  I drew a letter L on a piece of paper and traced it on my cream felted scrap and a slightly smaller L on a  denim scrap from my Laptop Bag post.  I distressed the denim edge a bit and sewed the denim on the sweater L.  Then sewed this layered L on the current sweater cut piece.


This reminds me of a Varsity letter

I had to think ahead and decide what I wanted my wrist band to be made out of.  I thought of sewing strips of the sweater together, but it would get too thick for my machine and would look sloppy.  So, my next idea was ribbon, but ribbon seamed too flimsy.  I rifled through my scrap bag and I found the inner seams from my jeans, again from the Laptop Bag post.  I did not use them at that time, but kept them anyway.  Good thing, because a section of this would be perfect.  I also had to think about where I was going to get a split ring and hook for it to attach to.  Vince wanted to help, so I sent him in search for these items around the house.

In reading the pattern, it had me make these zipper stops which are attached to the front and back before you sew the zipper on.  They are supposed to cover the zipper ends, I guess.  I never did these before, but I sewed them in anyway.  Then I positioned the end of the wristband on the side edge and pinned it to be sewed into the side seam later.

Something just ain't right!

This is the thing with patterns.  Does anyone try these out before they go saying they are easy or that certain steps are an integral part of this project?  I sewed these stops in even though I did not like them.  I measured the zipper several times to line it up with the stops and the length of the wristlet opening.  I cut the zipper and stitched it to make the new zipper stop.  I pinned it in the purse....yup, the zipper was too short!  How?  I don't get it.  Anyway, I am making the best out of this zipper and not getting a new one to cut.  This pattern also had me basting everything but the turkey to this opening area.  I hate basting....

Basting away

I continued to follow the pattern; I pinned the liner to the sweater portion, sewing along the zipper and up the sides and leaving the bottom of the liner open so I can turn it right side-out.  I also sewed the sweater sides and bottom.  Since the liner was so thin and the sweater was so thick, this turning was proving to be a little hard.  Important: make sure the zipper is open so you can turn it. 

The hole was too small; I had to unstitch it more

Once it was finally turned, I pulled out the liner enough to sew the liner hole closed by topstitching it (rather than slipstitch, where it is invisible).  At this point, I'm at the end of my rope and need this project done.  I insert the liner back into the wristlet and with a needle and thread make two stitches in each inside corner, connecting the liner to the sweater.  This way the stitches act like an anchor and the liner will not pull out when in use.

Yea, go Big L!

Now, remember I sent Vince off to gather some necessary items to complete this wristlet?  He came back with items that were very chunky, like a carabiner clip (used in mountain climbing).  Obviously, he knows nothing about wristlets; but a wonderful guy for trying.  So, we looked through the kitchen junk drawer, then my craft bag, then finally his toolbox.  The final hook and split ring came from some key chain that held a key for something that he doesn't even own anymore (well, that is what I told myself when I snatched the hook and ring).  The hook is like something that would come off a lanyard.  It was perfect!

Showing off that great zipper

I won't say that zippers are my favorite sewing thing, but I don't necessarily hate them anymore.  I still think the zipper stops were overrated, but I'm no biggie in the sewing world, so what do I know?

Chic liner debuting again!

Ok, that, I hope, is the most difficult one that I do.  That pattern really is not for material as thick as a sweater, so I really only have myself to be shaking my head at.  I want small and simple.  Back to the drawing board, no more patterns for these sweaters!  They need freedom from the restriction of pattern rules.  I will try and keep simplicity in mind for the next ones (and I don't mean the pattern maker either)!!

Sweater Purse 2.0

Here is another addition of the Sweater Purse.  This purse was made for a friend that has everything.  I knew that this purse had to be special.  I decided to down-size the large purses I made in my last Sweater Purse 1.0 post to: 1. Accommodate more purses out of one sweater and 2. Make it easier for me to handle.

I certainly will get more purses out of one sweater, but I did not make it easier on myself!  First, I took a hot pink sweater that was previously felted from my first Sweater Purse 1.0 post.



This one dd not shrink too much

 
Then I cut the sweater across the chest just below the armpit and then cut that bottom section in half.

Use a rotary cutter - it makes life a piece of cake

Instead of sewing the bottom waist/ribbed area closed to make it the purse bottom, I'm turning these around and making the ribbing the top.  My goal is to make two separate drawstring wristlets.  I am only demonstrating how I made one, because the second one will be the same except for the embellishment on the front, which you will see later.

I'm also trying something new this time and I am going to line the purse.  The liner I chose is a length of fabric that I bought at a yard sale for 50 cents.  It was at least a 3/4 yard length.  I get so stoked when I find something fab like this for cheap.

Very chic 50 cent liner!!

I utilized the side seam in the sweater and turned it inside-out and sewed up the other side, leaving the ribbed end open and then sewed the cut end for the bottom closed.  I then attempted to sew a gusset seam so that the purse would have more body.  I sewed this so that the seams from the bottom of the purse looked like a plus symbol. I did not take a pic of this specifically, but you will see it in a below pic. 

I cut the liner slightly larger than the purse, to allow the purse to stretch a bit when something is placed inside it.  This was a bit of a challenge, because at first I sewed it too big, then unstitched and sewed it too small.  I also was trying to be professional about it (sewing like how a pattern would have you sew in a liner) but that did not work.  Phooey on patterns!  I sewed it just like I did for the outer purse but then placed it aside to insert later.

I wanted to make a flower applique to affix to the outside of the purse.  I cannot draw for the life of me, so I found a applique picture from an old knit magazine and had Vince's teenage daughter draw it out for me on a piece of scrap paper.  With this I took some sweater scraps from past projects and drew the flower on the scraps with washable magic marker.  I also cut a strip of the liner.


Homemade applique flowers


Once the daughter cut out the flowers for me, there was marker residue on the edges.  I took them to the sink and ran them under cool water and rubbed the edges until the marker was gone.  I then pressed the flower pieces between a towel.  They are wool, so they dried in no time.

While I was doing my purse project, Vince's daughter was having fun with my sweater and liner scraps.  She was tying little bits end to end and made a bracelet.  Then she made a bracelet for her dog, Maggie, a miniature pekingese.

What a good sport, Maggie was!


Meanwhile, I attempt a rosette with the liner scrap with a needle and thread.  I don't bother to look it up, it seemed easy enough.  Ha, well, when I was done, it did not quite come out like a rosette, but it was cool enough.  I layered the two flowers on top of each other, a bit skewed so the pedals were off-lined and then sewed my liner rosette in the middle.  I then affixed my new flower applique to the purse.

Is it cute or what? I amaze myself sometimes!

I'm not trying to brag, but I do not consider myself a very creative person.  I am crafty, but creative?  Creativity to me is something unique coming out of your own brain.  When something does come out of it, I am amazed, usually I just copy someone else's idea.  I do not claim the idea my own, but I try to do a decent job of mimicking something I see.  Oh, also, can see the seam in the front of the purse?  That is my gusset.  Eh, who knows if will help.

I then took the liner I set aside and turned it righside-out.  I inserted it inside the sweater purse and folded down the top edge so that the raw edges are not exposed.  I used a zig-zag stitch to sew the liner to the purse to allow it some stretch when the purse it opened.

Liner material is the worst with fraying.  It will fray the second you cut it.  That is why I thought that it would look cute as the rosette on the flower, the strip was quite frayed by the time I was done stitching it.


Fray no more, Liner!

As you can see, I sewed the liner about where the sweater started to rib, so about a 2" section was unlined.  In this section I inserted grommets.  This will be where my drawstring with be threaded through.


Make a hole with the tool and punch the grommet in.


Since this sweater was not very heavily felted, the ribbing was a bit delicate and I really only needed to make a hole one punch wide, but did two because it looked too small.  Once I put my finger in it to place the grommet in, I realized that one would have been enough.  Oh well, live and learn.

Now, I was having a hard time coming up with what to use as a drawstring.  Ribbon seemed too thin, but the sweater seemed like it might work.  So, I cut a strip of the sweater to test my theory.

Strip that sweater!

When I pulled on the sweater strip, it did not react well.  I thought that it may rip if pulled too tight.  As you see in the above pic, I raided my yarn stash to see what I had in there that would match.  I found some white Berocco Plush from when I made a lamb baby blanket.  That is a story all on it's own.  The blanket came out awesome, but it was challenging.  Anyway, Plush is like yarn spun from a cloud.  Soooo soft.  I also had some tan Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande leftover from the same lamb baby blanket.  This was just as soft as the Plush, but it was spun from a baby alpaca.  What a treat that was to work with!

Anyway, I took strands about a yard long of the Plush, Grande and sweater and braided it.  I taped it down with duct tape like you did when you made friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread.  I only accomplished the herringbone style once and I kept it; so much for making friends! Ha ha!


I held the yarn strands together to equal one sweater strand


Now, threading this braid through the tiny grommets proved to be a challenge.  Vince helped, as usual, when I started to get frustrated.  It was threaded through so that the ends came out on the side.  I opened the purse to determine where the the knot was to go on the drawstring then knotted it so that the strands all hung together like fringe.

Yea, it's done!

I really liked the way this came out.  On the second one, I will make only one hole for the grommets and will do a different applique.  The second one does not have to be done until March, so I have some time to work on it still (I love burning the candle at both ends).  I don't have much of this pink sweater left, so I may come up with a different drawstring as well.  Here is the close-up of the applique that I am so proud of:

The fray gives it charm

If you have any ideas of other styles I could try using my felted sweaters, then I'm all ears!  I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, but I am always receptive to what you guys have to say!