A ton of my friends have their birthdays/graduation parties within the same week.  So this morning I went into working overdrive - and sewed these totes for four of them.  I would make one for all of my friends, but it's so much cutting and piecing with all this patchwork! too exhausting.

and here they are. please tell me which one is your favorite!
The reverse sides are solid fabric or stripes (saves on labor)







the obligatory artsy shot


look! handpainted name tags!

.
A hand-embroidered, buttoned jumper dress - made from a remnant and shreds of an old nightgown

A gingham blouse - from a dress that fit me as a toddler

a little embroidered and beaded zip pouch - from some old cargo pants and a fat quarter for the lining.


some bedazzled converse sneakers (previously they had a little piratey skull on the side which was a bit too goth for me)

I was glad to at last find a use for all my stray bits of cloth, random curlicues of wire, ribbon roses etc.  The baubles were pretty easy to make; I followed this tutorial: blog:http://girl-gone-thread-wild.blogspot.com/2007/03/make-fabric-beads-dont-throw-away-your.html
and then I just sewed the beads onto the chain links.  It's a little outrageous - maybe they're destined to be buttons on purses instead?

I love the look of fabric covered notebooks and I figured they couldn't be that hard to make.  Here's my version:



and another made from scraps of old clothing and remnant flannel (I made the button too out of fabric snippets and stray beads):



i love floral fabrics!

Thankfully the stretch stitch on my machine was working today! :- ) the neckline is still a little lumpy, but i'll wear it anyway.  For the patter I traced over a shirt I had and just extended the hem.

No pattern, but I used the pleated bust tutorial from whatthecraft.com.  
I love summer dresses! (and being able to walk around barefoot) :- )

I found this dowdy 80's skirt in my attic - completely unflattering shape but i liked the color.  So I hacked it up and used the burdastyle.com pattern for the Ruby shorts to create these shorts just in time for summer.  not sure about the buttons, do you think they match the fabric?
  

I made this for my best friend's little sister's birthday - do you think a newly minted 13 year-old would like this purse?


and action shot:

When my aunt moved away, she left behind an enormous box of gross clothes - what is a craftster to do?
I used the burdastyle.com dress pattern Danielle, but I altered it to allow for the shirring in the back and the lower neckline.  

Hahaha yet again I cannot help but raid my brother's wonderful wardrobe for clothing to reconstruct!
This time it's a pair of old swimming trunks that he wore many years ago, age 12 perhaps.  The fabric was not half bad- it's a sort of dark purple batik-like print on nylon.  I don't have a serger/overlock machine, but the fabric wasn't very stretchy so it wasnt a problem.  I added a double lining to the bikini top: a layer of nylon mesh (taken from the inside of the swimming trunks) and a layer of black knit polyester cut out from an old pair of stockings.  I feel fantastic that I'm recycling all this stuff!
BEFORE PICTURE: