I ran into this little gem of an idea this morning and thought it would be fun to try ( i will post my attempt later)

But this is a wonderful way to do a small part of recycling and reusing of your junk mail or the newspaper ads we toss.  I think this could be done by most people, not too hard and it would be a good one for the older children to do too. I think things like this should be embraced more because it is something you can do with little to no money unlike a lot of the other crafts that bring you to the point of buying out an entire craft store just to get started. Please people remember, use what you have on hand first. It will save you money. then when you are done with that then move on to other things. If you stick with what you have on hand it will force you to use your imagination and expand your mind and talents.

but enought with my rant!

Here is what you'll want to see from A little hut

Turn your husband's old pants (or new if you have some spite in your heart) into a tote for yourself!

MAKE THIS…. 

 FROM THESE!

The tutorial will slowly be appearing when i get the pictures around and loaded so keep on checking back.

First you Need to think that you will be working with two rectangles that are sewn on three sides. That is a bag. Simple.

SO here is goes..

I took the scissors and the seam ripper and took the pants apart on the inseam. all the way up the crothch stopping at the bottom of the zipper.

Then I cut (horizontal in the photo) across the pants above the pockets that the arrow is pointing at, then I made the same cut below the pocket to give me a piece of fabric to work with from each leg. 

The sides are not quite straight so when I sew up the seam I have to draw what would be the straight line up the side and sew along the line drawn.  

I start that by placing the two piece of fabric face together and then pin the edges together to get the fabric to stay straight when drawing the line. (make sure to start pinning along any seams in the fabric that you want to match)  

Then you figure out where a straight line is and draw it with a fabric pen or pencil (I just used a sharpie because that is what I had on hand already but I do not reccomend it because it might bleed through the fabric and not come out)  After drawing the line, sew along it. repeating for the other side. 

 Cut off the excess from the sides and then continue to to do the line and seam for the bottom, cut off the excess from that too. 

This is what the bag looks like so far. Now it is time to cover the ugly edge at the top. I thought it would be best to use the waist band from the pants. I cut the wait band out and cut off the belt loops. I stitched along the stitching that was already in the waist band connecting it to the top of the bag. 

 And then the final step was to sew in the handles to the bag (easy) the handles were just the hem lines cut out of the legs of the pants and then sew a line back and forth to attatched them to the top of the bag. 

And here you go!

Side note

-you can do a lining, actually should but That will be for a different tutorial. I am leaving my bag with out a lining so i can sew decoration onto the bag then put on a lining.

It was raining last night. It was real odd because there was nothing but lightning and thunder for the first hour or so and then I heard the tree line start to make noise like it was blowing in the wind for about 3 minutes, but it was calm where i was standing on my back deck and then it hit me. I was holding an umbrella and it almost turned inside out on my from the blast of wind. Was kinda cool actually. But then it just stormed. I did take some slow exposure pics of the lightning but there were not many bolts, just mostly flashes in the clouds. I did get a few bolts tho,  I was experimenting in camera settings for the conditions and so they are somewhat grainy but it was still fun for me.

My first try!

I just got done turning my husband's plaid dress shirt into a cute casual shirt for me.

I do not have a step by step tutorial with photos because I had no time. i was trying to do the shirt as a trial before the boys woke up.

Here is what i did to it.

I first cut the sleeves off

turned it inside out and fitted it for a new seam against my torso. Pinned where i wanted to tailor the seam, sewed it up along the line and then cut off the excess.

Then i took the sleeves and cut them shorter, turned them so the cuff opening was in the front and then switched arms so i could use the excess part of the sleeve as a slight pucker. I took in the shoulders then attached the sleeves. and then i was done!

Here is the finished product. For my first time it is not so bad!

It makes me feel a little better about myself when you see that a LOT of what you see in the magazines and so on are just heavily edited picture. Not many people have such perfect ski and perfect bodies. There will always be something that needs improving.

Check this out.

Yadogg.com

I have been a big fan of Keeping things simple. I believe a table is to eat off of, needs to be a top with legs nothing special. We need to get away from the intricate things and get back to basics! How many people have bought a couch that has so many little puckers and curves and so on where you pay 1000's of dollars for and it goes out of style in a few years?

JUST STOP IT NOW!

I love simple. less clutter.

I am in love with this couch from Jasper Morrison LTD. I am not sure about prices for their stuff but click around on their site. Nice clean designs. Nice simple work.

It is raining where i am at and here is an idea for a rainy day. Stop thinking that it is hindering you for outdoor activities. Take a minute and stand in it. Let it drop on your face, breathe in the smell from it. Take in the moist air. Think of it cleaning you and washing away all your cares unlike any shower can. It is fresh and cold. it is crisp and has a natural feeling.

I thank a friend of mine for this. She seems to be going through a lot and we all can relate. But we just need to take tht minute. and if you do not feel some spiratual cleansing form it then you either need to do it longer or you need to take the entire day for healing activities.

But this was just my moment of peace before i have to attack my day's activities.

I thought i would share  

PLEASE PEOPLE BE A LITTLE MORE WISE ON MYSPACE!
I have had many people asking about what is going on with their accounts. They get a message, e mail or comment form someone on their friends list through their myspace account. It looks like a video. PLEASE do not click on these. Even if it says it is a video of you! there is a way these hackers get into your accounts. thes cript allows them to snag a pic of you and tries to get you to click on it and sign in.

Please, also when you are in myspace there should not be any reason for you to have to re-login even if it looks like the myspace login page.
If it asks to re login then oyu should type in www.myspace.com in your location bar and only login to THAT page. There are a lot of times you think it is genuine but it is not. IT MUST BE FROM A GENUINE MYSPACE URL!

You must make it a practice to change your password at LEAST once every three months. Try to use numbers and letter and stay away from words and meaningful numbers like birthdays and so on. Those are available to the public.

This net health update comes to you from me! your local spam fighter and hacker hater!

I would love to visit this place! Nice local location (well a couple hours away but close for Michigan)

I am looking to travel a lot in the state to find some hidden gems that are not well advertised. I will be creating a whole section dedicated to Michigan travel and of places I want to go and have bee. It will be fun. but for my first place i would like to go and stay would have to be Hog Island.

I have never heard of it but it looks like it has some cute lake side cottages for reasonable price.

From the bloggers on Painfully Hip.

They have come out with a nice highlight for those thrift store finds. I give great kudos to the blogger and the people who submit the entries. They really give you the want to wear that dress that you will not wear because it is out of "mainstream style" even though you look so good in it!

I appreciate this greatly and will not be afraid to wear my 1940's army green replica dress with the petticoat and the faux alligator open toe heels!

My favorite form their weekly picks