Here is something i have been wanting to do and finally got a chance. There are some finishing touches i need ideas for but i think my son loves it so far.

He had one of those pre made costume from the store and loved it but wll not get to wear it again so not to part with it i am turning it into a cuddle pillow. It is kinda half stuffed animal but pillow. I started by taking apart the legs and elastic removal. then i stuffed the hands, sewed shut, stuffed the arms and sewed them shut. i stitched up the bottom where the legs were to make them square, stuffed the body, sewed it shut And now i have stitched some of the head and stuffed it. I have left the mouth open to possible add a felt mouth or tongue or something. not sure yet. i also have to mold the head better so any ideas ar welcome. !!!

I am in love with the unusual looking kind of clothing. If anyone remembers junkyard wars then you will remember the futureistic recycled looking clothes they wore there.  I have a facination with this and have founs someone to be inspired by. Her high collars are very inspired and the mixtures of materials and cuts it to die for. She has a very keen eye when it comes to embelishments and this makes me so jealous!

the pic links to myspace page for Jodito and then there is her craftster link here 

maybe i will be ambitious soon and try my hand in the remaking of clothes that would be less of a standard and more into the unusually hip :) 

I have been wanting to organize all of the cllection of mail that lies on our half wall. It seems that no matter how many times i clean it it get messy again, but here is a solution i want to try.

Photo from : Ann at all things handmade  

Ideas for adjustments would be

-make the sides more rigid so it does not fold and hang oddly.

-make straps or pockets for cell phones and other items with chargers,

-make a way to have the charger attatched.

-decorate to match interior..

-possible place to have live plant :) 

I just came across this blog that someone pointed out in a comment and i read about how she made fabric blocks.

see the article and blog here 

Picture BY: nikki on http://craftnerd.blogspot.com 

I think this will be a great idea to add to my cache of things to do for the month of recon!!! 

Now that i got your attention I will show you how!

things i used..

Breastfeeding cooler bag  (sometimes they come as a gift from the hospital)

scissors, needle, thread, sewing machine, all that kind of stuff.  

sillicone adhesive caulking.

marker

drill and small bit

nips for cutting heavy plastic  

old cell phone holder with belt clip or anything like this.

All of that made my husband a beer cozy good for wearing on your belt in istuations where you have no cup holder.. like mowing the lawn …

also this cozy will keep the beer cool and the sweat off the table.

 here are the bag i used and the cell phone clip i used. 

 I started by cutting the plastic that is around the clip so i just had the clip .. i made sure there is enough parts of the plastic to drill holes to use it to attatch to the cozy.(hope that makes sense)

 Here is what i have left.. you can file the edges down if you choose

 Here is the part of the bag i am using .. it has a nice layer of insulation and a cool pattern for the cozy

 Using the rigid bottom of the bag i cut a piece of the cardboard that is exactly the size of the base of a standard beer bottle and then glued some of the vinyl, with the sillicon, all around †he piece of cardboard to help make the cozy more rigid on the bottom.. after i gued mine i put it under my heavy candle to help it adhear. 

 Measuring the fabric around the bottle i pinned it and set it aside…

 Using a small drill bit i drilled three holes (shown by arrows) in the clip so i can stitch it to the cozy.  

 Start by sewing half way up the cozy side inside out… cut a round piece to stitch to the bottom and attatch……you will probably have to do this by hand and make sure to double up (by folding)  the bottom of the big piece of the fabric  so that the raw edge is hidden and also it willl provide more support. 

 You can leave the top open but i found a pull close part on my bag that i attatched to the top of the cozy and stitched in place .. then turning inside out i finished it by sewingall the way up the side. 

 After finishing the seam then insert into the bottom the rigid cardboard circle to help the bottle sit on a table when in the cozy.. also stitch the belt clip by hand to the side of the cozy and there you go! functional beer cozy!

Months worth of recon begins!

I start by pulling my hair back. I do have headbands in my bathroom but i am not satisfied with their legnth, the tightness, the color, durability and so on. I like cloth headbands but they do not stay put. So.. i made my own from some maternity pants.

 Here are the maternity pants. they are a little bit more lightweight tand denim and they are stretchy so this is nice for a headband

 Keep in mind to press the fabric with an iron after almost every step to keep it nice and even. so we atart by pressing the bottom of a leg, sever the bottom hem, measure your head from middle of ear to middle of ear,  cut a rectangle leaving the inseam (one less thing to sew) but make sure to cut it 1/4 " larger around the edges to have enough room for your seam allowance. 

fold inside out and sew your seam then turn right side in pressing with iron after this step (do not mind the nasty carpet) 

Using the material from the bottom hem feed elastic through it. fold in the edge to the headband and press, insert one part of the elastic to the headband and sew in place and sew the side closed. (pic shows the wrong placement .. should be in the middle of the edge.

Then place on your head and determine the pull of the elastic and then stitch in place like you did with the previous side.  

 Here is an add on that i thought of.

I hate headbands slipping so i had some old puffy paint that i applied and following the directions i used an iron to heat it in place .. now i have a no slip grip on the underside. I know it does not look pretty but i have been wearing it all dat and i have not had to readjust it. :) 

Finally i made somewhat of a guide. Tell me what you think!

Reconstructed clothing guide.

Why reconstruct clothes?
-to recycle
-to save money
-to lessen the amount of storage
-to clean your closet
-to make items personal and one of a kind
-to save your favorite clothing from the trash

How do you start?

In my opinion you should start small to get the hang of it. Take a piece of clothing and add something to it. A design, some trim, some kind of flair.
Or You can do something else small like take something away, take out a hem for a rough edge, take off the lace trim, take off the design.

A slightly more advanced thing to do is modifying structure. Subtract length, to sleeves, pant legs, the bottom of a shirt Subtract the size of the shirt by taking in seams. You can do other things like change the collar type of a shirt, add a collar, add a layered collar. Maybe add some sleeves, modify the type of sleeve, add fabric to the sleeves.

Then even more advanced is for more experienced sewers. You can use a pattern to make modifications, completely rework items like making one item into another.. Example, make pants into shirt, make shirt into skirt, make skirt into purse. You can even do something like cut open all seams and hems and think of the item as just plain fabric use a pattern or just freehand it.

What I do is think of something I might want or need and raid my storage for supplies to make that item. Or when i get bored I look for something in storage that I  like and see what i could make out of it.

If you get stuck just do some simple moves.. fold it, look at it, imagine it as something else, take out a seam and then look at it again, take off trim, sleeves anything else and look again .. it will come to you !

And most important!
SAVE ALL YOUR SCRAPS! things that come in handy..
trim, elastic, strips and pieces of fabric, decorative items, snaps, buttons, lace, patterns and everything else! These all could become something. even if you cannot work it as an item itself it could be an add on to another item.

I hope this might help someone make the effort to get a little creative and crafty
And if someone has any additions to this guide then please help me by sending suggestions. 

Trying once again to dress my younger one.

So many resources for fabric in our storage. I found lots of sleep pants, almost too many for my son to wear one a day for a month!

So now to make something else that he might need. I know he needs a little bit better looking clothing than the p.j.'s and cutsie baby stuff. I thought i need to start manking him something that is a little more grown up and kid looking., not baby.

I thought to myself that a vest could be the best thing because he has a lot of shirts that have that food stain that i cannon get rid of and a vest can cover that very well and extend the life of those shirts.

Now i start the easy vest from fleece sleep pants

You start this out by stripping the pants of the elastic and taking out the inseam.

Then fold the pants in half to even up the cut of the fabric. you can see in the picture where there is a part that is longer. I cut a straight line across here to make the bottom of the vest.

 Then lay the pants flat with the seams that we left to the sides. Cut a rounded collar to the back of the neck and then cut a v for the front. But if you do not have a nicely cut pair of pants you can lay a pattern or a premade vest over this to get a better cut.

Then in the next picture it shows how i folded it and pinned it for sewing but then i decided to put an edge stitch on the fabric first, but this is optional to whatever kind of fabric you are using.  you do not see the edge stiitching in the pic but  you get the idea. so fold, pin, and stitch. (order of stitching in next picture)

When you do the fold and stitch (areas for the first stitches are in red) you want to do the arms front to back or back to front. and then the v, and then for the rounded collar you might need to make some triangle cuts in the edge to make it easier to sew without pucker or bumps (this is one of the reasons we do pinning. It helps us figure out how the stitch will go before we stitch it) 

Then when it is all nice and edged you want to stitch the join seam at the shoulder (pointed out with blue arrows)

And that should be it!! if the vest is too wide then just sew a seam up both of the seams on the side to get the right fit for your child. i took mine in about a inch in total for a slightly tighter fit. If you are real patient you can try a more tailored fit for a girl's vest. Or another idea is adding buttons, but that is too complicated for me right now.

but it looked like my boy liked his vest.

Now that the weather is changing my two boys need to get a winter wardrobe. Right now there are a whole bunch of hand-me-downs sitting for my little one but his size is only fitting for my oldest's old summer clothes. Now I have been going through all the clothes trying to make some of those summer clothes a little warmer to wear.

Now before anyone says " Why don't you dress them in layers?" well my answer would be, You try it! My youngest is just like my oldest used to be. You cannot get him to hold still for a diaper change without thwarting my efforts and doing a naked baby run down the hall. How am i expected to get him to hold still for diaper, pants, undershirt, overshirt, and coat????!!!

SO now on my first of the series.

Cute polo, and old pair of sleep pants. 

I have taken the pants apart to use them for extending the polo for the upcomming cooler weather.

I hope this gives people a little idea on how we can use the things we have. You know.. save a little money.. save a cute shirt… Be happy to get rid of some storage :) 

I did promise to have the tutorial up yesterday but the fates were against me again. But through a lot of work i got it all ready for everyone.

But please do not laugh at the crappy drawings and the lack of terminology.

But here is the tutorial to remake frumpy p.j.'s