Scrap Buster #3 - Personal Progress Values Bag

I am an Activity Day leader for girls ages 8-11 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  It's really fun and the girls are amazing.  One fabulous girl is graduating in a week because she is turning 12.  She is moving on to the 12-18 year old group of girls in Young Women and she will be starting Personal Progress, which is really exciting (and I have a feeling she will looove going through the activities in there).  The sad thing is she is leaving us.  Luckily we still get to see her every Sunday!  As a little goodbye gift, I decided to make her a bag.  Of course I decided this about an hour before her goodbye party started.  After 5 (frenzied) minutes of looking through bags on Pinterest, I decided to go for a floppy bag.  It closes without closures and it's a quick, basic structure.  

I ended up choosing to make the body with the 8 colors representing the Personal Progress Values (Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity and Virtue).  The colors are white, blue, red, green orange, yellow, purple and gold.  I had the blue through purple fabrics left over from my WhirlyGig Quilt.  

The gold and white were other scraps, not quilting cotton.  I decided to put a band of those on the top of the other colors, one on each side of the bag.  The strap is from webbing that I had picked up at a thrift store.  It's sewn into the sides where the rainbow and top block of color meet.  The inside is just black quilting cotton.  

This bag was designed, cut and sewn (and last minute photographed) in 45 minutes.  I'm pretty proud of myself.  It's not perfect, but I didn't use a single pin (most obvious issue is the puckered white fabric, but it's quaint because it was homemade, right?)

I hope when she uses this bag it will be a regular reminder of all the amazing qualities she has and is working to strengthen.  She already said she wanted to use it for her Sunday scripture bag.  I love when what I make is used.  

See you soon! (I promise!)

(With projects that have been completed and just need pictures added to the posts)

Project #8

Drab to Fab

I saw this really beautiful cardigan one day and decided the fabric was too great to leave. But it is a stretch knit, which I avoid working with, so instead of totally restructuring it and turning it into a bag, I went for an easy fix. The original size was XXL (and I am a small).

So I made it a permanent wrap. I tacked the bottom corners to the opposite seam and then sewed the front two panels together at the bottom. It's still baggy, but more fashionably so now. Now I just need to get more into wearing cardigans.

Projects #6 and #7

Petals to the Metals

So I had a Scrap Night a little while ago to get rid of the duffel bag full of scraps that I own. Didn't make a dent in the fabric but some pretty flowers were created. It was a night full of experimentation and this is what I came up with.

The first was a slightly triangularly shaped fabric that I twisted and curled around itself into a flowerish shape.

The next is my favorite. It was an old mens shirt with vertical stripes. I cut it into strips, folded the strips in half so the seam was in the back and then lay them on top of each other at varying angles. I love it with the little pink button in the center.

So at the moment I just stick a bobby pin in the excess fabric in the back and pin them in my hair. And I probably wont ever do anything more permanent because hey, it works!