With the weather cooling down, I have been sorting through our drawers. I set aside a stack of old shirts and tshirts for the Goowill.  These shirts were too cute to give away, especially together so I decided to repurpose them into something new.

To start off, I picked an old striped shirt and made it into a cardigan by cutting down the middle and finishing the edges (I folded and pressed each edge in by 1/4 inch and folded again then straight stitched to finish.)

Next, I cut 1 to 2 inch sections from the sleeves of three different tshirts.

I then folded each in half and cut a scalloped pattern at the open edge to give the flower more depth.

To provide a base for the flower I ironed Misty Fuse onto a small piece of one of the tshirts and cut a two inch circle which I then ironed to the left corner of my new cardigan.

I then sewed down the center of each of the tshirt sleeve bands and pulled the loose stitches to gather them into a size that would fit in my two inch circular flower base.

Finally I pinned and stitched down the center of each gathered circle onto the flower base fitting each subsequent circle inside the next.

I cut all the loose stitches and within 30 minutes had a new cute cardigan for my daughter. 🙂

Although my girlie is getting a little tired of modeling for me (I have to pay in new books) I think she is genuinely pleased with the results.

Whenever I travel, I like to 1. explore a new city’s independent coffee shops and 2. keep my hands busy creating.

This week my family and I have been in Spokane, Washington. While here, we discovered a fun shop downtown the kids love called Boo-Radleys.

It’s next door neighbor Atticus Finch is equally as cool and has a great cafe where we planted ourselves for a bit. (LOVE the To Kill a Mocking Bird theme!)

While the kids read their books, I pulled out some African Christmas beads and elastic thread I bought a few years ago in Seattle.

I have made several African Christmas Bead Necklace/bracelets as gifts in the past and they seem to be well received. (My sister in law was wearing hers from a few years ago when we left Spokane!)

They are really easy to make! All I do is cut a piece of Elastic Thread necklace length and tie a loose knot at the end to keep the beads from rolling off. I then thread as many beads as I want for my necklace/bracelet. When I have threaded all the beads, I untie the loose knot at one end and tie the two elastic threads together securing with several knots. This thread is slick and the knots like to come undone. To prevent this, I cut the threads close to the knots then dab a small amount of superglue on the knot and allow to dry.  Within 30 minutes, I have a colorful and fun necklace/bracelet!