A Little Thrifting

It's been a busy few days lately with little time for crafting. However, since we last spoke, I have now seen the band Foreigner (and can now proudly say I've heard "Cold As Ice" in person!), and today I enjoyed a lovely breakfast at The Original Pancake House with a former student who is sadly moving away to Texas. Despite all the hubbub, I was still able to squeeze in a little thrifting, and I took a few pictures to share.

I bought this little canister filled with old pins for 50 cents. I love the design and the striking colors!

My guess is this once held typewriter ribbon from the writing on the back side

I picked up this little gem from a church thrift store for 50 cents as well. A little web sleuthing makes me think this book is from the early 1900s; apparently it was printed in Bavaria. It is in rough shape overall, with the binding almost completely ripped away from the front cover. But I just loved the sassy title and the bold graphic of the maiden! There's also one vividly colored illustration opposite the title page.

I was also excited to find this half slip pattern from the company Sew Lovely. I only have a handful of patterns from this company, and this one was new for me.

This small pamphlet was marked 99 cents, and was hiding behind the magazines at the Salvation Army. I was most interested in the blue cottage basket, as seen in the upper left hand corner, which I thought could be inspiration for my own Christmas village.

The last goodie I wanted to show you today was this mail order kitty cat pattern from Women's Day Magazine, 1972. I believe they charged me 50 cents. This pattern has not one, not two, but eight different kitty patterns! Can you imagine my excitement?! :-)

DIY Padded Seat belt Guard

Do you ever feel like your car seat belt is choking you? A padded guard can fix that! One look at my old seat belt guards was enough reason to make a new pair. The driver's side in particular looked manhandled. I'm a little ashamed to share this grungy picture:

Here's the new pair. I used a designer print, intentionally splitting the doily pattern in half. You only need one guard per seatbelt; I didn't bother making any for the backseat. The guard is made with two rectangles of fabric that have been interfaced--for the outside, I used a stiff fusible ironed to the gray Amy Butler print, and for the inside (which is not seen), I used fusible fleece on ivory muslin. Velcro runs alongside the edges to wrap the guard around the seat belt. It sounds a lot more confusing than it is!

Just in case you're still confused by my description, here's an action shot:

 

DIY Scarf Camera Strap

In effort to take more pictures, I've been trying to carry around my camera. I've been using the original strap that came with it which I never liked because the words "Nikon" were printed all over it--I felt like a walking advertisement! A web search yielded some awesome results, like my original inspiration, this scarf-turned-camera-strap, or this one that my Mom sent me that uses fabric strips and dog collars.

The most difficult part of this project was how the heck was I going to attach my strap to my camera? I loved the look of the first tutorial, but there was no way I could use metal D-rings because Nikon uses a thin buckled strap made of webbing to connect to the camera. The 2nd link seems more on mark, but I didn't see the tutorial until after I had already made mine. Using dog collars to connect the strap to the camera is clever!

In the end, I created a scarf from fabric I loved, gathering both scarf ends into a leather tube I made from leftover scraps. I cut thin straps from leather the same width as the original webbing, flattened my leather tube, then tapered the tube end to fit my leather straps. To secure, I sewed around the perimeter of the leather tube and in a "X" shape to hold it all tight. I did recycle the plastic buckle from my original strap and used leather because I didn't have webbing the right width on hand, but if I was to do this again, I would follow the tutorial above with the dog collar.

Here's a picture of the fabric I used. It's this lightweight silky floral print on a black background that I think is from the 70s? I don't know, but I LOVE IT! :-) I picked it up for a few dollars at Amvet's thrift store:

 Here's a picture of the strap in action. The length is long enough to wear it around my neck, or sling the camera across my body. It's not perfect, but I really like it! :-) And sorry for the blurry morning mirror picture!!

   

DIY Turbie Twist

As someone with long hair, I'm a fan of the Turbie Twist. Turns out, they are not that hard to replicate. All you need is your sewing machine, an old towel, and elastic. I used coordinating elastic to match my towel, but a hair elastic would work in a pinch. Turn your old turbie inside out and use it as a pattern for a new twist. If you use a vintage bath towel as I did, you can line up your edges with the towel edges, so there's no hemming required either. Yay! I serged the inside edges for a clean finish, but a normal zigzag stitch works too.  An easy ten minute project to looking very vintage glamorous post-bath! ;-)

 

Quilt For Baby Elsa

My dear friend Bri had her baby girl, Elsa, on Saturday, June 9th at 8:02PM. Thankfully, I was able to finish up her baby blanket just in time for my visit back home last week. Phew!

Here's a few pictures of the top before finishing:

 I loved picking the colors, but my favorite part was the running stitches I did on each white panel by hand. It was a little bit time consuming, but I love the wonky handmade stitches, especially for a baby quilt.

Hope you have many sweet dreams, Elsa! Welcome, little one! :-)