Little Bags

I've been organizing again. Well, not organizing in the classic sense, but lets say moving the piles around. And I've come across lots of soft, springy fabrics and trims. I decided they would be great for little girls' Spring/Easter bags. I made a design that is lightweight and easy to carry, and can double as an Easter basket or gift bag.
It's important to me that these are one of a kind, so each has its own style. And since
they are small, I've been able to use some of my small pieces of material. I'll be listing them in my Etsy Shop as they are completed.

You can do that?

You can make an XL tee shirt into a size small? Yes, you can. And it's easy.

Many times you have tee shirts (often giveaways for events, etc.) that are WAY too big. They just print a batch of XL and figure they will fit everyone. These shirts either get worn as sleepwear or sit around waiting to become rags.
But often the shirt is from something special you've done and you want to wear it. The answer is to make it your size. And you can do that! This is something I've done for my daughter, with shirts from some of her college events, making the shirts a part of her wardrobe rather than a gift to Goodwill.

This is a great job for a serger, but I use a zigzag stitch on my regular machine and it works fine. This could also be done by hand by any competent stitcher.
View step by step photos here.

Your most important tool is a shirt that fits; this will be your pattern.

1. Cut off the sleeves of the big shirt at the seams.
2. Lay the pattern shirt on the shirt folding sleeves up and out of the way. Match the shoulder seams of the two shirts.
3. Cut shirt approx. 1/4 inch larger than pattern at each side, and 3/4 inch longer at bottom.
4. Turn shirt inside out (right sides together in sewing talk) and pin the side seams from armpit to bottom.
5. Sew along pinned sides 1/4 inch from edge. Then turn up the bottom and stitch around hem.
6. For sleeves the shortening is done from the cut edge, you will keep the hem as is. Use pattern shirt to cut sleeves, match hems and cut top edge 1/4 inch longer. Then cut seamed edge to narrow the sleeve leaving 1/4 inch to sew
7. Turn sleeve right sides together and stitch underarm seam.
8. Turn sleeve right side out and pin inside shirt armhole opening. Match seam of sleeve with seam of shirt, make sure you have right sides together. Shirt is inside out, sleeve is rightside out, see photo.
9. Sew around pinned sleeve seam. This is not as hard as it looks. Just follow the edges around, and since fabric stretches it goes together easily.
10. Last step, cut out that size label!

Do Something New

I recently started taking a pottery class. It's something I haven't done in many years, and when I did it I was never very good. Well, I'm still not producing anything very special, and you won't see photos of my work in this post. But, it is a fun, soothing, and destressing activity. I look forward to the class and I tell people all about it. I get to the studio and form blob after blob for my drying shelf.
Doing something new is remarkably invigorating. It seems to get a new part of the brain going. It doesn't matter what the activity is, it's the change that matters. So, do something new and give yourself a boost.
This beautiful bowl is by LAS Designs, clearly not a student in Pottery 101.