Sew Happy!

... That I have my new sewing machine!

 

It was a graduation gift from my mama. :)

I have been wanting one basically since my grandma taught me to use one in like Elementary school. And now it is mine!

I got this thing yesterday, and have already gotten busy with some old clothes I found in my {overstuffed} closet. Wanna see?

 

This scarf was a pair of warm albeit large and ugly pair of sweatpants. I cut stitching off and made 4 rectangular panels {front and back of each leg}. I then took two panels, sewed them end to end, and did the same for the other. I placed these now extra long panels on top of each other, and sewed with a straight stitch all the way down the middle of the length. {Actually I sewed from end to middle seam, and again from the other end} I then pulled to top stitch by hand to scrunch the fabric from both ends, working my way to the middle, and tied off and cut the remainder thread. Voila! A new {very cozy} scarf.

Next was a tank. A tank I love. It fits me perfectly, is soft and just perfect. 

Except for these little guys that decorated the top:

 They were starting to fall off, and they weren't even that great looking to begin with. Here is the shirt after I took a seam cutter to it. {I don't have a before picture, I thought about it too late.}

Cute right? 

But now it needed something else. A little extra to make it a loved item in my closet once again.

 Flowers? Yes please. I love them. I love real ones, fabric, origami. Doesn't really matter. flowers are wonderful.

So let me add some to my newly stripped tank:

Like? I love!

I used a {newly bought yesterday} rotary cutter to slice up an old tee into strips. This tee also happened to be grey. The same exact grey. This was totally meant to happen :)

These strips I sewed down the middle and scrunched, just like my new scarf above. I then loosely spiraled them and placed them on my tank. I then hand sewed them on, which took all of 10 minutes. 

With summer finally kicking in here in Oregon, I will say this is going to be worn a little too much :)

Hopefully this is the first of many sewing adventures I go on with my new sewing machine as I teach myself {with a little help from all of those other crafty blogs out there!} to make more lovely things!

Where's Waldo? {or reasons to decorate your grad cap}

This is what my graduation will look like this Saturday. Yup, I get to walk into Reser Stadium, among countless others, sit, stand, receive my diploma without my name even being called. And friends and family are coming to witness this..... or try to. 

I debated long and hard about decorating my cap. I didn't for high school, and I was really considering against it again. 

Until I talked to my professor. She explained that decorating a cap is a nice way for your friends and family to find you in the crowd of black. Good point.

So my new decision was how. How on earth was I going to decorate my cap. In a way that both reflected my personal style, and that I wouldn't cringe at later on in life when I reminisce over pictures. My plan?

Keep it simple, sweetie.

Yup, that is my plan, and let me show you how I interpreted it:

Oh yeah, did I mention that my college {Health and Human Sciences} has pink tassels for its "school color"? Yes, yes it does!

I wanted something that wasn't necessarily permanent, so this is actually scrapbook paper. I found this awesome paper a couple years ago at either Michaels or Creative Crafts, a local Corvallis craft store. It is already a cut design, letting the black cap show through, to create an awesome black and white top! The paper was a 12x12, so I simply used a pencil to follow the curves so it fit inside the cap's perimeter, and cut away. It was handy as well, because I was able to center a part of the cut part right over the tassel button, so no extra cutting was needed there! 

After doing this, I decided the cap needed just a little something to pull the look together. So I pulled out ribbon that I was originally going to use for my graduation announcements {and later decided against}, and used it as a border. This I also got at Creative Crafts. This little ribbon shows off my school colors {Powered by Orange!} while matching nicely with the vividness of the pink tassel. Both the ribbon and paper were attached with double stick tape, but I must admit glue dots would be MUCH easier. Unfortunately I did not have any on hand right then, and I am an impatient artist. 

Now my family can find me among the masses with their zoom lens cameras and binoculars!

What do you think? What did or will you do for a graduation cap?