Another Scrap Challenge update: Skirt!

Fabric: free from Ponytails. Thread: on hand. Package of no-roll elastic: from Wal-mart. Sewing level: very easy.

2016 Scrap Challenge, Update

Upper left corner: a large piece of fabric in a leaf  print. It's pretty, but pale; not something I'd use for clothes.

But it's fine as a tablecloth! I cut the long piece in half, then cut one of the halves in half as well so that there wouldn't be one seam running up the middle. I sewed the three pieces back together, and then hemmed it. Not hard.

On the far right of those yarn balls: Bernat Softee Chunky Twists, in "Tangerine Twist." What to do with that?

Mini Gift Bag, only I used it for a springy bunch of flowers.

Frugal Finds and Fixes: It's Winter Now edition

Two weeks into 2016, the weather has been a string of snowfalls followed by lots of shovelling. I don't ski or sled; my idea of enjoying winter is staying warm indoors.

On a whim, I downloaded the January decluttering calendar from Home Storage Solutions 101, and I've been trying to keep up with its 15-minute cleaning missions. That isn't necessarily a frugal thing, but it's a cleaning and simplifying one. It's also kind of positive when I get a string of things to declutter that already aren't cluttery. Dish towels? We could replace a few, but otherwise they're just folded in the drawer. Plastic wrap and foil? I had to restock rather than declutter those. Kitchen table? I know what she means, I've seen quite a few that could have used decluttering, but ours is usually bare. I'm sure she'll get me on some other point, though. I did clean out the plastic lids etc. (those accumulate fast), and we sent an extra casserole dish and some knives to the thrift store.
 

I got a head start on next week's cleaning-out-pantry-food missions by going through what we have, getting rid of a few things that had expired, and restocking the dry baking and soup mixes. I filled twenty plastic zipper bags with homemade muffin mix, pizza dough mix, lentil soup mix, a mixture of barley and brown rice that we use for Crockpot cereal, and so on. Again, it's not necessarily more frugal, but it does save measuring and cleanup.

We are all out of freezer meals (except for leftover chili that we're going to have tonight with a frozen pizza). I am hoping to replenish those soon.

We've kept on determinedly clearing stuff out and taking it to the thrift store. Drop-off trips usually also mean go-in-and-shop trips; we had one of those today.This is what I found: a purse for $3:

A short tan-coloured skirt for $1 (that's for summer):

And a sweater dress for $5. It's a nice colour and I do like sweater dresses, but it's much too long (I couldn't even get the whole length in the photo. Here's what I did with it. On the subject of chopping and sewing, I'm still working on my Scrap Challenge. It's not going to be all clothes!

What I did to stay frugal: I did NOT buy any of the scarves they were featuring in the front of the store, and they had some really nice ones. But the purse, the skirt, and the dress were higher on the needs-list than just frou-frou. I'll do my frou another time.

2016 Scrap Challenge #4: The other green top

Why two green tops? Well, there were two green pieces of knit fabric, one darker, one lighter, and I couldn't decide which I liked better. I made the first top with sort of cap sleeves, but this one is more of a tank style, and it's longer. The colour isn't coming through well, but (to quote Melissa Wiley's daughter), I'd call it seafoam.

And if you really want the truth, before I started messing around with the bottom of this top, trying to hem it without stretching the fabric, it was a lot longer. If at first your dress doesn't succeed...make another t-shirt.

Scrap Challenge #3: One-cut tablecloth

To make: take a large tube of pink knit fabric and cut it open to make a flat piece. Spread on table. Add another cloth to cover up the white "fault line" running across the fabric. Serve tea.

Scrap Challenge #2: Retro Hat

See the ball of denim-blue yarn hiding behind the lilac one?

It's now a Slouchy Spiral Crochet Hat.

The instructions are pretty easy to follow, although, judging by the comments, some crocheters had trouble catching on to the spiral pattern. You're working in clusters: one front post double crochet (that's what makes the ridge), then three double crochets in the next space, even if there are technically two or three spaces before the next place to put a front post stitch. If you just made the crown, the centre part with spokes, you could have a coffee coaster; if you kept increasing for a couple more rows instead of starting to work your way straight down, it could be a hot mat for the table.

I didn't have quite enough yarn on the ball to make as many rows as required, and I could see that coming, so I stopped the clusters a bit early and started on the edge. It still works. I also discovered that somehow, in spite of thinking that I must own one of every size crochet hook made (I bought them all years and years ago), I do not own a 9mm hook. So I started with a 10mm for the first few rows, and then switched to a 7mm (but worked loosely). Having made more than one unintentionally outsize hat in my time, I decided that bigger was not better this time around, and took my chances with the smaller hook. Crochet can be very forgiving.

Ponytails gave me a scrap challenge..and Project Number One

Part One

Ponytails recently decided to clean out her stuff, and she gave me a bunch of yarn and fabric--felt, knits, some other bits and pieces. "I want to see what you'll make out of those," she said.

Felt squares

Scraps of lining material

Knit fabrics, but the colours aren't showing up properly--the two in the front are pretty greens.

Part Two

I have medium sewing skills, but I am very hesitant about making clothes for myself. They just never seem to look right, and I'm always annoyed because I've wasted expensive fabric.The first piece of clothing I ever sewed was a green t-shirt in seventh-grade Family Studies (sewing and cooking class). It took weeks and I disliked it intensely (both the sewing and the t-shirt). Most other pieces of clothing I have sewn for myself have not been what you'd call great successes either.

This morning I sewed a green t-shirt from one of Ponytails' fabric pieces. I used these directions for a 15-Minute DIY Party Shirt, tracing around a tank top as shown there. I guess things have come full circle.

(Note on that pattern: if you look at the photos, you can see that their side seams are sewn "inside out," on purpose, so that you get that extra fabric ruffle thing. I did not want a ruffle thing, so I sewed it right-sides-together, the traditional way.)

Stay tuned for more from the 2016 Scrap Challenge.