Pavophobia and Trampoline Punk: A Senior Year Trashion/Refashion Show

Once upon a time, there was a four-year-old who was super into drawing pictures of pretty outfits she'd thought up. She also like to take her mom's fabric scraps and cut and tape them into fancy clothes for her Barbies. 

One day her mom, who still got the local newspaper because it hadn't yet been sold to a conglomerate whose sole goal was to bleed its assets, saw a call for entries for the town's second annual Trashion/Refashion Show. It invited people to design their own outfits from trash and repurposed materials, and if they were accepted they'd get to model them in a runway show benefiting the local sustainable living center. It seemed like a good project for a homeschooling preschooler and her crafty mom, so the mom asked her kid if she wanted to design an outfit and help sew it and be in a real fashion show.

The kid did.

This was her design:

This is what her mom sewed:

And this is the kid getting her photo taken right before she walked the runway:

That was fourteen years ago, y'all. I don't even know how this didn't go the way of gymnastics and aerial silks and Animal Jam and horseback riding and My Little Pony and Girl Scout summer camp. But every year, leaving the theatre at the end of the Trashion/Refashion Show, the kid would be talking about what she wanted to design the next year, and then every next year when the call for entries came out, there she'd be drawing her design for me, and after the age of nine helping me sew it, and after the age of eleven sewing the whole thing, and after the age of thirteen taking over writing out and submitting her entry, too.

So somehow the years have passed until now, along with her Spring ballet recital and our Girl Scout troop's Bridging/Graduation party, this show has become another last thing for her Senior year of high school.

It's a weird feeling to be a secondary character in someone else's good old days. 

As the kids are getting properly grown up now, I've realized that these kid years are my good old days, too. So because this is also MY last Trashion/Refashion Show, or at least the last one that I'll experience this way, I asked the kid if I could go back to our roots and design and sew an outfit for her to model. She said yes, and I immediately set about discovering for myself how inadvisable it is to sew a garment for a human to wear out of a broken trampoline. 

Like, that webbing is SHARP!

This is what it looks like when the kid and I are both working on our entries on the same weekend, because we both procrastinated until the very last minute.

I ended up cutting it with the kitchen shears because I was too afraid to let any of my proper scissors near it, and tbh now I probably need a new pair of kitchen shears. The plastic threads in the cut ends of the webbing cut ME the entire time I was working with it, and they poked through all the seams and cut the kid until I covered every single inside seam with duct tape.

And there was only a certain amount of sewing I could possibly do by machine--

--before I had to just get out the hand-sewing needle and embroidery floss and resign myself to hand-stitching all the fussy parts while cutting myself up even more thoroughly.

The dog looks perturbed in the below photo, but even with all that I was happy as a clam, making a big mess in the family room in parallel with the kid making her own big mess. These ARE the good old days!

Remember that skull quilt block from November? I didn't know at the time what I was going to do with it, but I did happen to sew it from a thrifted blouse and my old wedding dress--

--which made it a refashioned item, which means that I could applique it onto the back of the trampoline webbing dress jacket. And then I cut the bodice off the wedding dress, turned it backwards so the cool fake buttons went down the front, added some spaghetti straps, and that became the dress shirt for the garment:

The trampoline webbing pants were a nightmare to sew (and a nightmare to wear, ahem, if you happen to enjoy being able to bend at the hips and knees) and I kept them super simple, but I did cut the triangle rings out of the webbing and hook them together to make a chain to add a little detail to the otherwise plain black:

And here's my Trampoline Punk!

Trampoline Punk image via Bloomington Trashion

Here's the kid's own design, Pavophobia:

Pavophobia image via Bloomington Trashion

Pavophobia image via Bloomington Trashion

And then one last walk down the runway together for old times' sake:

Model/Designer Walk image via Bloomington Trashion

Some of the kid's friends always come to watch her show, and afterwards I always take them all out for ice cream. Because this was also the Eclipse Weekend, though, every place was paaaaacked even at 9:30 pm on a Sunday. It was bananas! But finally we found a spot where the line at least wasn't out the door, and although they were out of waffle cones they still had one last waffle bowl left, and then a giant group left and we were all able to wedge ourselves around a little table in the back corner behind a bunch of local college students whose friends had all come to town for the eclipse:

The kids mostly talked amongst themselves but because they're nice kids and they've all known me since they were seven, they kindly included me in their conversation, as well. A year from now I'm definitely going to have to find my own friends to eat rainbow sherbet with on a certain Sunday night in mid-April, but this one last year I just enjoyed the heck out of it, like you're supposed to do in the good old days.

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Tutorial: Quilt-As-You-Go Scrappy Bookmarks

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

Use up your scraps while making this cute and useful quilt as you go scrappy bookmark!

Y’all know how much I love myself a DIY bookmark! So when I decided that I wanted to give out a few Valentine’s Day gifts this year, it wasn’t hard to settle on these as my gift. I’d just spend a few minutes sewing each one, swing by the Half-Price Books Outlet and pick out a book each person would like, add in a little store-bought candy, write a note, and just like that, Valentine’s Day is won!

Tangent: it would have been cool if I’d decided to send out Valentine’s Day gifts more than 26 hours before I absolutely needed to put those gifts in the mail, but whatever. A manufactured emergency caused by procrastination happens to be my crafting sweet spot!

Being as I had a few hundred other things I needed to accomplish in that 26-hour window, ahem, I made the quickest and easiest bookmarks I could think of. Coincidentally, they’re also the absolute cutest, and happily, they’re also made ENTIRELY from scrap! I love how sewing with scraps lets me revisit my favorite fabrics in new scenarios. I am down to less than a fat quarter of that super cute pink skulls fabric, and so far there has not been a single square inch wasted.

The quilt as you go method is a terrific way to sew extremely quickly, and combined with how small these finished products are, you’ll be surprised at how soon you have an adorable bookmark in your hands. They sew up so quickly that I always make tons extra, because otherwise it’s barely worth the time it takes to set up my sewing machine!

Supplies

Here’s what you need to make your own scrappy bookmarks:

• backing fabric. I like something a little heavier/stiffer with no stretch for this. I used scrap Eco-fi polyester felt, but I also like denim, canvas, and interior design fabrics.
• front fabrics. Quilting cotton works best. I really like combining fussy cut novelty prints with solids, but you should do you!
• ribbon. I considered a few different ribbons, but then I discovered an entire package of vintage rickrack hiding in my bias tape bin!
• cutting/sewing supplies. Among other miscellaneous supplies, I used a gridded quilting ruler, a rotary cutter, my sewing machine with a universal needle, and a seam roller.

Step 1: Measure and cut the backs and the ribbon.

I think 2″x6″ is the perfect size for a bookmark, so I cut my felt to that size.

I eyeballed the rick rack, but all of my pieces were about 10″ long.

Step 2: Begin the quilt as you go method.

Fold the ribbon in half and place it towards the top of the backing fabric, with the ends overlapping the backing fabric by at least 1″ and the loop coming off the top.

Choose your first fabric scrap and place it at the top of the bookmark, sandwiching the ribbon between the fabric scrap and the back. I like to line up the top of the scrap with the top of the back to save myself trimming it later.

Stitch across the top of the bookmark, backstitching over the ribbon. You can stitch off the bookmark back on both sides, as you’ll definitely be trimming that extra scrap fabric away. Don’t worry about backstitching, because you’ll edge stitch this entire bookmark later, and that will lock these stitches.

Step 3: Continue to quilt as you go.

Choose another fabric scrap, and place it right side together with the first scrap. Stitch across the bookmark to sew it down.

Fold the scrap fabric back so that the right side faces up and the seam is hidden, then press down with the seam roller or an iron (don’t forget to lower your heat if you’re also sewing with felt!). If you prefer, you can trim the excess fabric away every time you sew a new scrap, or you can wait and trim the entire bookmark at one time.

Continue to add new scraps to the bookmark by placing them facedown on a previous scrap, sewing them together, and then unfolding and pressing. Feel free to play with your placement by setting scraps at fun angles, and to fussy cut novelty prints to show off your favorite elements.

Step 4: Edge stitch to finish the bookmark.

When you’ve covered the entire bookmark back with quilted fabric, edge stitch around the perimeter of the bookmark.

My favorite thing about these particular bookmarks is how easy it is to make them all look completely different. I didn’t think I even had that many pink fabrics, but look how many different pink bookmarks I made!

I’m already mentally compiling my list of green fabrics that I might have kicking around my scraps bin, because don’t you think that all the kids in my Girl Scout troop would also love their own quilted bookmark as a Bridging gift?

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Sew a Solar Eclipse Bunting from Stash Fabric

 

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World.

This solar eclipse bunting ensures clear skies for April 8!

Hey, who’s got a sewing machine and a total solar eclipse happening in her literal backyard this Spring?

I mean, maybe you, but DEFINITELY me!

Y’all, I am REVVED UP for this solar eclipse. I have been excited about it for nearly a decade by now, and ESPECIALLY excited about it for the last seven years! I’m going to have a yard full of people, I’ve got enough eclipse glasses for everybody, there will be four different kinds of lemonade on offer, and there will be solar eclipse decorations if I have to sew every single stitch myself.

Which, considering that Party City doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo, I probably will!

My first official decoration is this solar eclipse bunting sewn from upcycled blue jeans and stash fabric. Y’all know how much I love buntings, so this choice shouldn’t surprise you. And thanks to the easy templates I used and my sewing machine’s superpower that is the zigzag stitch, I was able to take this bunting from concept to completion in half an afternoon. Here’s how!

Here’s what I used to make this bunting, but remember that I sewed entirely from my stash. So if you’ve got something different in YOUR stash, go ahead and use what you’ve got!

• bunting templates. I folded an 8.5″x11″ piece of paper into an isosceles triangle for the pennants, and a wide-mouthed Mason jar lid ring for the suns and moons. For the total eclipse flare, I traced a sun onto the fabric, then drew the flares by hand around it.
• fabric. I used denim (specifically all-cotton old blue jeans) for the pennants, stash flannel for the suns, and stash Kona cotton for the moons. The eclipse flare is upcycled from an old canvas tote bag.
• bias tape. Double-fold bias tape is my favorite shortcut for sewing buntings! I buy all my bias tape from Laceking on etsy, but you can DIY this, as well.
• sewing, cutting, and marking tools. I used my Singer Heavy Duty 4411 and a universal needle for this project, but any sewing machine should be able to handle denim plus a couple of layers of cotton-weight fabric. Sharp fabric scissors are handy for cutting out details in the appliques, and I like my Frixion pens for marking, as they erase with the heat from an iron.

Step 1: Create the templates and cut out all the fabric.

I cut seven pennants out of old blue jeans using the isosceles triangle template that I cut from a piece of 8.5″x11″ paper. Because this piece is decorative, you can even use parts of the jeans with too much wear to reuse otherwise. In the photo above, check out the pennant at the top of the photo–can you see the worn-out knee there? You won’t even notice it in the completed bunting!

To make the suns and moons, I cut six yellow circles and seven black circles using a wide-mouth Mason jar lid ring as my template.

To make that eclipse flare that will be part of the center pennant, I upcycled an old striped canvas tote. I traced the sun template where I wanted the flare to be centered, then traced the pennant around it so that I could hand-draw the flare to fit the pennant.

Step 2: Applique all the Sun pieces.

I put yellow thread in my sewing machine, and set it to a zigzag stitch with a length of 2 and a width of 3. I eyeballed the placement of the suns, laying out all the pennants in a row so I could make sure that they matched, then appliqued them to the pennants.

Appliqueing the flare to the pennant required a bit more finesse, but a confident beginner should be able to do it. Just go slowly and don’t forget to make sure the needle is down when you rotate the fabric.

Step 3: Applique the Moons to the pennants.

I switched out the thread in the sewing machine to black, and went ahead and stitched the moon to the center of the flare, since I knew exactly where it was supposed to be.

To place the rest of the moons, I laid out the entire bunting on the floor so I could eyeball the whole thing at once.

If you’re in the Northern hemisphere for the 2024 eclipse, you’ll be facing South, and the Moon will be coming from the West, so we read this bunting from right to left. The Moon passes across the Sun on a diagonal from top right to bottom left. I placed the Moon pieces on each pennant to mimic the process of the eclipse, roughly trying to make them symmetrical without getting too pedantic about it.

Using the same sewing machine settings, I appliqued all the Moons to the pennants. Notice that the Moon goes off the pennant a few times. I trimmed all that away.

Step 4: Staystitch around the pennants, then add bias tape.

I switched back to yellow thread, then staystitched the perimeter of each pennant flag with a straight stitch at a length of 3. This will keep the denim from fraying beyond where I want it to, as well as stitching down the edges of the moons that I trimmed.

I measured and stitched shut approximately 12″ of bias tape, then started adding the pennants and stitching them into the fold of the bias tape. At the end of the pennants, I continued stitching the bias tape to itself for another 12″, then cut it.

I tied both ends of the bias tape into an overhand knot, and my bunting was finished!

My bunting is already installed over my nicest window. After April 8, there won’t be another total solar eclipse that hits the United States until 2033 (anyone want to meet me in Alaska to watch it?), but instead of putting this bunting into storage until then, I’m kind of thinking that I’ll find another place to install it permanently–perhaps on my porch? It’s too pretty not to look at every day!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!

Sew Nesting Fabric Baskets from Stash Fabric

I originally posted this tutorial on Crafting a Green World in 2023.

Nesting fabric baskets make sorting and storing all your stuff super easy!

I’m willing to admit that I have too much stuff. But I mean, everyone has too much stuff, right? Please tell me that we ALL have too many books and mugs and LEGO sets and gel pens and plastic dinosaur figurines and interesting rocks… and they’re all important!

Other than getting rid of some of my stuff–which I am NOT willing to do!–I feel like keeping stuff contained and organized goes a long way towards making my house look only charmingly cluttered. Pile of interesting rocks on the bathroom counter? Put them in a cute fabric basket, and now they’re decorative! Soda can pop tops all over the kitchen table because the teenager “collects” them? That little fabric basket is the new pop top holding area!

Last week, I showed you how to sew a single fabric basket. These nesting fabric baskets sew up just the same, but give you a lot of storage options. Sew a set in the same colorway from the same fabrics, and they’ll all match each other and your decor. Since they nest, they don’t take up a lot of storage space, but when you need them, you’ve got four whole baskets’ worth of storage!

To make a nesting set of four fabric baskets, you will need:

• five squares of outside fabric for each basket. You’ll need a set of five squares in each of the following dimensions: 6″x6″, 5″x5″, 4″x4″, and 3″x3″. I generally use quilting cotton for this, although I’ve also upcycled some curtain fabric that was definitely some kind of polyester, and it turned out beautifully. The outside fabric for the set of baskets in these photos is an old pair of dress pants.
• five squares of lining fabric for each basket. You’ll need a set of five squares in each of the following dimensions: 6″x6″, 5″x5″, 4″x4″, and 3″x3″. Quilting cotton is also great for this, and it’s what I’ve used for the linings of these baskets, but I’ve also used old bedsheets or other random yardage in my stash.
• cutting and sewing supplies. Fancy supplies like a gridded cutting mat, clear gridded quilting ruler, and plastic sewing clips are fun to have, but you can work with any ruler, straight pin, and sharp scissors.

Step 1: Measure and cut the fabric for the four nesting fabric baskets.

For the 6″ basket, cut five 6″x6″ outside pieces and five 6″x6″ inside pieces.

For the 5″ basket, cut five 5″x5″ outside pieces and five 5″x5″ inside pieces.

For the 4″ basket, cut five 4″x4″ outside pieces and five 4″x4″ inside pieces.

For the 3″ basket, cut five 3″x3″ outside pieces and five 3″x3″ inside pieces.

Step 2: Sew the pieces of each basket into a T-shape.

In order to make these baskets look the best, you need to be REALLy precise with your seams here. If you have trouble sewing a perfect seam, consider drawing yourself a sewing line in washable ink.

You will sew each piece with a precise .5″ seam, and you will start and stop precisely .5″ from the end of each edges. I know it’s fiddly, but your baskets will look soooo nice this way!

Check out the photo below, in which I’m sewing one of the cross pieces of the T:

Here’s a zoomed-in view of where I stopped my needle:

Those precise .5″ seams allow you to use the stitching lines as your starting and stopping points for the cross pieces.

Step 3: Sew adjacent sides together to form a cube with an open top.

Sew each adjacent side together, again with a .5″ seam allowance. You can start sewing right at the top of each seam, but down at the corners, stop again .5″ from the end.

If you’ve been really precise sewing your T, you will see exactly where to stop stitching, because that’s where all the stitch lines will meet. If you overshot on a piece or two, though, just snip the stitches that went too far:

Just snip the couple of stiches that you overshot by, and you're good to go!

Step 4: Insert the lining into the outer fabric and sew a fold-over binding.

Turn the outside basket right side out, but leave the inside basket inside out. Insert the inside basket into the outside basket, and line up all the corners and side seams.

Fold the top edges down twice, so that the raw edge is encased. Pin or clip the fold in place:

Edge stitch around the binding to secure it. It gets trickier the smaller the basket is!

That’s one of the reasons why 3″x3″ is about the smallest you can go.

Look how fiddly that 3"x3" basket is to finish!

I especially love how great these baskets are for sorting projects in progress, like toys, puzzle pieces, and sewing supplies while I work. And when they’re not needed, they look so neat and tidy nested together!

These basket sets are a great stashbusting project, because you can make a set or two for every room. I used up that entire pair of dress pants making cute, useful fabric baskets for my house. My stash fabric bin is thrilled!

P.S. Want to follow along with my unfinished craft projects, books I'm reading, cute photos of the cats, high school chemistry labs, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!