Clip on Tie Projects

My sweet friend Jennifer surprised me with a bag full of wonderful vintage things that she said I could have to "make stuff"! Oh boy, I was so excited!

Just look at this pile of wonderful clip on ties! The fabrics, the patterns, the colors... oh my!

So many ideas ran through my head as I gazed at each colorful design. I could put several together and create a kind of peek-a-boo slip that would add a touch of chic to the bottom of a skirt. I could sew several of them together and create a retro purse. Hmmm.... all good possibilities, but I finally decided to sit down and see how many things I could re-purpose out of just one tie.

So I picked this one:

And I cut it into 3 different accessory pieces. (I'm still perfecting the details and may be able to get one more piece out of it so when I do I will post a tutorial).

For now, here's what I made:

A clip-on Phone Case

A Pen and Pencil Holder

A Mini Wallet/Card Carrying Case

Front View

Back View

What would you do with these great clip-on ties?

5 Days of Art - Part 1: Sewing

Sew.... last week when both my sweet girls were away with grandparents and my husband was at football practice I got to drag art & sewing supplies out all over the house and just create to my hearts content, without a single interruption.

Oh my goodness. Now you guys know, I love my babies and I was truly elated to have them back .....but that quiet "me time" was sooo much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed.

I did mend a few things, hem a dress, and repair a wind suit jacket but the really fun stuff was in altering some of my shirts.

Since shirt style trends are longer these days I've had a few shirts that were cute but too short just taking up space in my closet for a while. I decided to take two of them and see what I could create with some simple changes.

This is what the first shirt looked like before. It's a lovely soft material in a deep eggplant purple with a light lavender camesol attached underneath.

 I have a basket full of old lace and trim pieces that I pull out every once in a while for projects. I decided to use the lace to add length to the shirt and embellish it.

 Layer number one.

 And a second layer, because the first one just didn't feel like enough. ;)

 Then with the same lace, I scrunched and wrapped and stitched until I had a full flower. I cut out a circle from a piece of soft white fabric and sewed on a pin so that the flower could be removed from the shirt for washing. It can also be used separately on a hat or different outfit.

 In one of my jars of buttons (oooh I love buttons!) I found some pearelescent pieces that detached from their gold rings.

 So I took several different sizes and glued them to the center of my flower along with a couple of tiny silver pieces.

 And here you can see it all put together, a lovely longer embellished shirt.

 I also had a green shirt that I did something similar to. I used part of an old skirt for this one, adding a layer to the shirt's length and then using a few strips from the same fabric to create little rosettes of varied sizes. I did sew the rosettes to this shirt instead of making three individual pins.

I always love these kind of wearable art projects.

More to come tomorrow from my 5 Days of Art   .... on to another creative medium.