The gift that keeps on giving -- my old sweater yields some cute coin purses!

I just can't keep my hands off that old sweater of mine!  The scraps left after making 3 messenger bags were only big enough for these cute coin purses.  Just big enough to hold credit cards, gift cards, or some change, these would be the perfect little extra for your purse.

I lined these in the same pretty floral as the messenger bags.  Making them was straight-forward except for having to turn the purse right side out after sewing.  Closing that open edge by hand was tricky but top stitching covered up any unevenness in the seam.

It's done!!

The fruit rug is, at last, complete.  I took it up to our lake house this weekend and got the binding sewn on.  Right now, I have the rug hanging on a dowel over our fireplace screen.  The plan is to hang it over the fireplace once our addition is complete in October.  In the meantime, I'm just enjoying looking at it.

Many lessons learned on this one. 

1. Greens can be tricky.  This rug had about 5 different types of leaves and distinguishing between them was daunting.  I'm still not 100% happy with the pineapple leaves (a little too dark) but I'm moving on.
2. Borders can be fun!  This border gave me an opportunity to use every last scrap of lots of random yellows.  I still have lots of the gold, but that's a color I use all the time.
3. Remember your color wheel!  The urn took 3 tries.  But, with all the red and yellow in the rug, blue became the obvious choice.

I'm still plugging away at the chicken rug.  One chicken to go and lots of border, unfortunately.  I've put it aside for awhile because I don't have a lot of time in the evening to work.  After baseball season is over, I'll pick it back up.  In the meantime, I need to get some knitting going!

More cotton sweaters reincarnated!

Another cotton sweater finds new life!  I am truly getting such a kick out of making these bags!  You remember in the spring I made purses for my son's teachers out of (in order) an old poncho, an old sweater, and a pile of old t-shirts.  Those Goodwill people are never going to see me again!

This time, I repurposed an old friend.  I have always loved this sweater.  The colors were all so rich and worked so well together despite the range of hues.  You have everything from bittersweet orange to plum to bright red to olive green.  Even my husband said, "Why are you cutting that up?  That's a nice sweater!"  Ahh, nice...but dated and tired. 

I ended up with three messenger bags and a couple of change purses.  My method was similar to the quilt motif sweater:  use an overlock stitch to secure the threads, and then cut away.  Below are pictures of one of the bags I made.  I listed it on my Etsy shop this afternoon:  http://www.ragingwool.etsy.com/ . 

More photos will follow of the other bags.  And...I've figured out what my next project will be:  Kindle Cozies!!  I can't wait.