CD stand

We've been using these wine boxes for different things around the house, and Phil thought it would be a great idea to make them into CD stands. Mainly because I have way too many CD's around the house.

I think they look really great. And I could stain them or paint them if I want, but I think I'll just leave it like that for awhile. They are just too cool!

She liked it!

The skirt is a big hit! Alex really liked it, and it fit! Debi's going to do some hemming on it, I hope they take a picture of Alex in it. I can't wait to see her in it.

Reuse Jeans skirt

Today I spent the morning making a Skirt from an old pair of Ashley's jeans. They were hand-me-downs (or since she's younger, hand-me-ups?). Anyway, Debi G. told me that Alex needed a skirt, and she is just about my size. So I thought I'd make a skirt for her out of the pair of jeans. Above is the front of the skirt, below is the back.
I found the idea from a book called "Sew Subversive: Down and Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista" by Rannels, Alvarado, & Meng. It's a really cool book with lots of ideas on how to make your old clothes into something new and fashionable.

There's supposed to be a ruffle on the bottom, but since Alex is totally not a girlie girl, I thought I'd leave it off unless she decides she wants it on there.

What you would do is to cut the skirt to whatever length you wish, rip the inside seams open and sew down the flaps on the front. This pair of jeans had a hole in the front, so I didn't have much of a flap. Then you pretty much cut a piece of material to fit in the middle section, and sew it up.

You'd then sew a ruffle on the bottom. And the book has more detailed instructions than I am giving you. and I wanted to do more embellishing on the front. But I think I'll find another pair of jeans and do that to those.

More Bracelets

All these bracelets were partially made from reuse items. Many of the beads were from other beaded jewelry items that had been broken. The bracelet above had some beads from other jewelry pieces. The clear crystal is from a chandelier. The bracelet actually came from Michael's, on sale, and it had the Buddha charm on it already. Pretty cool!

The beads on the bracelet above were from my bead collection. It actually matched the green bead that was already on the bracelet. And Green is a lucky good fortune color, so I made this one green and white.
We found a bunch of cross charms in my friend's jewelry stash. Some were from mismatched earrings, the big cross was on a necklace. And the crystals were from a chandelier. I loved how all the charms matched.
This goldtone bracelet was actually a belt of bells. I cut it into a couple of pieces and put red and green beads on it that were in my stash. It's cool that something someone tossed can be reused into something totally different. It just looked so Christmasy to me.
And I love this star bracelet. The beads were a mix of old jewelry pieces, the chandelier pieces, and my own beads. I just love how it looks, simple not too much. Although, if it were for me, I'd put a ton more beads on it! LOL

So save your single earrings and broken jewelry. You can make wonderful new pieces from stuff you were going to throw away.

Mauve colored jeans purse

This is a mauve colored pair of jeans that I turned into a jeans purse. I posted it earlier without the sequins, and here I updated the look with sequins all over the front and back. I think it looks really neat. Since sewing sequins on the tree skirt, I thought they would look pretty cool on this!

Hand-sewing sequins on things is pretty time consuming but fun!

Tree Skirt Finished!

I finally finished!! Here is what the final tree skirt will look like. You can barely see the sequins, but they're there, trust me! LOL


I really like how it turned out, I think I have to scour the thrift stores to find more skirts to make tree skirts. What a great way to reuse old clothing. So scour your closets to see if you can find a skirt that will go with your tree. Especially if you were going to donate it in the first place.

I sewed a lot of this together, but you can really do this without sewing. You can glue to glue all the accents onto the skirt. And if the skirt has frayed edges, you really don't have to finish the side seams. And you can glue the ties onto the skirt too. Or if it doesn't matter, you can just leave them laying flat without tying them together.

I'm going to cut up a dress next and use that as the next tree skirt. I'll keep you posted.

Reuse Charm Bracelets

These bracelets were made from pieces of jewelry that my friend had in her stash. Some of them were pieces from a bigger jewelry piece that was damaged. Like one side of a pair of earrings. Or maybe jewels had fallen out of a piece, but part of it could be used for something else.

I didn't put a ton of things on them. I think they look classic with fewer components. This one looks like a victorian heart bracelet. I didn't have a fancy toggle, so I just used a plain one. Maybe I can salvage one from a different piece? The crystals on this one were actually from a chandelier. And the pearls were from one side of an earring.

This next bracelet is so victorian looking. The crystals are from another chandelier. And the other pieces were just floating around in her stash. It's gold-tone, and the chain was in her stash as well.

It's fun to envision new pieces of jewelry from things we would have probably thrown out. We're helping to not fill up the landfill, and we're getting a pretty cool piece of jewelry too. :)

We're going to try to sell these pieces to benefit her non-profit program, the Green Youth Art Project. She's going to have an arts and crafts faire in December. If you're in the Martinez area and would like more info, leave me a comment with your email addy and I'll forward along the info to you.