Pink Hanging Organizer

This is another Christmas present, for another sister. (Same sister as the teddy bear wallet below.) It does not have straps on the back to roll it up with, like the blue one does.

That little thing in the second pocket is a drawstring bag. I trimmed it with red ribbon. Everything I used came from the estate auction and was insanely cheap.

This is a matching snap closure bag. It was the first of its kind, so It wasn't perfect.

The inside of the little bag. Trimmed with creme ribbon.

All the ribbon and fabric came from the auction, so the total cost was pennies and time. But I'm very happy with how these turned out.

Honestly, you could make one of these at home using things you already have. A bedsheet or towel makes a perfect back panel, and you can use anything for the pockets that will give you enough material: men's shirts, pillowcases, pieces of a sheet, towels, tableclothes.... I could go on. Go thru your Goodwill box. You're likely to find a hanging organizer in there! :D

Blue Hanging Organizer and Matching Snap Bags

I got this idea from ReadyMade Magazine. The organizer is very very easy to make--just sew smaller rectangles of fabric onto one large rectangle. They say to use grommets to hang over door hooks, but I just made loops out of the fabric that I used for the organizer. For this one, I added a strap and handles on the back so that you can roll it up, secure it, and take it with you. Then I made matching small bags with snaps for further organization. Love it! This is a Christmas present for one of my sisters. I bought nothing new to make this--it was all stuff I had on hand. I think that most of the fabric came from an estate auction where I got a ton of stuff for $7, so the total cost, literally, was pennies. And time, of course, but it's not as time consuming as you'd think.

Teddy Bear Wallet

When my family came to visit a few weeks ago, one of my sisters saw a little makeup bag I'd made for myself and loved it. It was basically just like this, but with snap closures. She said, in a hinting way, "I'll have to have you make me one of those sometime..." So I did. And I'm not even waiting till Christmas to send it to her, b/c I've already made her one that matches the hanging organizer that I made her for her present (sshhh, don't tell!).

I hate this fabric--I'm not a stuffed animal fan (sister definitely is!). I had just enough to do something small with it, and she is the only person I can comfortably unload it on. :)

The fabric and the bottons came as part of a large load of sewing and crafting stuff that I got for $7 at an estate auction, so we'll call it all 15 cents, even tho it probably didn't even come to that. Under each button is a velcro circle, which were 16 sets for $2 at WM, so about 13 cents.

Grand total = under 30 cents!

Gender-Neutral Baby Bonnets

This is a very easy, classic style cap. I made them for a lady who is expecting to give many baby gifts in the near future, but doesn't know the sexes yet. For all of them, I used white polar fleece. It's incredibly easy to work with, doesn't require hemming (just be very careful when trimming your edges), and is very soft for next to baby's skin. These are sized for newborn - 6 mos, according to the pattern I used (a very old pattern my mom gave to me).
I used a blanket stitch around the face for all three bonnets, then embellished each with a unique touch. I didn't have enough fleece to make the top of the brown bonnet out of one piece, so I continued up the middle with the stitch to cover the seem. (The tops of the other two are one piece.)
On the back of the brown one, I stitched a line of "x"s. The tie is a brown ribbon.
The green one is probably my favorite. Again, blanket stitch around the face, green ribbon tie...
Then two little red starbursts on the back by the neckline. Kind of Christmas-y. They are, after all, cold-weather hats!
The yellow one is very cute, too. Again with the blanket stitch, and then a zig-zig embroidered around the back. There is a small bow tie in the front of this one, b/c I didn't have a thread long enough for the blanket stitch around the face. This is where the two threads came together (exact middle).

(That's my 13 m/o daughter's pudgy hand, which she is unable to keep off of anything these days!) And a yellow ribbon tie.

Fleece at my local WM is $4.44/yd. Ouch if you're making a blanket, but bearable if you're buying smaller pieces. It is 60" width, tho, so that makes it better. And the embroidery floss I used was 10-20 cents each. All three of these bonnets used most of the 1/4 yd and quite a bit of floss.

Rhyl's "New" Orange Dress

(BTW, my daughter's name is pronounced "Rill", like Bill, Phil, or Jill, not "Ryle". It came from our Australian friends. It is also a town in Wales.)

While packing up our clothes to move to our new house, my husband Nick and I had the normal three boxes: winter clothes and things we can't wear at the moment but want to keep, clothes we're packing up to put directly into the closet when we get to the house, and the goodwill box. I'm all for purging and making a new beginning with our new place, but when he put this organge button-down shirt into the box, my eyes must have really sparkled! I thought about it for a few days, then ran up this little number for Rhyl on my sewing machine.

I didn't have a pattern, but I eyeballed a top that fits her pretty well and made it about the same size. Then I embroidered a butterfly (I got the idea for the outline of the butterfly off our toilet paper--lol) in red, orange, and yellow floss on the front to make it a little more feminine. Three buttons close the back, which came off the shirt.

For not having a pattern, this dress was incredibly easy. I made the top like any basic dress or shirt top (made out of the top and sleeves of Nick's shirt--had to have two layers b/c it's lined). Then I took the hem off the bottom of the shirt for the waistband. I gathered and attached a rectangle of fabric (the bottom half of the front and back of the shirt) for the skirt to the waistband and then stitched that to the top. It's loose enough to give her some room to move in, but doesn't look sloppy. She needed some more every-day clothes to run around in and get dirty, and this is perfect b/c it's an old shirt, and free! And a little sentimental b/c it's one of Daddy's old favorites. I'm happy with it!

Cost: Free! or one old shirt