upcycling Pokemon wrappers

Hello everyone!  I am back with my latest sewing creations.  I have been playing around with plastic wrappers!  I've seen those upcycled plastic wrap bags and purses (usually made from Capri Sun package juice) but never really paid attention to them or how they were made until I saw this tutorial using the wrappers from Pokemon cards.  My boys love Pokemon cards and were just throwing the wrappers away but I started saving them and collected enough from their recent birthdays to make a couple of items. 

Here is a little coin pouch (didn't want to call it a purse since it's for my youngest boy and he'd probably not like that).  This little pouch was made with 4 wrappers, 2 in front and 2 in back.  It is a bit tough to turn right side out because the wrappers and contact paper get stiff.  But it's possible and looks really neat!  I made it so he could hang it from the inside of his backpack and also carry around a little bit of emergency cash.  I always have my kids carry some cash just in case I can't pick them up for some reason or other.  A few years ago there was some really bad traffic from an accident or some police chase and parents were stuck on the road.  This was not during school hours or might have been right when school got out so a few children were literally stranded for a few hours.  I heard stories that some children walked across the street to McDonald's and didn't get picked up until dinner time.  In any case, it's good to have a plan, and maybe a phone and cash during emergencies.

Here is a larger pouch.  It took 16 wrappers total!  See, we have too many Pokemon cards!

I kind of messed up the handle on this one though and didn't put it the right way so ended up cutting it off.  Oh well, it still looks pretty good. 

Now, I have my kids saving all sorts of wrappers!  It's amazing how many things can be sewed together like this.  The humbug part is washing all the food wrappers really clean. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

kawaii fabric

Hi all!  Just wanted to share another coin purse and a smaller pencil case I sewed a while ago.  I actually haven't been too creative lately.  I've just been stalking some sewing blogs and looking up tutorials to see what else I can try to sew.  There are so many cute things!  One thing always leads me to another.  Anyway, I really love this fabric store on Etsy called Beautiful Work.  They have the cutest fabrics and they ship so quickly even though they are in Japan.

I got this fabric from the store I mentioned.  Super cute, right?  I love that it has so many different Sanrio characters.

I made this pencil case for my daughter for school.  It's an inch shorter in both directions than the previous one I made so I think it's a better size.  She added her little heart clip to it.  I made sure to have Tuxedo Sam showing some where since that is her favorite character.

Here is the case opened.  I think I should try sewing a little tote bag next.  I think that would be cute for little girls. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

more sewing!

Hi everyone!  Thought I'd share some of the things I've been sewing.  I was totally frustrated the past couple days with sewing.  It was driving me crazy!  So many things were going wrong even though I was sewing the same coin purse I had shared here before.  The only difference was the fabric design.  And yesterday I took apart and actually scrapped another coin purse.  So today I took a break from it before I got more frustrated.  The only thing that I got irritated today with was trying to learn GIMP to edit my photos.  Ugh, what a headache too.

So here are the two same ol' coin purses.  But while I was sewing one of these, the needle on my machine actually popped out!  I think it couldn't handle the thickest part by the little tab.  Good thing I could just pop it back in and didn't break the machine.

This is a different pattern that I found HERE.  The only difference is that I chose not to sew the zipper the way she did.  I was too scared that it would be all crooked!  Maybe when I am a bit more experienced.  But I like the size of this.  The only thing that bothered me with this is that I used some iron on backing to make it stiffer and then when I tried to pull all the layers the right way it started to get so wrinkled.  I ironed it again after I was done but doesn't seem to be very smooth looking. 

This is the side view.  It has a boxy bottom.

It opens nice and wide but I don't like how thin the red material is.  I could see through it! 

This is a longer sized pencil case but I'm thinking this a bit too long though my daughter likes it.  You can definitely put a ton of pencils in here!  It was at this point that I started sewing crooked!  I'd start off really close to the zipper and then slowly I'd get farther and farther away.  I felt like banging my head on the table at this point.

Here's the case opened.  I just threw some stuff in there that I had on my desk.

I think I'll have to practice more before I can cut into my nicer fabrics.  It's a good thing I have coloring and stamping to fill my time when sewing isn't working out.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

kero kero keroppi!

Hello!  I don't know what it is about summer but it sure makes me feel lazy.  Well, I guess it's because we don't have such a strict routine of activities and the kiddies haven't started summer school yet and the hubby is on vacation this week too.  We went to the beach one day and drove around to see the sights today and ate out a little and celebrated my little one's birthday too.  And I got a long nap today too so yeah, I've been feeling lazy. 

But my youngest one has a birthday party to go to soon so I thought I'd make another little coin purse to hold a giftcard. 

I have some Keroppi fabric so thought that would be cute for the birthday girl.  This coin purse has a D-hook ring attached to it.

The inside is lined with some matchy green and I used a green zipper too so that it looks more fun.  I sewed everything with a light pink thread for a little bit of contrast.  I don't know if you can tell but the coin purses I've been making have a bit of poof to it too.  I add a layer of batting so it is soft and squishy.

I am trying to work on another sewing project too but we'll see how lazy I'll be feeling the next few days.  Ha!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you're enjoying your summer!

 

my adventures in sewing

Hello everyone!  Hope you were able to grab your own set of Sister Stamps June release today. 

Today I wanted to share about my newest hobby, sewing!  I was spending a lot of time learning how to sew and just trying to get used to my sewing machine that I think I forgot how to color with Copics and how to make cards.  Card making does require some practice!  But so does sewing.

Anyway, I've always wanted to sew but I guess I was a bit lazy and maybe a bit scared to try.  What it really took was making something that looked not so great that got my perfectionist side to learn to sew.  I bought those Papertrey Ink Coin Purse Dies because in theory it looked simple and cute too but in actuality I couldn't stand how the stitching looked around the zipper.  It drove me kind of crazy and I tried to figure out a way to hide the ugly stitching on the inside.

This is the coin purse I made using the PTI dies.  The fabric is cute right?  And the outside stitching I guess is okay but the zipper stitching bugs me.

Here's the inside and you can see all the ugly stitching from the zipper.  I guess someone had suggested adding fabric tape over it?  Anyway, my hubby saw it and he didn't think it looked too great either so he set up my sewing machine and read the directions!  So then I was off sewing.  I think these PTI dies are okay for making coin purses for children but definitely not for adults.  Plus it was hard to cut the fabric even with multiple passes through my Big Shot.  It would cut the holes on the long side but not the short side.  Kind of frustrating.

My first sewing attempt was making some keychains.  I made these for some teachers using fabric instead of ribbon. 

Here is my first coin purse I made with my sewing machine.  This was my practice one and my zipper is a little too short since I had bought all these short zippers to go with the PTI dies!

This is my second coin purse and matching material with the keychain.  I used a bit longer zipper and just trimmed it to fit the coin purse.  This is large enough to fit a gift card so I put one in there for one of the teachers.

And look, it's lined!  And the zipper part doesn't look too bad, does it?  I was pretty proud of this one.  Hehe.

So I made another matching set!  I put gift cards in here too. 

And again, it's lined!  I really love that the lining covers the zipper and looks pretty.  I followed a tutorial from The Crafty Gemini HERE.  I just followed the basic steps to make a smaller coin purse.

So now I don't know what I should do with the PTI dies.  I guess I could use them in making cards but seems like a waste of money.  At least I can sew a little now so that makes me happy.

I had a lot to say in this post!  Thanks for reading!