Shirt Sleeve Wine Bag

This December, I'll be a vendor the Cleveland Flea Holiday Show so I've been working on new project ideas. In keeping with the theme of my business, Finderie, everything I make for this show will be based on upcycled materials. I hope to share many of those projects with you here.

My first project was making a wine gift bag out of a thrifted shirt sleeve. Plaid shirts come in lots of great holiday colors so I've been focused on making these gift bags out of upcycled shirts. For my first project I chose a boy's shirt as it was smaller and required less altering. I love how it turned out and that it's not only upcycled but also reusable.

Project Steps:

Step 1: Source a shirt from a thrift store or your family and friends. Be sure to wash and dry it before you get started. Cut off both sleeves at the seam where they join the body of the shirt. 

Step 2: Slip the sleeve over a wine bottle making sure the cuff is at the neck of the bottle. Fold the cuff over until it looks the way you want it to. Using pins, mark where the shirt sleeve needs to be taken in on the side and mark the bottom of the bottle.

Step 3: Leaving the pins in, remove the sleeve from the bottle. Cut straight across the bottom of the sleeve where you marked it with the pin, leaving at least a quarter of an inch extra length for seam allowance. When you're done, remove the bottom pin.

Step 4: Most sleeves will be too wide and will need to be taken in so they aren't too baggy. Use the pin where you marked the start of where the sleeve needed to be taken in as a guide. The sleeve could be taken in by cutting along the seam and sewing a straight line from the bottom to the point marked with the pin. I chose a slightly different approach as I liked the way the finished seam looked on the shirt and wanted to keep it. With the sleeve right side out I started at the bottom and folded the extra fabric into the inside of the sleeve until the bottom formed a straight line up to the top pin. I made sure the fabric on the back side lined up perfectly to the existing seam and then pinned all the way up to the top pin marking where the sleeve needed to start being taken in.

Step 5: With the new seam pinned, I sewed straight down the side over the top of the existing seam making sure not to catch any other fabric from the sleeve in my new seam.

Step 6: To reduce bulk I turned the sleeve inside out and trimmed away the excess fabric I had folded into the inside of the sleeve. 

Step 7: At this point it was necessary to re-trim the bottom of the sleeve because it wasn't quite straight anymore. I did this removing as little fabric as possible. 

Step 8: With the side of the sleeve finished it was now time to cut a bottom for the bag and sew it on. Typically the left over fabric you removed in step 3 will be enough to use for the bottom. Find a cup to trace around that is slightly larger than the bottom of a wine bottle - this will give you automatic seam allowance. I found that a Solo cup worked well. Once you've traced the cup with a marker, cut out the circle.

 

Step 9: The circle now needs to be attached to the bottom of the sleeve. Before you start this step make sure your sleeve is inside out. I find it's generally easiest to do this by putting the first pin to the seam. Be sure you are pinning right sides together. Then, fold the sleeve in half and mark a crease directly across from the seam. Pin the opposite side of the circle to the crease. Then line up the other two sides so they are positioned between the two pins leaving you with 4 pins total which should be spaced in quarters around the circle. Make sure to line up your seams so they are even.

Step 10: Add at least 4 more pins between the existing pins to keep everything secure.

Step 11: Now you're ready to sew the bottom to the sides. Leave at least a quarter inch seam allowance and sew around the circle slowly and carefully to make sure you catch both sides of the fabric as you are sewing. You also want to check often while you're sewing to make sure you aren't accidentally grabbing any of the sleeve sides in your bottom seam. 

Step 12: Flip the bag right side out and slide it over a wine bottle to ensure it fits. When you're done, use the other sleeve to make a second wine bottle gift bag. Be sure to save the body of the shirt as we'll be using it in a few other projects in the future.

Plaid Wool Scarf from a Skirt

If you've been paying attention to fall fashion at all you've probably noticed there's a lot of plaid involved. I'm a huge fan of plaid and decided to embrace the trend with a cozy plaid wool scarf.

I often pick up 100% wool skirts in beautiful colors and patterns when I'm thrifting. You can generally find them for between $2 and $5 - a great price for several large pieces of quality wool fabric. I use the wool to make blankets, hooked rugs, and a whole lot of other things. I remembered I had a fringed plaid skirt and thought I could make it into a scarf pretty easily. Here is the end result which requires only basic sewing skills. I hope this inspires you to make your own plaid statement piece this season using the project steps below.

 

Project Steps:

Step 1: When working with wool skirts, I like to wash and dry them hot - a felting technique. This will shrink and soften the material making it denser and warmer. As a bonus, the fabric will be washable and dryer safe after felting with no dry cleaning required. After felting my skirt I cut it into large, usable pieces. First I cut off the waistband and then I cut along the seams until I had 3 large sections. 

Step 2: If you need the extra fabric and are ambitious, you can carefully cut open the darts and then press them flat. I didn't need the full width so I skipped this step but I did keep the entire hem. Before getting started with the project, I pressed each piece of wool flat. It took a little extra time to press out the skirt hem but with high heat and a spray bottle I got it to disappear.

Step 3: Once the pieces were ironed I started cleaning up the cuts and making them straight. I like to use a self-healing mat and rotary cutter to get long cuts as straight as possible. I lined up the ruler along one of the plaid lines and trimmed what was the side seam removing as little fabric as possible. Next, I cut along the dart seams to make the top of the skirt lay flat and then cut just below the darts. Each of the sections was trimmed in this manner leaving me with 3 pieces of similar width.

Step 4: I laid the 3 pieces out lengthwise to see how the plaid lined up and how straight the cuts were. I knew I wanted the scarf to wrap around my neck twice so I lined the pieces up next to a scarf the length I wanted.

Step 5: At this point I could have measured the width of the black and white pattern and cut the pieces down further (factoring in seam allowance) to ensure the pattern was exact when I sewed the 3 pieces together. I didn't want to lose the length though and could see when I laid it out the differences wouldn't be very noticeable. Plaid is great for hiding seams this step really isn't necessary. I put the right sides of the fringed and the middle pieces together, pinned and sewed them.

 

Step 6: After the first 2 pieces were sewn together, I pinned the third piece to the larger section, right sides together, and sewed along the seam.

Step 7: I now had one long piece of fabric that was starting to look like a scarf. 

The edges were a bit scraggly because of slight variations in the fabric so again I used the self-healing mat and rotary cutter to clean them up. 

Step 8: I then laid each seam open and pressed it flat. This step is absolutely necessary to create a finished-looking product. 

Step 9: With the seams pressed flat I folded the scarf in half, right sides together, and pinned and sewed the side and bottom. I did not sew the fringed side at this point, we'll get to that later.

Step 10: After sewing the bottom and side, I cut diagonally across the corners a few millimeters from the seam to reduce the bulk in the corners of the finished scarf.

Step 11: Using the open, fringed side I turned the scarf right side out.

Once right side out, I used a pin to pull out the corners. 

Step 12: The entire scarf needed to be pressed flat at this point, especially along the seam. To get it as flat as possible I rolled the two sides of the fabric along the seam between my fingers and when the seam was fully exposed I pressed it. 

I continued this process until the entire scarf was pressed flat.

Step 13: The fringed side of the scarf was next pinned and sewn on along the fringe to close it up and finish it off. 

Step 14: This is the point where I could have been done and just worn it. But, because I wanted an infinity scarf I had a few more steps.

I wrapped the scarf around my neck and arranged it until it looked the way I wanted. Then I pinned the places where I wanted to add buttons and also pinned the pieces of the fringe that lined up to where the buttons would be. These would be sewn into loops for the buttons.

Step 15: Now I needed to find buttons. Luckily, I keep several jars filled with buttons I've collected, many come from clothing I've deconstructed to make into other things. Because I've saved so many buttons over the years, I almost never need to buy them for my projects

I settled on these fun yellow buttons to give the scarf a pop of color.

Step 16: I found the pieces of fringe I pinned and sewed each it into a loop. Using the button as a guide, I sewed the loop until the button could pass through it with some resistance. If you aren't lucky enough to find a fringed skirt, you could add ribbon or yarn loops to the bottom seam or used sew on snaps to secure the infinity scarf. 

Step 17: Finally, I sewed the buttons onto the scarf where I had marked them.

Step 18: The result is a warm, washable, 100% wool scarf for 2 bucks!

Pine Cone Kindling

Several years ago an issue of Martha Stewart Living had a project for beeswax-dipped pine cone kindling. I loved the finished product and ever since have been setting aside a Sunday afternoon each fall to make my own beeswax pine cones. This kindling is an awesome fire starter. You put a dipped pine cone on top of the wood, light it, and as the wax melts the wood catches fire. Beeswax burns very clean and of course smells great! 

This is an easy project but it does take some time, especially if you want to make enough to get you through the winter and have some left over. Placed in a pretty container, this kindling makes a perfect housewarming or hostess gift. 

If you are thinking of using any type of wax other than beeswax, don't bother - you won't get the benefit of that great smell or the clean burn. My husband and I started beekeeping this year but haven't collected honey and wax yet so I purchased my beeswax online here. At $40 for five pounds it isn't cheap but this is a great price for really high quality wax and as a bonus, shipping is free. 

For this project, you'll need pine cones, beeswax, and some type of double boiler. I use a thrifted Pyrex bowl and sauce pan. You can also use a Crock-Pot but cleanup will be difficult so you might want to buy one second hand and only use it for this purpose. 

Project Steps

Step 1: If you ordered large chunks of beeswax instead of pellets, you'll need to start by breaking up the blocks of wax so they melt faster. I used a hammer and chisel on a cutting board to do this.

You want to break them into 1 to 2 inch chunks to ensure a quick melt. 

Step 2: If you are using a double boiler, put water in the pan and the beeswax in the Pyrex insert. The water should be boiling throughout the process to keep the wax at a constant temperature so add water as needed. Wait until the wax is fully melted with no remaining chunks and then start dipping. I find metal tongs to be the easiest way to handle the pine cones but you'll occasionally need to scrape the wax buildup off the tongs.

Step 3: After dipping each pine cone in the wax, hold it over the Pyrex insert and move it around a bit to allow the excess wax to drip off. Once the drips stop, place the pine cone on newspaper to dry. Repeat until you've dipped all the cones or run out of wax. 

Step 4: Once dry, place the pine cones in a pretty container. I like to keep mine in a vintage wood bucket right on the hearth where they're easily accessible.