Check me out

Me! On the home page of CRAFTSTER!!
Totally a surprise. Totally not submitted. Totally a fantastic craft blog day* to see my cat food bags on the Reusable Shopping Bags page! It's on the top row, I tell ya!

Thanks to Moesha for cluing me in to the screen shot save.

Cat food messenger bag

How "green" is this?

A messenger bag I made from a cat food bag and free notions. You heard me.

Cleaned and rinsed cat food bag and then kinda made it up as I went along. Instead of attaching a button or closure, I fashioned a tab with a heavy but sparkly belt buckle from the People Give Me Stuff stash. Give me something and I will eventually use it, I tell you. The weight of the buckle will keep the flap down.

Lining made of quilting cotton with a scrap fabric pocket for interior. "Boxed" the corners for a flat bottom.

Because men's neckties are cut on the bias and thus, not very stable, I zigzagged the crap out of the necktie strap. The quilting effect feels fabu.

One side of the strap was long enough to double on itself to form a pocket with the broad tip plus a cell phone pocket.

Look closely for the tie point below the orange stitched strip.



Opposite side of strap with a toggle closure to hold keys.

Just in case you're afraid that I don't know this bag is as ugly as homemade sin, let me assure you, I do. Heinous, perhaps. I was playing around and didn't wanna "waste" good bias tape and a pretty necktie if it didn't work. Thinking I might wanna make another now that I've learned a couple tricks.

Check out my previous cat food tote.

Oh wait, there's more!

A wallet made of the remaining piece with bias tape and a snap.

That's one cat food bag with practically no waste!

Bookmark tags

Crafting on the sofa with a remote control nearby, it is the best, I tell ya! On Saturday, while it rained all day, I watched tons of television and made a dozen bookmark tags for my "Girl's Night Out" group.

Just a few rubber stamps, 12 tags and a basket of ribbon remnants.

An outline here, some water color there, a few gel pen accents.

Look closely and you'll see ribbon re-purposed from a box of chocolates, fabric selvage scraps, bias binding and rick rack. Craft hoarding is sometimes a good thing. I feel those Depression era grandmothers and great-grandmothers smiling on me.

Corgi pillow

Check out this Pembroke Welsh Corgi pillow! (Corgis are the cutest and bestest dogs in the world.)

This Irish linen treasure came from my grandmother's stash. The colors are vibrant and the towel is in perfect condition.

Someone (possibly my grandmother or my great grandmother) pieced the back with fabric scraps in order to stuff it with filling for a dimensional effect.

This is what it looked like when I received it. It became a pillow cover by adding two linen panels to the back for an envelope closing.

Check out the dimensional detail.

Alternate use for a water meter cover

I am not saying you should steal a cast iron water meter cover the next time you are in New Orleans, but if you did, you could have the guys at work make this cool cocktail table for your patio.

Read my story about absconders of covers HERE.

Refashion a large shirt

Sister gave me this brand new golf polo with a corporate logo. Her husband never wore it so I cut it straight across under the armholes. Looka, a cute summer skirt with fold-over elastic waist. No hemming necessary!

tartan necktie brooch

tartan necktie brooch
Originally uploaded by Skitzo Leezra

Being a lover of plaids and a tartan-phile, this is my favorite necktie brooch.

Necktie brooches

necktie brooches
Originally uploaded by Skitzo Leezra

Made some more necktie flowers. Please to enjoy, accented with vintage and cast-off jewelry parts such as earrings and pins. Pin back affixed for wearing.

Something from nothing

Dunno if all the economic doom and gloom stories were working on my subconscious or what, but here is what I did over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Cut three old pillow cases into cleaning cloths (rags).

Cut the legs off tattered pajama pants and worked up a prototype for hanger garment covers.

Covered a freebie promotional tote bag with a fabric sample that I embroidered.


Then pieced a contrasting band to a small cut of fabric for a pillow cover.

Guess I am on a frugal kick but don't fret, I am not yet smoothing out the aluminum foil for a second use.

The mantra of the frugal citizens during World War II:
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

Not sure about that last one.

Go shopping for Christmas tree skirts

So you can make a super easy cute skirt! Last year I posted a small cotton tree skirt that I repurposed to a small little girl skirt. Link, here.
1 seam + elastic = done.
Bigger skirt for bigger girls.
Practically every girl likes a swirly skirt!

Necktie flower

Once again on Craftster.org and spied some cute flowers made from the narrow ends of men's neckties. With a plethora of ties on my dining room table, I started snipping and stitching and gluing. Looka!

Glued petals together with glue gun. Cut out a round disc from a discarded gift card and covered with a silk necktie scrap.

Then topped that with an gold earring from the People Give Me Stuff Stash.


See? I tell you people not to throw stuff away, it is a crafter sin!

Men's necktie wreath

Was trawling Craftster, my favorite craft site when I spied this cool holiday wreath idea from a Christmas catalog, perhaps J.Crew.

And true to my inner crafter self, I thought "I can MAKE that!" My super secret tie source hooked me up with some cool ties and requested a wreath for his ownself.

But the first thing this anal-retentive girl did was to separate the tie stash by color. Organization makes me soooo happy. Anywho, I did a dry run layout and figured out that a 18" diameter straw wreath would take 18 medium width neckties. Wrapped the wreath with alternating green and red neckties.

And here is my version of the wrapped necktie wreath.

Unable to stop myself, I whipped up another wreath in a more freeform style.

My new favorite thing to make - fabric cuffs!

This is my new favorite thing to sew - fabric cuffs made of stray bits of ribbon, trim, vintage buttons, etc.

• These two khaki cuffs are made with waistband from an old pair of pants.


• The short edges are cut and sewn with exposed topstitching.


• Some crochet bits and lace were tea stained.


• Tattered edges are desirable.


• Closure made with existing buttonhole, vintage button and pony tail elastic.


• Velcro type hook and loop tape also used for closure

Thinking that future cuffs could also include a secret cash pocket!

Repurposed scraps, SkitzoLeezra style!

People give me stuff, part 3

Dawn gave me a box of earring parts consisting of big 1980's style earrings like pageant girls are wont to wear. I knew I would eventually find some use for them and finally did. WooHoo! It is a double People Give Me Stuff! Mom gave me the big ma'am-a jamma crystals and I combined them with the Dawn earring parts for fabulous suncatchers, Feng Shui crystals or Christmas tree ornaments.

Reduce, reuse, recycle - repurpose in the SkitzozLeezra way!