Cuff it up

Old necktie, some ribbon and a broken rhinestone bracelet = 2 custom cuffs

Tote bag recycle

Do you know what a chair back pocket is? It is sewn like a slipcover with pockets for school kids to store items at their desk.
Because next year's class doesn't use them, this kid's mom gave me his chair back pocket to disassemble for craft fabric but, instead, I recycled it into a tote bag. His name was already embroidered on it, so why not a sturdy heavy weight tote?

• I sewed the open bottom closed and cut the top to form a bag.
  
• Red bias tape applied to top cut edge.
  
• Two plaid neckties were zigzagged and straight stitched for stability and reinforcement then stitched to bag for double straps.
  

Yay! A bag for transporting library books and such.

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!

Necktie eyeglass holder

Looka what Trixie gave me!

It's a neato eyeglass holder made from a man's silk necktie!

And check out the button detail, it is the same stacked button/bead thingie I did on my purse swap a couple months back. The buttons even look the same.

Are Trixie and I psychic?

Did we think of the same thing?

Or did we both see it somewhere else and store in our little tin foil lined brains?

Thanks Trixie!

Water bottle sling made from 2 neckties

Saw a necktie water bottle sling tutorial posted on the Internet and thought I would try it. Well, I tried to do it from memory and completely got it wrong but ended with my own different technique. Check out the Betz White link above or my tutorial below and make your own.

Place a water bottle down on two ties, as shown. Figure out how high you would like the tie to be on the bottle height. The bottle is more secure with a higher span.

Stitch a square base. I cut a square shape from a hard plastic expired gift card and inserted between the two ties to stabilize the base.

Straight stitch the 2 open sides. You won't be able to stitch all the way down the base so start a 1/4" from the bottom and stitch toward the broad tie points.

Here is photo after 1 side stitched. See those 2 interior flaps? Great place to stash sutff like cash or credit cards! Straight pins were slipping on the silk I used these paper binder clips.

Stitch the small necktie points to the large tie points.

Cat food tote bag

Inspired by this

Thinking that folks can make a tote bag from juice bags, why not a cat food bag?

Hey, looka, polka dot lining!

The interior green ribbon is a key loop and the tote strap is made from a plaid necktie.

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.

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.