Cute wool skirt for a cute girl

After that 16 skirt marathon with Chrysanthemum,

I had a few scraps remaining

and because I am my mom's daughter,

I felt compelled to make a little girl skirt with them.

Appliqued flower petals made from contrasting tweed fabric

and sewed 2 vintage stacked buttons in the center.

Cute, huh?

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!

Fold over elastic

Found a cool skirt tutorial posted by Angry Chicken (don't you love that name?). She demonstrates how to attach fold over elastic for the waistband. I had never heard of such so went straight to my small town local fabric stores. Guess what? Neither had they. Next stop, eBay. Son of a gun if I didn't find a 50 yard roll for $5 in a gray color. Since I don't tuck in shirts or sweaters inside my skirts, gray would work just fine. I serged the waistline and then applied the fold over elastic with a zig zag stitch. When Angry Chicken tells ya the stretch the elastic, she means it. Stretch that mo' fo' as tightly as possible because if you don't, the elastic will just act as a nice binding but not have much stretch.


This skirt from the craft room hangover skirt assembly line with Chrysanthemum.

Baby feet!

Made a pair of Heather Bailey's Bitty Booties (tutorial HERE) for yet another breeder friend's spawn. It is never too early for a girl to appreciate the color combination of pink and green.
This was my first attempt of baby foot wear so I chose inexpensive felt fabric. The good thing about felt: it is loosely woven so can be stretched slightly if baby's foot is indeed fat.
I attempted a random embroidery stitch look but my mind cannot seem to that. Plus, you kinda need to match it to the other shoe. Should you want to try making a pair of booties, do yourself a favor and look at the unique styles shown over at flickr. Wish I had checked out those before completing mine. I woulda lined these maamajamas with pink and green plaid!

Chandelier for autumn

Stuck a bunch of junk on my foyer chandelier to celebrate the change of season!

Scarf swap

People Make Me Stuff!
My Craftster scarf swap partner sent me not one but two scarves! WooHoo! This black and white number has zippered pockets on each end. What a perfect place to stash my gin flask for Mardi Gras parades!

What to put in the other pocket? Looka, my swap partner filled it with goodies.


Check out the other scarf in pink and black combination, it looks great with two of my coats!

Plus my swap mate sent me more winter care goodies and lots of hot beverage mixes. Thanks, Jloveg!

Embroidery floss, organized

The craftster.org folks were showing their embroidery floss organization or lack of it. Ya already know I am anal retentive so the above should not be much of a surprise.

Kay's shoes

Kay purchased these cute shoes but alas she lost a few jewels and stones (probably from kicking street urchins) so she visited the SkitzoLeezraStudio to partake of my glue gun and jewelry cemetery bounty.
Some of those shiny bits are from broken stuff and one of those silver pins is from my grandmother's costume jewelry stash. People give me stuff and some of it goes to the glitzy shoe hospital!
Looka how fab her shoes are now!

Scarf swap

Just completed another Craftster swap and made this silk scarf for my partner. She likes pastels so hopefully she'll appreciate the different colors in this fabric. Added glass beads to the ends of scarf.

And as I often say, "Presentation is everything". My partner indicated that she liked country stuff so I opted for simple brown paper bags and box, waxed twine and bias tape ribbon.

Shiny Stuff of the Week 5

My magpie eyes spotted this interesting AND SHINY metal mesh jacket in a display window.

Upon closer inspection I realized it is constructed of many aluminum can pull tabs. You heard me.

Would I wear it? Maybe. But I would probably keep singing "Pop a top, again!", an ode to Jim Ed Brown.

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.

Flea market monkey shine

Forgot to show ya what I saw at the last flea market. At first, I thought it to be a really funny looking child. Unable to avert my eyes, I gratefully ascertained that it was indeed a monkey. Whew! So, of course, my filterless mouth said, "What a cute baby!" to the couple. Luckily, they laughed instead of beating in my head and slapping me with a sock full of nickels.

Green wall at Anthropologie

Check out this green wall o' plants outside an Anthropologie store. Clever, I tell ya!

Monogrammed bag, gotta love it

My friend Chrysanthemum took her pretty quilted handbag to the local monogram shop and looka what she brought back!

As the Preppy Handbook states, "Why carry a bag with someone else's initials when you own will do?"

Shiny Stuff of the Week 4

Spied this shimmery tchotchke while wandering around Hobby F'in Lobby.

It is a candle hurricane; imagine it in a darkened room with flickering candlelight within.

Caw, caw!

Black and white tote bag

Elizabeth has made some great embroidery gifts for me lately so I made this cute black and white print tote bag for her. Black and white print on exterior and toile inside with gingham pocket. I love using an unexpected lining and I think every bag should have an interior pocket. With that ever growing fabric scrap stash of mine, I can sew little pockets on everything!

Burp cloth from cloth diaper

It is a NEW cloth diaper, people!
On a big black and white kick lately so when buddy Elizabeth wondered how to finish the bottom edge of the cloth, out came the black and white fabric scraps. See? THIS is why I don't throw away anything.
Elizabeth has a big fancy schmancy embroidery machine so it will look even MORE fabulous with a stitched name or monogram. How cute is this?

People give me stuff

My good buddy Trixie keeps up with my crafting capers right here on the Skitzo Leezra Studio blog and joined the ranks of "People Give Me Stuff" by sending me a prize box of goodies! She tells me that some is from her grandmother's stash and I hope make the lady proud with future craft projects.

Fabric scraps, perfect for small wallets or headbands. The light blue and red floral prints are larger and will probably appear in the future as a handbag linings.

Look at this stuff! This is my favorite kind, just a smorgasborg of ribbons, craft paint, jewelry, trims, braid, fringe, eyelet, yarn, thread, yarn, oh my! And looka, something shiny! Silver earrings and a keychain. A hunk of stuff that any crafter or mama bird would love, I tell ya!

Thanks Trixie! You should change your name to Treatie!

No sew tote bag

Through the miracle that is TiVo, Chrysanthemum and I watched Martha Stewart's guest demonstrate making a cute no sew tote bag. Never one to be a rigid direction follower, Chrysanthemum whipped up this tote bag with a leather thrift store belt cut down for the handles. The fabric is an embossed faux leather.
So, how is it a no sew bag? Staples and duct tape! You heard me. Use above link to find directions.

Special thanks to Jodi Kahn for sharing this wonderful craft. To learn more of Jodi's easy-to-do crafts, check out her book, "Simply Sublime Bags: 30 No-Sew, Low-Sew Projects".