July Craft Day...

Another creative Saturday spent in Portage with my crafty friends. This time we had two fun projects. This was Marie's turn. Our first one was a "cut and repurpose cowl from a t-shirt" project.

Cut a 12-15" tube of fabric from the t-shirt by laying the t-shirt flat on a cutting surface. Cut across the shirt below the sleeve opening, through both layers of the shirt. Then cut again across the shirt above the hemline (about 12-15" between the top and bottom of this tube you're creating). From there, you refold the tube, matching the seams from the shirt and cut a series of slits into what will become the front sections, shortening the cuts as you work toward the seam. Instructions said to only cut the slits about half way to the seam so, as you can see in the photographs, the back half, plus part of the front won't have slits cut into them.

Once the cutting is completed, stretch the fringe, add pony beads of your choice and tie a knot in the individual fringe pieces to hold the beads in place. That's it! Pretty simple, right?

The second project was to create a shabby boutonierre from old jewelry, lace and doilies, ribbons and other fabrics. They all had pin backs on them to wear or attach to something else. We had so much fun giggling, telling stories, and generally catching up while we played. Truly food for the soul.

Linda II is new to the group. She's my girlfriend, Linda's sister-in-law. She really got into it and created some beautiful things. Linda will be back again, too. She came along with Linda's niece who was visiting from Georgia. 

The last time I'd seen her, she was a little girl. Now she's all grown up, with four children of her own! I believe she's already headed home, so we won't see her again until she comes back north to visit.

All in all, another great day was had by all. I had an easy drive there and back, stopping at a roadside vegetable stand to pick up some produce on my way home. I bought tomatoes because I realized that we were out of salsa (oh, the horror!), so I'm going to make and can those today while it's a little cooler outside. 

I'm also baking bread for a barter with a neighbor up the highway. She planted waaay too many beets, zucchini, and pickles for her and her partner, so she offered them to me. I suggested bartering homemade bread and she jumped at the deal! Guess how I'll spend the rest of my week? lol

I'd better get started on the bread. I'm going to pick up all the vegetables later today, so I want to take this batch of loaves with me. (I'll offer her another four loaves next week when I bake again.) Tag will be back tomorrow, so I'll see you again on Wednesday!