DIY: Button Bag

 
My mom wanted me to sew her a bag for Christmas. I initially did some sketches of bags and picked one that I thought would be simple to sew. I used some fabric I had on hand to sew a draft of the bag. I got about halfway through…and I didn’t like it. So I simplified the design and tried again—this bag I finished and liked.

With my draft finished, I cut and sewed my mom’s bag. The flap can be buttoned in the front or back of the bag. I wanted some versatility, where the flap could be used to help close the bag, or buttoned in the back to make it more open. In addition, since two fabrics are used, buttoning the flap to the back of the bag allows for a different look, with the interior fabric showing.

This is what I did.

—1—
Cut out two sets of pieces, one fabric for the exterior and one fabric for the interior of the bag.

—2—
With right sides together, sew the two strap pieces together. Trim the seams. And turn the strap right side out. Press and topstitch.

—3—
With right sides together, sew the front and back pieces of one fabric together. Trim the seams and corners. And repeat this with the second set of fabric.

—4—
With right sides together, put one bag inside of the other bag and sew the flap pieces together. Trim the seams and corners.

Note: The two sides need to be kept open to turn the bag right side out and to add the strap.

—5—
Turn bag right side out. Try to get the corners as square as possible. Press bag.

—6—
Put a strap end in about 2.5 inch deep into the openings on each side. Sew the strap to the bag. (Sew a square with an X in the middle to help add stability.)

—7—
Sew the openings for the strap down.

—8—
Press and topstitch the bag.

—9—
Mark the position for the buttonhole on the flap. Sew buttonhole. Sew one button on the front side and one button on the backside. Button Bag complete.

Simple Pleated Skirt

Not long ago I picked up some blue fabric and a vintage pattern, Simplicity 2433, from a thrift shop, and I used them to create my new skirt. I used this pattern as a starting point, and changed things according to what made sense to me.

I think the skirt portion of this pattern is the simplest thing ever—it’s just a rectangle that is pleated across the top of it. That’s really the only part I used from this pattern. I used a waistband from another skirt (since this pattern had a very narrow waistband and I prefer a thicker one). I also used a zipper instead of snaps as the main closure.
 

And finally, I decided to use a button (instead of an eye and hook) for the closure at the waistband. I thought this would be a good project to finally use a button. I chose a simple plastic button from my jar of buttons I got at a thrift shop. 

DIY: Button Elastic Bracelet

Most of the buttons I bought from Goodwill were fairly generic, mismatched and on the bland side of color. To brighten things up for my Button Elastic Bracelet, I decided to paint my buttons with nail polish since nail polish comes in an array of colors and is waterproof.

DIY: Button Tower Jewelry

I didn’t need it, but somehow I couldn’t resist buying a jar of buttons at Goodwill. They weren’t fancy buttons, but mostly just the flat two or four holed buttons used in shirts. I divided up the buttons according to their size and number of holes because I thought I’d try using the smaller ones for jewelry.

DIY: Button Ribbon Pin

I had some inexpensive ribbon and some cute buttons and thought I could use them together to create a pin. This pin could be used as a bow for packaging (instead of those plastic-like ones). They’re not too difficult to make and reusable.

DIY: Button Jewelry Holder

While I haven’t actually used buttons in any sewing projects (thus far) that doesn’t stop me from buying them—especially if they’re on sale. It’s hard to resist the pull of a cute button, since there are just too many adorable buttons to choose from. [Sigh.] (I know. I just totally tried to rationalize my unnecessary need to buy buttons…I’m sorry.)

So I had a variety of buttons that I thought were pretty and I wanted to display them in a project in some way. I decided that I could use buttons as a design accent in a (much needed) jewelry holder (since I have an abundance of jewelry and no way to organize it). I wanted an easy and power-tool-free way to create a wall jewelry holder and after spending some time staring at various items at a craft store, this is what I came up with.

DIY: Button Rubber Band

I love beautiful buttons. I admit that I’ll buy buttons for no other reason than they’re pretty and I want them (even if I don’t have a use for them). However, I didn’t want them to be just trophy buttons (that are pretty yet purposeless), so I decided on a quick and easy project for them: button rubber bands.

Use button rubber bands as hair accessories or as decoration for packaging.

DIY: Button Magnets

I bought a bag of cheap plastic black and white buttons and thought I could make button magnets with them. Of course if you like your button as-is then all you have to do is glue the button to the magnet; I wasn’t excited about my nondescript buttons so I wanted to dress them up a little bit with color.