Pleated Change Purse

My old change purse was dying a slow and painful death. I had used it for many years and filled it to the brim with change; it was fraying and filthy and far from its once cute state. So instead of purchasing a new one, I thought I’d create one with some of my fabric scraps.

I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do: a small purse with a zipper closure. Simple enough. I didn’t really follow any directions because what I needed to do was fairly straightforward. I selected a sturdier cotton fabric for my change purse (left over fabric from my navy skirt). Instead of doing the bare minimum of using two flat pieces of fabric to create my change purse, I decided to use inverted pleats as a design element. It wasn’t that much more difficult; I just had to use a bit more fabric for the width, measure where my pleats would be, press the pleats down and then baste the pleats in place. It’s simple but I think it adds some nice visual interest.

The second thing I did to make this change purse a bit more interesting was using a contrasting zipper color. I happen to have this cream-colored zipper and thought it would match well with navy. It was my first time shortening a zipper (which turned out to be super easy). As usual I made mistakes along the way, but it was a good small (and necessary) sewing project for me. 

DIY: Glitter Pin

Glitter is not to be ignored—it screams, “Look at me! I’m here!” As a child I had a great appreciation for glitter, but with time tastes change, and now I prefer matte to shine. Yet there are times you might want the bright sparkle of glitter to bring a sense of fun. Glitter is celebratory in nature, so I thought a glitter pin could be a nice accent in wrapping a present.

Doable Retro Dress

My resistance is low when fabric and supplies are on sale. I admit, it’s my own fault; not entering a store would be the correct step in avoiding getting more stuff. Sadly, I choose over and over again to go into a store to “just take a look” and inevitably find something I want.

I like to rationalize and think that as long as it’s not full price, I’m getting a good deal. This time it was a 1950’s retro dress pattern that was on sale. I do like vintage style items and the pattern had a sewing rating of “very easy” (which I thought was doable with my limited sewing skills). The pattern required quite a bit of fabric (which despite my growing collection of fabric, I didn’t have the required yardage at home) so I decided to get some cheap fabric.

A Shot Glass of Convenience

When I was a kid, I thought shot glasses were just small cute glasses (like those found in a make-believe tea party; I was too young to know that they were actually for adults taking shots of liquor.) If my parents went out of town for some reason, they would often bring me back a shot glass as a souvenir. Maybe that seems like a strange souvenir for a child, but really it was probably a souvenir of convenience (and certainly not any sort of promotion of underage drinking).

Shot glasses are super easy souvenirs since they can be found at many airport gift shops, they’re fairly inexpensive and there’s a variety to choose from. A good shot glass design should reflect the specialness of the place, whether it’s a particular monument or attraction, symbol, color, idea—just something that shows its personality and how it’s different from other places. It can be a challenge to find an attractive shot glass (since most fall into the bland or ugly category), but a few of my cuter shot glasses are in the photo above.

It’s been years since I got a new shot glass because I just don’t have the need (or the space) for more unnecessary stuff. I admit that if I’m waiting in an airport I might peruse a gift shop and see what they have to offer, but I practically never buy anything. After a while you have less of a desire to collect “evidence” that you went some place (because isn’t a good photo and the memory enough?). Souvenir knickknacks are inevitably items that you’ll probably never use (whether it be shot glasses, key chains, postcards, etc.) and will just inconveniently take up space…even the cute ones.

DIY: Paper Earrings

There are times where you might want or need “disposable” earrings, like a Halloween costume or holiday-related earrings. This is a simple way to create earrings that can be whatever shape you can cut out of paper.