Make Do March...pretty little bag

I go to a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group and every other meeting we do a craft which I love. It's so nice to craft something simple without little fingers helping or feeling guilty that dishes aren't being washed or laundry folded! The most recent craft involved making your own fabric flowers and attaching them to a canvas bag. My friend Lisa picked me up all the supplies so I could also make one.
  The flowers are super easy to make.  Take 2 inch strips of fabric scraps fold them in half and then twist and form the strand into circles. I stitched the circles together as I went and you can make them as small or large as you like. I then stitched the flowers together in the design I wanted and then to the bag.  It's a great way to use up scraps! I think it turned out pretty cute and I'm very happy that I actually finished the project so it won't sit around forever unfinished!  It's a perfect size for library books, here's hoping I remember to bring it the next time we go! :)

Happy make doing!

Nathania

Make do March...sweatshirt fix up

You know what is frustrating?? Sleeves that shrink in the dryer and end up an inch too short!! It's the bane of us long armed girls!! Case in point, my brother sent me a sweatshirt with his work logo on it for Christmas and after washing it the first time I forgot to pull it out of the dryer, bah!!! Do you think it shrunk everywhere? Of course not!! Only the sleeves shrunk making it very irritating to wear! I'm constantly pulling the sleeves down and it drives me crazy!!

Today I decided to fix that and pulled out a ratty well loved grey sweatshirt to fix my sleeve problem. I cut my irritatingly short sleeved sweatshirts arms in two and used the grey sweatshirt to fill in gap. It turned out surprisingly well and I love how the grey ended up on the elbows. Almost like it was planned, not! I forgot to take pics of the sleeves before but here are my after shots.

Happy make doing!

Nathania

Make do March - Baked spaghetti braid

I love trying new recipes as I get super bored with making the same meals over and over! I found this on pinterest and thought it sounded delicious!!! I love garlic bread and don't mind spaghetti and my husband loves spaghetti and likes garlic bread so it was a perfect marriage for both of us. I had all of the ingredients and once the bread dough was thawed it took no time to put it together and pop it in the oven. I sprinkled the top with garlic salt and Parmesan and it came out amazing! My husband loved it so I will be adding it to my dinner repertoire!!

I'm hoping this link will get you to the recipe. My computer is in the shop so I'm doing all my posts on my iPhone and it doesn't let me do everything the regular site does so I apologize if it doesn't work!! And for any spelling errors I don't catch!

http://www.rhodesbread.com/mobile/recipes/view/braided-spaghetti-bread.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Happy make doing!

Nathania

Make do March...How do you measure up take 2

I'm very excited to show off my finished height ruler!!!! It turned out so well and it was so easy!!! Aria loves it and knows exactly how to use it!
I left off last time finishing up my lines. Now on to the numbers! My husband printed up some numbers in 200 font in a style he can't remember at work as my home computer is broken. I cut the numbers out and rubbed pencil on the back of each one. I placed the numbers where I wanted them and traced them all with a ballpoint pen. The pencil on the back then transferred onto the wood and I was able to then trace it and fill it in with my sharpie. Easy, easy!! Last step was to spray it with a clear coat and hang it up, done!!

Happy make doing!!
Nathania

Make Do March: Scrubby

Sorry I've been so bad about putting up posts. I know that most of you are in a different time zone than we are so this is even later...but a post late is better than a never post!

Today's post is a simple recycle project. I do mean simple. 

I don't like to throw things away...some may call it hoarding...I call it being frugal. 

I needed a scrubby to help me with the dishes...so I made one...out of an avocado bag.

I took the paper portion off of my avocado bag...I got the bag of avocados at Costco...but you can use a potato bag as well.

I then cut the bag into about 1 inch strips. It wasn't exact! I tied the strips together to make one long strip. Not hard:)

Then I got my crochet hook out and used a simple chain stitch and circled it around. I then did a single stitch around the circle until I ran out of the avocado bag.

And voila! Its a little scrubby! Sorry for the crappy pictures, I took them at night...which is never good..but it's what I got!

It has a little bit of a stringy look, but it works!

Have you been make doing?

Sarah

Make do March...how do you measure up?

I love make do march because it forces me to get my act together and do projects that have been languishing in cobwebbed corners! And there are so many!!! I swear if there is no deadline my motivation to complete projects is nil...it's so pathetic!!

Yesterday I finally got a start on my DIY height ruler that I have been talking about making for ever! I made some progress a few weeks ago when I bought the board and well you can figure out what I didn't do :)! I used this great tutorial I found at 517 . It was super easy to follow, so far...I'm missing a few necessities like a paint pen but I'm thinking of alternatives! I bought a slightly narrower board, a 1x6x8 for $9, sanded it lightly and applied a nice cherry stain we had left over from staining our front door. One coat was dark enough for me and after letting it dry 6 hours I started drawing in my ruler lines...it was tedious but went fairly quickly while I watched one of my fave TV shows Bones.

I marked my ruler slightly different than 517 Creations. I made a 1.5 inch line for each inch mark, a 1 inch line for each half inch and a 2 inch line to mark off each foot. I used a square to help me keep my lines straight, made it super easy! I didn't have a paint pen so I decided to try a fine pt sharpie over my oil based stain and it adhered well without bleeding or rubbing off so I went to town with said sharpie over all my ruler lines....such fun. I will post more pics soon, hopefully before I flat line....ha ha 

Happy Make Doing!

Nathania

Make Do March: Picture Revamp and a Link Up!

At the auction that I mentioned two days ago, I bought this really cool print...but it need a frame. Boo...

Then I remembered this frame that I had in my closet, that I had bought at a garage sale for $4. It had a wooded mat that framed out 4 pictures.

The picture that I bought at the auction fit in the frame without the mat, it had a white boarder around it...but it also showed the edges--about an eighth of an inch, and looked bad. Wah waah wah:(

So I checked to see if the picture would work in the frame if I cut the "t" out of the mat...and it fit!

Armed with an exact knife I was off...

and I cut out the "t"! But the mat was made out of particle board and showed the imperfections and I didn't like the look of it...it was messy.

What did I do? I took some sandpaper to it. I distressed it a bit!

I put the mat and picture into the frame...and it turned out great! The distressing actually goes along with the look of the print. 

What do you think?

Now it's your turn! Link up your own creations, crafts, recipes, sewing projects...that you finally finished! Or that you made with stuff you already had!

You can look up what Make Do March is all about here.

Please grab a button and let everyone else join into the fun!

 

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