Thrifty Sewing

I received Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules Sewing from Amazon last Thursday and was determined to make something out of it as soon as possible.

Look what accompanied me to the concert on Friday...


Adorable, no? It was just big enough to fit the essentials (purse, keys , lipgloss, phone) and tucked neatly under my arm for dancing. Perfect.

The creative streak continued over the weekend and I finally hit on a use for the meter and a half of white linen I snagged from the scrap bin in Ikea on my last visit for a whole 0.80 Euros. Following a tutorial linked in the Bend the Rules Sewing Flickr Group I managed to produce six lovely white linen napkins for less than a Euro - not bad going.



The bags and other items I make have been generating a lot of scraps and offcuts lately. I hate to throw things away so I keep anything that might be usable in a scrap box. I thought about using them for the coasters in the book but random surfing led me to this tutorial and I whipped up these coasters quick smart from my scrap box, with no hand sewing required. Incredibly easy and I love that they fit over the base of a wine glass so that wherever you put the glass down it has its own coaster.