Upclycling a Men's Shirt into a Woman's Blouse

 Remember this men's shirt that I got at a thrift store back in August ...

Look at it now ...

I leveled out the ends and added a ruffled lace that I had in my 'fabric' pantry.  I then turned the sleeves in to 3/4 length, made a small 'pleat' in each sleeve and topped the pleat with a button that came from my button collection.

I then paired it with a pair of jeans and wore it to our church's fall festival.

The only cost I incurred was the cost of the shirt ... $5.99 and of course, my time.

Next in line for upcycling is the pair of oversized jeans I purchased the same time I purchased this shirt.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this transformation and maybe it will inspire you to look at clothing in a different way.  

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

My Sister's Quilt

A reader asked if I would post a picture of my sister's fall quilt from our quilt-a-long after seeing mine.

I ask my sister and she said yes ...  isn't it just beautiful!

I love the rustic log cabin look she went with, she also made hers 4 blocks larger than I did.  Her's is a lap quilt and mine is part of my fall decor (displayed, hanging looped through a grapevine).

Here are mine and hers, side by side ...

Lots of memories were made in the making of these two small quilts.  I highly recommend long-distance quilt-a-longs with someone you love.

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

I Finished the Quilt!

 I wanted to get this quilt quilted last week, but I just couldn't carve out a big enough chunk of time to get it done.

This is my sister and my long distance, via technology quilt-a-long for this fall.

I needed to do some laundry today so in and around loading the washer, unloading the washer, drying, folding and putting away the clean laundry, I worked on quilting this quilt.

I worked off and on, on it all day, and here is the finished product! 

(It was early evening when I snapped this picture, so the colors don't show up as well as they do in brighter daylight.)

I absolutely love it and now have it displayed hanging through a grapevine wreath on an inside door in my house.  

(It's not a full-size quilt!)

Guess what!!!  My sister and I enjoyed working on this pattern so much that we're going to do a Christmas version this fall/winter as well!

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

It's That Time of Year!!

 It's the time of year that my sister and I do a long-distance, via technology, quilt-a-long.  This will be our 3rd year.  In previous years we've done Christmas quilts, this year we're going to do a fall themed quilt.

I think fall is my favorite time of the year!  Maybe because after sweltering through a hot and humid summer, I am ready for cooler weather and the changes that fall brings.

We worked on step one today!  Can anyone guess the pattern we're using?

I hope you enjoy following our quilt-a-long journey this fall, we always have so much fun!  

We can get quite silly ...

Sometimes we laugh so hard we cry ...

Sometimes we want to 'pull our hair out' ...

Sometimes we wonder, 'what were we thinking?' ...

Sometimes we just have to put it away because we have had ENOUGH ...

But we wouldn't trade the experience for anything!

Until next time,

patsi @ A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study.  Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness.  Join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.

Items I use in keeping my pantry well-stocked:

Dehydrator

Dehydrator Teflon Sheets

Dehydrator Cookbook

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer

Herb/Coffee Bean Grinder

Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

Canning Supplies

Food Scale

You can view my privacy policy HERE.

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Transferring Embroidery Designs

 In this post, I shared about my quest for a design to embroider on a piece of toweling I had turned into a kitchen towel.  Today, I transferred the design onto the towel using the following method ...

The first thing I did was to make a copy of the design I wanted to use.

I flipped the design over and using just a plain #2 pencil I went over the design.

Then I flipped the design back over and placed it where I wanted it on the towel.  Using the same pencil, I went over the design on the front side, pressing down firmly but not firm enough to rip the paper, being careful to hold the pattern in place.

I removed the paper when I was finished and had a somewhat faint pattern of my chosen design.

Using the same pencil again, I went over the lines darkening them.  The design is now ready to stitch!

When I finish stitching it, I plan to hang it as decor.  I have a hook mounted on the wall waiting for its completion!

I used this method for transferring designs many years ago but had forgotten about it until a dear reader reminded me of it.  Thank you!

I hope you find this method useful, now, let's head back to the archives ...

Building a Basic One Month Preparedness Pantry:  Part 1

Until tomorrow!

Patsi 

Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

A Working Pantry

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

You can view my privacy policy HERE.  

Sewing My Stash! 11/14/22

 I've been sewing daily and am loving every minute of it!

Take a peek at what I'm working on ...

The Christmas quilt my sister and I are working on via technology is coming together beautifully!  Here's another part of the blocks we're making, we continue to thoroughly enjoy the journey!

I finished the top for this cuddle quilt for one of my grands!

Here's another Christmas cuddle quilt I'm making for another grand!

Each cuddle quilt measures approximately 40 x 50 and is meant for cuddling up with when the mood strikes.

I love that my sewing nook is set up in my kitchen/dining room area which makes sewing in snippets of time very productive! I can cook, work in the kitchen and sew in between.

And, as the tittle of this post indicates, I'm using what I have in my fabric stash for all three of these projects!

Until next time, 

patsi      

Sharing 42 years' experience of adult frugal living and pantry building 

A Working Pantry

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

A Working Pantry is a way of life, a lifestyle if you will!

My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family.  It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed.  It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.' 

You can follow A Working Pantry on Instagram for more of our daily doings!

You can view my privacy policy HERE. 

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Two Sister's Quilt: Update 11/5/2022

My sister and I are closing in on finishing week one of our annual winter quilt along via technology project.  Here's what we've gotten done thus far ...

I broke the project down into steps and this is what we did in step one ... a whole lot of cutting!

Step 2 called for cutting and sewing ...

Step 3, called for cutting and sewing too!

This is where we're at right now, we've kept technology hopping sharing pictures, texting, and just plain having fun!

We don't work on it straight through or all the time.  We're taking our time, each working on our own individual time frames, living life and walking away from it when a break is needed!  This project is meant to be enjoyed and not stressed over and that's the way we're proceeding.  No deadlines, just slow and easy ... which fits the both of us perfectly!

This project is also reducing our fabric stash, both of us have committed to using what we have, hence this quilt is going to be scrappy!  I am loving how mine is turning out and I've seen pictures of my sister's; her scraps are working up pretty cute too!

(We chose our pattern from Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas quilt book.)

Until next time, 

patsi      

Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal living and pantry building (if you include my frugal childhood, well that would add a few more years to my experience!)

A Working Pantry

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

A Working Pantry is a way of life, a lifestyle if you will!

My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family.  It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed.  It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.' 

You can follow A Working Pantry on Instagram for more of our daily doings!

You can view my privacy policy HERE. 

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

Hello November!

November means a lot of things at our house!  We have birthday's, the thanksgiving holiday and this ...

It's time for my sister and I to start our fall/winter quilting project! 

This year we chose a pattern from Lori Holt's Vintage Christmas quilt book and today we're tackling our first 'assignment.'

I look over the project as a whole ahead of time and break assignments down into small doable steps.  When we finish each step (we wait until both of us have finished each step before moving on to the next), I send her the next step and so on until we finish the quilt top, then we start the quilting phase.  Both she and I hand quilt our quilts.

Did I mention that we do this project together while living 12 hours away from each other.  We text, video chat, message each other, share pictures, giggle and laugh and just have a whole bunch of fun.  We've even been known to hold a project up so that one could mail the other a piece of fabric that she just loved or wanted in her quilt.  I have looked forward to our second annual quilt-along since we finished last years!

Here's part of assignment #1 that I've completed ...  can you tell what we're making?

 

As far as I'm concerned, the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas) begins today!  A little at a time and bit by bit I'll start bringing out decorations for both holidays blending them together to make our home a right jolly place of thanksgiving this holiday season!

Happy November everyone!

Until next time, 

patsi      

Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal living and pantry building (if you include my frugal childhood, well that would add a few more years to my experience!)

A Working Pantry

My second blog:  From This Heart of Mine 

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

A Working Pantry is a way of life, a lifestyle if you will!

My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family.  It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed.  It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.' 

You can follow A Working Pantry on Instagram for more of our daily doings!

You can view my privacy policy HERE. 

Thank you for using my Amazon affiliate link when placing your Amazon orders. I earn a small percentage that doesn't increase what you pay, and it helps me keep my pantry well-stocked! 

Disclaimer: Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links.  This means that if you click on the link and place an order, etc I earn a small fee at no increased cost to you. Thank you for your support through these means.

January 2022 Makes and Finishes

 January was a productive month with several makes and finishes ...

I finished hand-quilting this quilt.  This is the one that my sister and I each did.  We had so much fun texting, sharing, laughing, talking, videoing and working on our respective quilts together even though we live 12 hours apart.  I used scraps I had on hand for this project. The only thing I had to purchase was the stars on top of the trees.  This is a free pattern, but I can't find where I got it online!

When I saw this video on making small draw string bags, I knew I wanted to make some; I stitched up several for use next Christmas.  These are also made from scraps.

I printed off these hymnal bookmarks and laminated them.  I'm using them as gifts and for encouragement in cards that I send when appropriate.  These are a freebie too and can be found HERE.

I completed this quilt top ... yes, my sister did this one also!

It's a free pattern that can be found HERE

I started stitching up this blanket using yarn scraps.  Who knows how long it will take me to finish this up!!!

I don't have room for a regular size design wall, so I made this one to fit the side of a filing cabinet.  It won't hold a whole quilt, but it works fine for blocks and smaller projects.  I used this video as my guide.  

I have a fondness for red ticking and when I saw a stocking that a friend had done, I knew I wanted to do something similar.  I'm not finished with this one yet, but I'm well on my way.  I hope to finish it in February.  I used this video as my guide.

I completed this 'love you' cross-stitch pattern and turned it into a mini pillow.  It is now stuffed and on display with my other valentine decor.  This is another free pattern found HERE.

I completed this small cross-stitch project and turned it into a mini pillowcase.  I still have to make the pillow form that goes inside before packing it away for next Christmas.

Whew!  That was a lot ... I don't think I realized how much I accomplished in January until I started compiling this post.  (Not all months will be this productive!)

Also started, but not shown, is ...

a pair of pants for me

another cross-stitch mini pillowcase

3 pillowcases for Ryan's Cases for Smiles

a 24" Christmas throw pillowcase 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my makes and finishes for January!

patsi

A Working Pantry

She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27

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