Beeting Hearts

HAPPY EARTH DAY!
I like to celebrate Earth Day every day, but the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day is this Thursday. I have three or more events to go to that day. Yay! This will be my Earth Day outfit. The shirt I got over the weekend at my friends Clothing Swap Extravaganza. The necklace is from UgaBeads and is made out of recycled paper and the vintage skirt is from the 40's, I got at a thrift store.

I have been interested in doing applique. The word applique is a french word that, in this context, means "that has been applied." So basically it is a needlework technique in which pieces of fabric, embroidery, or other materials are sewn onto another piece of fabric to create designs, patterns or pictures. I found this wonderful organic cotton patch with the design of two beets. It is called "Beeting Hearts." It brings a smile to my face and reminds me of how important our Earth is. I ordered from the designer who painted it at Etsy and she sent me the bird design for free. http://www.etsy.com/shop/trumblydesigns I sewed the patch onto the skirt. I think it is a little more hippie than I like, but it adds pazzaz to such a plain skirt.

As always fashion can be eco-friendly. There are many ways to be eco-friendly and be fashionable. Here are some examples:

You can buy vintage, used or have a clothing swap

You can re-use materials or fabric. You can re-make clothes out of other clothes. These are made out of newspapers and junk mail

You can use natural fabrics like bamboo, hemp or organic cotton even for fancy occasions. The green and black dresses are made out of the waste from the silk industry.

Earth Day is not about consuming, even if it is "eco-friendly" or "green." It's about thinking about our impact on the earth and what we can do to lessen that impact. I hope you all get to go outside, enjoy nature and our beautiful planet! Remember the "Beeting Hearts."

I dedicate this post to myself!

Dear Sally

Thank you sewsallysew for writing your blog about sewing and such for over a year now. I just noticed that you started your blog on April 1st of 2009. It just proves that you can be dedicated to something for over a year and that sewing and crafting are not just a fad, but an interest that will last awhile. Even though sometimes you ramble on about life and don't always post things about sewing I think you are a smart, cute, funny and all around amazing person and I look forward to reading and viewing more of your thoughts and creations.

Love,

Sally

The Hardest Button to Button

Buttons: They are used for keeping pants up, combining two sides of fabric for shirts, for decoration, they are used in place of a zipper, etc. etc. As a sewer I have quite a collection of buttons.

One way I have decided to to use buttons is to to make rings. I used my jewlery clippers to snip off the back of the rings. The back's have to be flat so that I can glue them onto the ring. Once that is done I glue gunned the buttons to the rings.

And walah, just like that I have some fun rings. They are as cute as a button (wink, wink). They go with everything, even a Sharks hockey game. :)

I found this BeBe skirt recently at a thrift store. I really liked it, but hated the buttons. So I took them off and added these plastic flower buttons.

Old one's

New one's

Buttons will eventually fall off your clothes so it's good to know how to sew back on a button correctly.

Here is an easy to follow lesson on how to sew a button:

http://www.wikihow.com/Sew-a-Button

What is the hardest button to button?