Feeling Crafty and Other Happenings

Football camp has officially started for Leslie which means he's working from 6am- at least 10pm Monday-Saturday. This leaves me a bit lonely and very bored until work starts for me (which thankfully is next Thursday). Even once work starts, I'll have some time to sit around the house, so I'm very glad that my sewing skills seem to have improved! In middle school I attempted to make a stuffed dog that the BFF affectionately named roadkill... My sewing skills really couldn't go anywhere but up :)

So my two favorite projects so far involved button up shirts from Goodwill! I got the idea for both on pinterest (surprise surprise)! My first shirt of choice was a very manly shirt that I found for $3.99.

All you really had to do was cut off the top part, measure and piece together a waistband, pin it so it was a bit ruffly and was the same length, and sew! I skipped the cutesy little tie that was in the tutorial I used, and I ended up using a button instead of elastic because I didn't leave room for my waistband to stretch- oops!

Waistband and the bottom part of the shirt for the skirt part!

My skirt!  

I realized yesterday that all of my cutesy little bags to take to my books to class in had been left in Texas. Sure, I have a perfectly fine backpack, but that's not the point here. So I decided I had to find a bag on pinterest that I could make! I quickly came across a bag that was made from a button up shirt, and although there was no tutorial, I had such good luck with my last button up that I decided to try it!

I forgot to take a picture of the original shirt, but this one was thankfully found in the ladies' section :). When I got home and cut up the shirt I decided it was a bit too thin to carry my books around in, so I lined it with some white material I had laying around. Then I just sewed around the edges and added some handles and made a cutesy little flower, and ta-da! Bag!

Here are the links I used for my crafty fun:

Skirt from a men's shirt: http://www.craftstylish.com/item/44969/how-to-make-a-belted-skirt-from-a-mens-dress-shirt

Surprisingly easy little flowers: http://www.projectwedding.com/wedding-ideas/diy-wedding-challenge-2010-fabric-flower

In other news, I was able to go back to Tuscaloosa last weekend to graduate! Our graduation was postponed because of the tornado that hit on April 27th.

April 27th was a Wednesday, and the tornado hit around 5:00 that evening. My roommates and I were very blessed to be some of the only remaining people in Tuscaloosa with power, but we were without cable and internet, so we were shocked to hear from others just how much had been destroyed. We found out several days later that finals had been canceled. School was over- graduation postponed. We were done with college. And that was it. Most of us stayed in Ttown to volunteer however we could, and we were very blessed that our church family at Calvary found lots of places to put us to work. In the evenings, we all got together at our college minister's house for dinner, fellowship, and prayer. It was a strange time, and it seemed as if everything normal had stopped and everyone was doing what they could to help. We had tons of people coming into town to help clean up, to donate blood, or to donate items and food. There were people from other states who brought truckloads or who decided that they would come to stay for as long as they needed to because they felt the Lord calling them to help. When I went home, my heart still wanted to be in Tuscaloosa. I felt like I should be going back again to finish school- but it was over.

I'm so glad that I was able to go back to graduate and that a lot of my family was able to be there :) It was a very nice ceremony and the families of the 6 students who died in the tornado were there to accept their diplomas. It was all certainly an experience that I will never forget!