Wednesday, October 1, 2008

new project.

for the longest time i have wanted to make a skirt out of men's ties. i don't know where i got the idea, or who i saw with one, but i thought it would be cool.

then i decided a guitar strap would be neat.

well, i never accomplished, or successfully accomplished, either one.

when james and i were getting serious, and i was thinking of our future, and the things i wanted to do to make our home ours. i got to thinking about christmas, and what makes it special. i thought of the christmas stockings ma cross-stitched for so many years, her ceramic village that constantly grew, decorations at friend's houses...

i decided i wanted our house to be like that. made with love. so i thought it would be neat to make stockings, and a tree skirt. i wanted them to be done by our first christmas together. hoping to make james christmas special again. (he hasn't really had many of those since being in the army)

so the ties came back to me. i would use them for a tree skirt. sewn together they would naturally form a big circle.

so i ventured to goodwill last spring, and bought all the striped men's ties i could find. spent about $20 bucks and got a bag full.

james didn't know about any of this, and as i pulled out the bag the other night, he started eyeing them up. he wanted to keep a few of them for himself. too bad! these are for crafts! (guess another trip to goodwill is in my future, this time for him)

after getting my craft room finally in some sort of order, i started tonight. didn't really know how well they would sew together. i am still learning, but so far so good. i love it! they'll lay a little flatter once i iron them.

here is a sneak peak!

it is going to take a lot more ties than i have. it's a good thing i started early. so if you have any striped used car salesman ties, send them south!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is such an awesome idea with the ties...I am trying to figure out with it is that I want to do for my 1st Christmas here. I need to learn how to sew.

Cori said...

Cool! I haven't seen a tree skirt made with ties, but I've seen regular skirts and purses. Once in Goodwill I saw a girl rummaging thru the ties, I asked her what she was making and we sat there and talked awhile. Funny how you can spot fellow crafters.

dobovo said...

my mom made pillows out of my dad's old ties. she said that it was a lot easier to sew them together when she cut off the back part, and just used the front piece of fabric. i don't know if that would work with your idea... you would need something to back them and make a little bit sturdy.., but i thought i would leave the idea with you anyway. i love you. can't wait to see the finished product in picture form.

Big Papa said...

Boy I sure am glad that you didn't say used equipment salesmen ties. Some of them do look awful familiar though.
I like the idea and think that it is a much better use for the material than what it was originally used for.

Anonymous said...

sent a couple ties your way today :)
aunt steph <><

james and michele said...

alright, thank you aunt steph! i'm excited! and you get to be apart of our christmases in more ways than one! woohoo! :)

Anonymous said...

Great idea with the ties!

I totally understand the Christmas/Army thing. Corey and I have been together almost 9 years now and we've still never even gotten a tree even though only 3-4 of those 9 years were spent in the army. Maybe this year? I don't know. Realistically it probably won't happen until we have kids - whenver that is!

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