When Fabric gets in the mix...

Lately I have been a bit obsessed with textiles. First I have been a little more vicious in incorporating fabric in my jewelry, as seen in this week's new products:

Golden Bohemian Wooden and Fabric necklace, $17

White crystal with blue ribbon and silver broach necklace, $19

Green Gemstone, Wooden Beads, and Purple Ribbon necklace, $23

Party in Pink Faux Pearl and Pink Ribbon necklace, $12

Disco brown ball and lime green necklace, $17

Wooden Beads and Purple Ribbon necklace, $20

And my favorite, this little tulle necklace inspired by some random socialite I saw online

(more on that later this month):

Gold netting and purple pearls necklace, $19

In fact, you can count on more fabric jewelry coming your way - I just signed up for a FABRIC BEAD-MAKING class at the Art Institute here in town and can't wait! (In fact, can I just start my life over and be a professional art student - man all the classes that are offered are SO tempting!). 
Meanwhile, I have been working with the fabric I bought in the garment district in LA, starting with some much-needed curtains for my craft room. I didn't really go into the project with a plan, but one day I was rummaging through my random fabric collection and was reminded of a very random piece of long remnant fabric I bought at a $1/pound store:

Amy Butler "Woodfern Kakhi," though I found it for a ridiculously cheap $.75, you can also find it here on Etsy :)

The fabric was basically being asked to be transformed into curtains - it was literally 5" long and about a 2" wide! I simply folded the fabric long ways, cut it in half, and skipped the sewing machine all together and just pinned the top over on itself to make a little loop for the curtain rod. Voila!

But I had this little lowly piece left:

Which I of course didn't want to go to waste. I had just the solution - a wrist pincushion! Thing was, I had no clue how to make such a thing. Here goes nothing...!

I knew I needed a base so as to prevent the pins from hitting my wrist when worn. The base would also function as the shape for the thing. So I started glue-sticking the fabric on the cardboard...

Then sewed it on to double reinforce it...

And then crammed some stuffing that was left over from my previous pillow project and sewed it shut...

Next was the wrist strap... I used some trim from some other Amy Butler fabric that will be used in a future pillow project (as seen here). First I turned it inside out and sewed it down the side...

Turning it back inside out was the hardest part since it was so thin, and once I figured it out, sewing the fabric together with a stretched elastic piece inside was even harder. Man, I have a WHOLE new respect for those scrunchies that were OH SO popular in the 80's! 

Next I sewed the wrist band to the stuffed topper thing...

And had me a brand new pincushion wristlet!

On that note, if you dig fabric crafts, do check out my friend Linsday's new Etsy shop and her GIVEAWAY with Etsy It Up! Let's wish her well, y'all!