But I had a snow day today and a chance to do a little catching up. We didn't get the snow they predicted, but I don't think there are too many who are feeling disappointed about that. It seems like we get to February and most folks have had just about enough of the white stuff. It doesn't bother me that much, but I do look forward to Spring and being outside more. With that in mind I spent some of my snow day working on a little Spring decoration. I took some pictures in case anyone wanted to make one for themselves or a friend. I think they might make a nice May Day treat. (Boy, I'm really looking ahead now I guess!)
Anyway here's my little tutorial for a
"Pocket full of Posies".
First, you have to find a pair of pants that have seen better days...
Then cut the pockets out of the back like so:
Next, trim around the pocket so that all you can see is the pocket, but leave the fabric from the pants still attached. You need it to still be a pocket!
Now you'll need to put a little hole in the corner for a grommet. You can find a really nice tutorial for adding grommets here at Tallgrass Prairie Studio. The tutorial is down the right hand side of her blog. Her grommets turn out a lot nicer on the back than mine do, so I'd let her be the expert if you need help with this part.
I used a Crop a Dile Punch for punching my holes. It's actually a scrapbooking tool, but it went through the jeans pretty easily.
After I punched the holes I had to snip a little more to make it big enough for the grommets. I used half inch grommets by Dritz. They came with their own little setting tools. I just had to go get a hammer from my husband's workbench - which reminds me I better get that back out there! I want to rust some grommets before I make more of these. I think that would look pretty cool maybe.
After setting the grommets, I got to work on making a little stitchery sign for my pocket. I just hand wrote my message and then stitched over it. I used some variegated thread and a scrap piece of the old quilt I cut up (see last post). I love how it turned out.
Now I should probably fess up and tell you about the running stitch around the outside. I made two of these pockets. The first time I got in a hurry (a common issue for me), and I decided that I could just stitch the little patch right on the pocket with a running stitch by hand. Now mind you, I did at least figure out that I couldn't stitch through all the layers or it would close the pocket. (That amount of foresight is remarkable for me on some days.) However, there is a little problem with trying to stitch by hand through denim down in a pocket. Things got a little crooked, and you have to get kinda forceful with the needle...
Oops! At least it didn't break in two...
So for the second pocket I did the running stitch right after the words, and then I used fusible web to stick it to the pocket. Be careful because you have to use a good bit of heat to get the fusible stuff to melt into the denim. It's easy to scorch your patch. Ask me how I know... Oh well, I decided it helped it to look more primitive.
Once you have all of those steps done the next step is to find some wire and make a little hanger. On the first pocket I used wire from an old notebook that was getting thrown away. (Reuse and recycle - doin' what I can for the environment...) For the second pocket I used the spring that I got when I took some bedsprings apart. That stuff is much harder to bend!
The last thing you do is look through all your hiding spots until you find some artificial flowers that you like the looks of in the pocket. I love that everything from this project was right here in my house. No running out to the store and spending money!
And voila! The finished projects:
I hope this helped you to Think Spring!
