A Creative Challenge--Part II

As promised, here is Marian to show us her kit project and tell us about it.  If you missed Part I, my project with Marian's kit, click here.

 

Marian Making Making Marian's Kit

 

Hello!  I'm happy to join you as Lisa's guest.

 

As Lisa mentioned, we are always excited about our kits.  This is such fun, so grab a friend and do the same!  Actually, I believe every year I've had a harder time with the kit I've put together.  We use materials we have on hand, so they are obviously things we are used to working with.  I think it's harder for me to get outside my box when I'm using such comfortable items.  This year was no exception.

 

Lisa showed you the materials I put in my kit.  There was a portion of a fabric jelly roll, some small squares of felt, buttons, sequins, and some thin cardboard 'squares'.

 

I failed to get very creative with this kit.  My first thought was to make zippered cosmetic bags.  Not very original.  I was going to quilt the fabric, embellish it with the sequins and buttons and sew the cardboard squares together to make a box to put them in.  I actually sewed the strips together to make a piece of fabric large enough to cut the first bag.  While lying in bed thinking about it, I decided I wanted to go in another direction.  My next idea also wasn't all the unique, but one I'd never done and thought it would be fun to attempt.  So I got up, grabbed my piece of fabric and took the stitch ripper to all the seamed strips and disassembled it.  I had decided to make a fabric basket.  The only basket I had ever made was one with reeds in a crafts class in junior high school, which was a very long time ago.....

 

 

 

I ended up making a fabric coiled basket.  I stitched the fabric strips together along the narrow end and wrapped it around some cord I had on hand.  Then I wound the coil round and round forming the basket, hand-stitching it as I went along.  I added a handle that I made with cord that I braided.  I sewed a few additional strips together to make ribbons, and I used the felt for little flowers and the buttons and sequins for embellishments.

 



 

I wasn't sure what to do with the cardboard.  I considered cutting a circle and stitching or gluing it to the bottom like is sometimes done to help items stand straight, but decided that was a bad idea.  In the end, I covered a couple pieces with fabric, made another fabric ribbon to latch the cardboard together and made a card.  They turned out cute enough.  I filled Lisa's basket with some Hershey's Kisses and miniature Snickers for a Valentine's treat and called it good.

 



 

It was a fun project and the result was just fine.  It would take many more attempts to make them very even and to perfect them, but I was happy enough with my first attempts.  I'm considering making a couple more for my two youngest granddaughters for Easter, so it was a skill learned that may be useful again.  Not my most creative attempt by miles, but one that was fun and cute enough to not be assigned to the trash...my way of handling failure.

 

First attempt on the left.  Second on the right.   

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Thanks, Marian, for sharing your creative journey with us!  I love your project! 

 

This is such a fun activity for anyone who is creative.  You might want to grab a friend and try it yourself!  Next week we will be posting the projects we made with the kit I assembled.  From time to time we will 'catch up' with all the projects we have done in the past.

 

We would love to hear your comments about our kits and the finished projects.  We are NOT competive at all when it comes to these kits.  We never declare a 'winner'.  We truly enjoy seeing what we each come up with.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great day!

Lisa