Found a use for my ole FOE !

I did it ! Cut it pretty close – my hair was still dripping from a very necessary shower when we showed up to Game Day, ten minutes late – but the bookmarks I wanted to make were done in time, even though it took longer than I planned. I shouldn’t  have been surprised, I was doing something new, using a purchase to do some new tricks it wasn’t made for, but it’d be worth it if it worked ! And it did !

So, here’s the deal. School starts next week, and our friend S. has two kids, one home-schooled (O., Dearest Son’s best friend) and one in public school (C., an older daughter, and Dearest’s first crush). I had an idea I wanted to try, and I’d need to successfully make several of ‘em, make sure I got the sequence correct. If I could do what I wanted, it’d open up a world of single use purchases/ freebies now available for many other projects ! Heck, some digitizers sell the same design set up separate ways, something I’d be working out how to do for free. That’d really be making the most out of my expenditures !  And I knew Dearest’s friends would appreciate a small back-to-school gift. Just don’t need that many bookmarks, ya know. 

Specifically, I wanted to use ‘feltie’ designs, made to glue on hair clips or big bows, on fold-over elastic, as stretchy bookmarks or headbands. At first, I thought to stitch the elastic ends together and embroider on vinyl on top of them, but I realized the stitched spot would be hard to penetrate with Brody’s needle, and it’d be dead-center in the design. Ended up tacking down the elastic ends by using the first vinyl step, then repeating it for the vinyl. From there, all I’d have to do is finish the design. 

That’s what the ‘swirled snowflake’ designs are. That’s the design as sold, added to fold-over elastic. And it went well. But I knew O. and S. weren’t much on snowflakes, so could I use that design’s circle, switch to another design in the middle, then go back to the circle’s finish step ?  If I could do all that, could I possibly cut out the circle without scissoring the elastic ?

Yup ! I had to do O.’s twice, because I was in such a hurry, I unhooped it a microsecond before I realized I’d forgotten to attach the back vinyl. Arrrrgh ! Ironically, his was stitched with that notoriously hard to use metallic iridescent plastic-y thread, without a single break. And I had to cut S.’s sunflower elastic because it got twisted in a way that wouldn’t straighten out – I actually managed to cut out all four safely. They were well-received, with two being put to use. O. saw the potential of his as a slingshot, and C. wore hers almost instantly. I was well-thanked, and tried edamame for the first time. Not bad ! I kept the other snowflake. Elastic on it is too long for any but the largest Barbie books. 

Everyone had a good time at Game Day, and from there, Dearest and I had a few errands. I wanted to hit the thrift I got Rose (Animator’s Sleeping Beauty) from, since we hadn’t gone in a couple weeks. Nothing there. Harbor Freight had small 99¢ needle-nose pliers in stock, so I got one for me, one for Beloved Hubby, and decided to hit the usually depressing GoodWill next door. Snagged a messy-haired Playmates Snow White Little Disney Princess doll and a small yellow sewing box, probably not vintage (same construction, but different finish), still a good size for my Kam Snaps setup. Not bad for $4. total ! 

I’d skipped lunch to finish the bookmarks, and I was ravenous. A quick trip to Dollar Tree across the street got us some cheep snacks (we already ate the weekend lot), including a bag of Frozen Candy Mix. 15 Pieces ! You’ll get to see that, along with Snow, later this week. Ate, took meds, crashed on the sofa for an hour. Wheee !