Pay it Forward 2011

A couple weeks ago I saw this on facebook:

Pay it Forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this and send something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. *The rules are that it must be handmade by you, and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in 2011. Ready? Go!

And  I promptly commented, "Fun! I'm in!" and reposted it asap. I had my 5 takers pretty quickly and I think from those takers I noticed at least 10 others in the next couple days. I love this kind of stuff. 

(BUT, I'll admit to sucking at the dishtowel/sock/sticker/mail something to me and move your name up to the #1 spot, then mail this to 273 of your friends letters. This seems to be way more about spreading the love than getting so many dishtowels you could carpet a grade school gym.) 

Yesterday was a holiday and I spent it with Grace, watching the Wizard of Oz and sewing. A 'handmade' item can be machine sewn, right? I'm still using my hands.

Grace got the first one, for practice, and to keep her happy. (A fitting sacrifice for the hormonal, temperamental 6 year old.)

 

Grace picked the materials, even though I explained how they weren't really going together. She remained unconvinced. And she's very happy with it!

It even went to school with her today.

Then I started working on the others for the 'Pay it Forward' initiative. I did buy some stabilizer and fun material to line these with (my stash seems to be out of fun material) And then repurposed jeans, which is fun and free, it just takes some time to cut them up.

Here's the preview:

The smaller/lighter jean colored one measures about 4x5 inches and is about 5 inches tall. The other with the darker jean is a little bigger but I didn't measure it. I got the general idea on the pink penguin blog and the 57+ other blogs that make them, too, all pointing back to the pink penguin! WoW! I didn't want patchwork so I changed it up to suit. I really like the basket with the jean only on the bottom.

I also used part of the jean side seam for the handles. It has kind of raggy look, but it's made with half repurposed materials, so I'm OK with that. I'm giving these away tonight with the last messenger bag.

I have about 10 more to make and they are already mostly cut out. Are you going to do the 'Pay it Forward 2011' thing? You should! And then you should take pictures before you ship it out to show off! Fun stuff!