Aloe Bog Coat

The other day I was browsing the local fabric store's clearance section looking for dress fabric.  I am taking a class in dressmking and needed something a little opaque, light weight and a flattering color to use in the class.

I did not find dress fabric but I did see a light weight canvas with a black background and a light aloe leaf printed all over it.

At $4.00 per yard plus other discounts I just couldn't pass up buying three yards of it.

Heck, it might even get made into a dress some day.

I took it home, washed and dried it and then sat on the couch with it straightening the edges and realizing that it would never make it into a dress.

Consumed with guilt about buying another useless piece of fabric, I was prepared to throw it into the donation bin when inspiration struck.

I remembered that when I was in Barcelona several years ago I bought some black trim that I was going to use in making a Chanel style jacket.  I did not make that jacket but I still had the trim.

Falling back on that jacket staple, the bog coat, I made this the other evening:

It looks a little crappy on a hanger but it looks great on with black jeans and a t-shirt.  The trim gives it just a little bit if glamor.  The trim, whem I dug it out of the trim box, turned out to be a little stretchy so it went around the neck and collar areas without any fuss. 

I think I may add a closure but I haven't found anything I like in my drawer of closures.  I 'm sure there is something in there that would be perfect but I need to dig deeper.

All in all a well spent couple of hours.

BUT I still had fabric left over.

I could have tossed the rest into the donation bin but I realized that it was a great weight for a toe bag.... a really huge tote bag.  I have a need for a really huge tote bag to hold all the fabric I have on hand for the Once Upon a Time Bee. This is what I came up with:

Not very glamorous but I boxed the bottom to the size of a bolt of fabric and it is now holding six bolts of fabric and a lot of other bits ready to go to our next sew-in.  It came out at about 24" wide by 22" tall and 12" deep.

Waste from these two projects - from the fabric the little bit I cut out for the neck of the jacket and the little strips from straightening the fabric; from the trim about 2" from the frayed ends.

As I go off and feel smug about my thriftiness I hope you are enjoying the fine fall weather.  If you get a chance, do a rain dance for us here in Houston.  Between no rain for three weeks and lots of little paws running around protecting the back yard from those evil squirrels, my lovely grass is down to dust and weeds.