Loving All Things Ugly

Last night I had my Monday night sewing class at the Cont. Education College and we were told to bring 1 yard of fabric to class in order to make a gift bag for Valentine's Day. Well, 1 yard of fabric turned into 10 yards of fabric and some fabulously ugly prints. I took some pics to showcase exactly what I mean here.

So this beauty is going to be made into several pillows with a contrasting zipper in Tiffany Blue Teal.

  

And then this gray and striped fabulousness might be made into pillow covers as well, but I haven't 100% decided. It also might be made into several appliques. Which is my NEW favorite obsession. I will explain more in just a bit.

 

Lastly, this pile I wouldn't necessarily call "Ugly", but I am sure most people wouldn't proudly display that plaid in their Casa. However, these pieces work beautiful for this project I just started yesterday, which you can see below.

 

It's awesome right? Kudos to my dear friend Esther (aka Miata) for providing the inspiration behind this piece from a similar wall-hanging from Pier 1 I believe.

A little closer shows you all the different patterns of the fabric. It will eventually turn into a pillow cover as well, with a mustard color zipper. This piece got me so excited I stayed up until 2 am last night designing several other versions with different petal shapes. (**however I must confess that I was also conversing with my friend Carla in Romania and naming our unborn children, her clock was ringing Noon so it was rather perfect timing to be facebook chatting, although I should have been sound asleep)

This last photo shows you the little embellishments I am adding with a needle and thread. I am thinking about adding a rust color thread along with the mustard. I truly am in love with this piece. **mass-production soon to be featured on my etsy shop, unless Anthropologie picks it up and makes my dreams come true ; ) does anyone else want to sell all their belongings and move into that store and call it home?

Lastly, I will show you my rather pathetic "gift bag" I made during class last night. You can tell my heart just wasn't into gift bag making. First, I used white thread on marine blue fabric which could've added a cool design element except that it didn't and secondly the gold ribbon does NOT match the mustard bottom. However, it will be lovingly given to my husband on Valentines Day. For all he knows the gold and mustard are the exact same color and the white thread was meant to be white. Men can be sooo easy to please.... well, sometimes. So without further ado my haphazardly pieced gift bag.

 

I know its not terribly hideous, but I would honestly only give it to my husband or someone who was color blind.