A pocket full of posies - craft project with seniors in assisted living

This is the latest project we did in the assisted living craft group.  I've seen these pockets at craft fairs.  The ladies in this group always seem to enjoy anything that involves floral arranging and this craft was no exception.  I saved old jeans and simply cut out the pockets, still attached to the seat of the pants, with pinking shears.

 The retirement community has a huge stash of silk flowers left over from table decorations and various functions.  The ladies had a grand time sifting through all of the flowers to pick out those they wanted for their pockets.

We stuffed the bottoms of the pockets with polyester fiber fill.  Then we added the flowers and a little paper basket filler.  I punched small holes in the backs of the pockets so we could attach chenille stems for hangers.  All of the ladies really seemed to enjoy this project.  After the pockets were finished we took turns hanging them on a post in our work area and admiring them.

I get great satisfaction from volunteering and spending time with seniors.  I think the time spent crafting and socializing is good everyone who participates.  

T-shirt squiggles and swirls

 I had fun cutting old t-shirt strips and hand couching them to recycled fabric to make jewelry.  I just used embroidery floss and stitched the strips down.  If you make t-shirt scarves and necklaces you can save leftover bits to make other stuff or just cut strips from t-shirts for anything you can think of.  They are simple to twist and swirl to make designs and they can be attached with thread or glue. The strips I used are about 1 inch wide.  I pulled the cut strips to stretch and curl them into tubes.



To make the wrist cuff I cut two strips about 3 x 10 inches from an old pair of jeans.  After I stitched on the t-shirt strips.  I machine stitched the jean pieces together with the right sides together and left an opening for turning.





I topstitched the cuff and added a button hole and button. 

To make the heart pin I used a bit of a felted recycled sweater and hand stitched everything.  I put timtex interfacing inside two heart cutouts and attached a brooch pin to the back.

Images of Spring

 

I really enjoy the beauty of springtime.