I altered a graduation robe for my son for Halloween. He wants to be Darth Sidious- add a hood to a graduation robe - one Sith costume to go :)
For the holiday fair for my son's school I am sewing purses from vintage ties.
Outside view of the purse
Inside view
I have to make about 25 of them for the fair. They are pretty quick to make. (about an hour). I got the ties from tag sales over the summer and added vintage buttons. I have a giant box of ties sorted by color. The challenge is come up with something that isn't completely hideous, and that a pre-teen might like. It uses half of a tie for the purse. I use one of the spare tie halves for the shoulder strap. I think it looks cute with jeans!
To make this purse you need a minimum of 3 ties. I either use the narrow end pieces from other ties, or the narrow ends of the tie to fill make it a little wider. One half tie is used for the shoulder strap. I use a wide zig zag stitch to join them and slightly overlap them when I'm sewing them. You can sew them with invisible thread or a complementary thread color.
Vintage ties tend to sell for $.50 - $2 depending on what your thrift store wants to sell them for. I bought a GIANT box lot of them on ebay for this project. Better yet, ask your Dad, Husband, and Grandpa for their old ties.
I'm created an etsy page to sell them.
