Spoony jewelry

I have a big box of silver plated silverware from my grandmother. It's nice and all -- really, it's really nice, and I'm grateful to have it -- but I'd never actually USE it because honey, you can't just drop that stuff in the dishwasher. So what else could I do with it? Anything meaningful?

I heard once that "spoony" was an old slang term for "looking good." Or something like that. Anyway. A friend of mine recently graduated from seminary. I want her to look spoony.

From the top:

From the back:



I used a Dremel to cut off the bowls of the spoons and sand the ends smooth. I taped felt pads onto the business end of two pairs of pliers (otherwise it would chew up the metal) and just bent, bent, bent ... bent back ... bent ... bent back a little more ... ugh ... bent ... yay! Done!

I used a jump ring to hook the front sides together. It was a bit tricky to get it on myself with a lobster claw, so I switched to a magnet clasp. Works so much better.

Bowling ball bag project

While looking at Wii games at Target the other day, I saw a Wii travel bag designed to look like a bowling ball bag. "Cool!" I thought, because I'll be taking the Wii to SD for Christmas with the family. But I ought not buy a $30 bag -- no matter how cool -- that I'm going to use maybe twice a year. I ought to wrap the whole thing in a towel and put it in a tote bag -- that's more my budget right now.

But it got me to thinking: Bowling ball bags are cool. So the next time I was at Savers to drop off a bag, I buzzed through the bag section. And there it was, for $4.99!



It still had the ball ring stand inside. The rest of the inside sort of sucked -- it was just the B side of the vinyl. (Ignore the newspaper -- that was for the pattern of what I'm getting to.) I washed the bag with hot, soapy water, then zipped up a bowl of vinegar in it overnight to get rid of the vaguely room-deodorizer-ish Savers smell. It worked really well.

Then I remembered this fabric called "Atomic Ale." I first got some of this a long time ago to make a wallet. When the bolt went on closeout, I had to buy another yard. No idea what I would do with it, but I knew something would present itself.

I wasn't sure I'd have the patience to sew the lining into the vinyl, so I made a pattern out of newspaper, then hemmed a piece of the fabric to fit each section. I adhered the fabric to the vinyl with adhesive craft spray. So far it's sticking really well!

A friend asked me, "What will you do with the bag?" I said, "What WON'T I do with it?" I think I will start by making pouches and sleeves out of Reflectix or bubblewrap for all the Wii components, and then covering the pouches and sleeves with the fabric I have remaining. I think it's going to be so awesome.