Let's Get Trashy by Tracy McElfresh - Tracy's Sewing Studio

I was born into a long line of family junkers. Today, I am proud to say it taught me to be resourceful and creative. I am honored to share some personal trash to treasure with you!

Finding some old junk in the garage, sewing room or literal trash that you do not have to buy and then making art out of it has a few names. Some call it up cycling, found object art or recycling. I get some kind of weird high from making these things.

This wreath project is entirely all trash, the inside of the wreath is shredded paper bound with bias tape binding. Someone was throwing out a bag of pre-made bows and I owned the wooden spools of thread.

This was my latest project I added some sparkle to a pair of trendy sunglasses. This was so much fun and fast too.

A neighbor moved out and threw away a bunch of high quality professional picture frames.This project is made of screen, S hooks and glue.

In Ohio when people want to get rid of “good” junk they make a pile in their front yard that is acceptable to take. It is not okay to dig in anyones personal trash cans.

Fabric bowls are fun, easy and free if you already own all of the supplies. These were things that were given to me. I watched a tutorial by Crafty Gemini to make these fun and easy bowls.

Travel sewing kits make great gifts for kids graduating and moving on. Supplies for this project are, eyeglass cases my mother gave me, old tore up patterns, decopauged and little pin cushion made from scraps. Poly fill, saw dust or scraps can be used to fill the pincushion.

My cutting table is even almost trash to treasure. I looked up buying a real cutting table with large cutting mat like I have in my work studio, almost $300. This table was not being used anymore in my garage and the leg extenders are just PVC pipe cut for free at Home Depot. $7

Another trash to treasure project. Discarded pattern paper for wrapping paper, dry rotted snap tape for the bow and recycled paper for the handmade card. Today is the day!
Did you know I used to work for a gift card company and was a card rep in my spare time in 2006. I loved the flexibility, planograms and creativity the cards, gift bags and wraps inspired. Now I make all of my own.

: Art by Kenyata and another picture frame from the trash.

: Glow in the dark reflective art I made with many crazy stitches.

: Rosewood Quilt I made from community scraps.

: T-Quilt from more scraps.

: A lot of my practices are on donated old fabric.

: Skirt to an oversized bag.

Sometimes the community donates for projects as well. My cover photo of the tiny quilts was from donated community fabric and donated clothes pins. If you donated to my addiction, thank you! If you want to see more trash check out this album.

Behind the scenes~

Last week we day tripped to Ann Arbor and I got to finally go to Pink Castle Fabrics. Everyone there was so nice and I got supplies for my next 4 projects including this years Strawberry Festival Dress.

Can you spot some changes?

Thank you for reading,

Tracy McElfresh,

Dream it, Sew it!

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Tracy McElfresh

Owner at Tracy's Sewing Studio

Tracy McElfresh is an alterations and fit specialist, Kettering Arts Council member, and Kettering resident. Tracy has a skillset built from multigenerational roots in the sewing and garment industries. Operating out of a studio located inside Rosewood Art Centre she provides alterations, garment design (including a strong passion for swimwear), formal and casual dressmaking, and sewing classes. Tracy founded a meetup group in 2014 called the Dayton Garment Designers Meet Up that is open to all newcomers at any skill level. In her free time, she is an avid writer and blogger and was a recognized award winner in 2018 as having one of the Best Dressmaker Blogs on the Planet from Blogspot. You can follow her work on Facebook and Instagram at TracySews.

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