An exchange and two bits of upcycling

Here is a little hardanger needlebook I made for the VSCyberstitchers July Exchange.
Shh. It's a secret where it's going. 
The design is by Kay's Creations, I've had the chart quite a while and an internet search brings up nothing so I'm not sure if she is still designing. 
I used a piece of Belfast linen from Crafty Kitten in Midnight Skies, and Kreinik Silk Serica and Bella (my favourite fibres for Hardanger), added a few Swarowski crystals and lined it with silk dupion. I hope my mystery recipient likes it.

Naomi has been eyeing up some lace shorts. 
They are not cheap. 
This pair was. 

• Take one pair of jeans from the charity shop. 
• Chop off the legs and save for future, as yet undecided, project. 
• Pin some vintage lace round the raw edges so it overlaps the raw edge. (This was some I found in the bottom of my aunt's sewing box, it seems to be the hem from a 50's/60's lace coat dress that had been shortened). 
• Machine zigzag in place (zigzagging will help stop the denim from fraying further)

I added a tiny extra scrap of lace to the pocket at the front, and stitched one of my enormous collection of vintage crochet coasters to the arse pocket*. These have been officially labelled as cool, so I must have got something right ;D

The other upcycled project started life as a vintage pillowslip. (Well, technically I suppose it started life a s a nice crisp new pillowslip, but you know what I mean) The funky retro graphic came from The Graphics Fairy ~ a great source for vintage copyright free graphics ~ I printed it out onto photo fabric (found on EvilBay), appliqued it to the front, and popped a little vintage button on each corner for fun.  I cut a little bit off the top of the pillowslip, made a casing and threaded a manky old shoelace  funky vintage drawstring through and ta da, a nifty laundry bag for Eloise to take away to college in September. 
Now I need to explain that the idea is not to mail it home when it gets full...
I'll be linking this post up to Think Pink Sunday at Flamingo Toes and Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy.
* Blogger does not recognise the spelling of the word "arse", mind you, it doesn't recognise the spelling of the word "Blogger" either...