Miser Sewing: A Tote Bag & A Smock

Two events inspired the tote bag and smock I made this week. First, the public library let me try out Angry Chicken's Bend the Rules Sewing book for three weeks. (now that I've had it a full three days, I think I would like to own a copy) The second event was my last online bill pay session...

According to Amy Karol, Angry Chicken's real name, there are four types of crafters:

• The Perfectionist,
  
• The Artist,
  
• The Speed Demon and
  
• The Miser
  

I know what kind of crafter I am, but I don't want to share. Let's just say it's not the first two or the last. Now Amy had nice things to say about each crafter, but she also had a bit of warning for each. But I'm going to focus just on the positive here. Now, I know people who are perfectionists (and they rarely sew as a result, in my opinion). And I know artists, who just ooze creativity. But misers? Miser crafters are those who can create something out of nothing. They don't waste their selvages-they make coasters with them, or puppets, or whatever else they see in scraps. They look through their fabric bins BEFORE they make a trip to the store. Do you know any misers? I can't think of any. So I read Amy's book, then had the itch to make something. But after I paid our bills, it was really obvious that a trip to the fabric store just to satisfy my desire to try a new project was an luxury we should do without. And I was really challenged to think like a Miser...I have crates and crates of leftover fabric. What could I do with it? So how about this: And this: (I almost bragged about how this only required 15 minutes of sewing time, but that would be giving my true crafter self away, now wouldn't it?) This fabric was actually given to me by Mr. Smarty's aunt when she was moving. So the total cost of both of these was $0.44 (Cost of a photocopy enlargement for the pattern in the book)! How cool is that? Now becoming a miser is a new goal. So help me out here. What else can I do with my scraps?