Discount Bleach Pen A Dud For Dots

I have nothing to report on my first process on my altered couture jeans. I had picked up the bleach pen at a discount store. I applied it to jeans and after several hours there were no dots and not a single thread was lightened. Of course, I had expected to see white dots appear in 5 minutes. Now I plan to work with liquid bleach and an old brush, if I don't buy another bleach pen at a regular price store. The pen I tried to use may be old and outdated. I remember reading something some time ago about bleach losing its potency after a while.

BeadTonic Eyeglass Cases & Chains

Here are the first two eyeglass case & chain sets. I have been planning them for several months. Eventhough I love to I had to force myself to set up my sewing machine and sew.

I used one of my cases as a pattern and cut out one piece of fabric and folded in half. I sewed on the fabric trim before I assembled the cases, topstitching with a zigzag stitch.

The green case was cut from a fabric scrap that had a finished side so I saved time by using this for the top edge. I used a strip of fuchsia ribbon to make a fold over binding for the top edge of the pink case. This was my first time doing this and I was pleased with the result.

I used lightweight craft batting for the lining. It was easy to glue it along the top of the fabric piece (about 1/4" from the top) with fabric glue and fold it down. I then folded the sandwiched pieces in half, inside out and stitched together the side and bottom.

I turned them inside out and sewed on seed beads trim. I glued and then tacked down with thread the buttom trim on the pink one.

I designed and strung the bead chains. I have two more finished cases to design chains for.