Pre-Wash & Swap

You must ALWAYS pre-wash and dry your cotton fabric before making a garment. Sigh. Tell me why I don't just throw all my fabric in the washer when it arrives in the mail? I have no idea. For a while now I've had some fabric sitting, still in the box, in our spare room. Today I decided to pull it out and make Kaitlyn the dress from an ebook I bought a couple months ago at least. With everything laid out I was getting ready to cut out the bodice when I realized the error I was about to make. I hadn't washed my fabric yet. I was disappointed my project would have to wait. I grabbed up all the fabric I have for any intended project in the future and washed it all. I also stripped the ironing board and put the cover in the wash too. Neal has starched his uniform so much there is a nice browning coat of starch all over the ironing board cover. Now that I starch my fabric before sewing it I'm only adding to the problem.


So picture me with all my intended clothing fabric in the wash as well as the ironing board cover and I now have nothing to do. I decided to pull out the remaining fabric from the purse I made a week and a half ago.

Instead of the white panel I have some green and black fabric I'm thinking about using. I cut out the front strips (15" instead of 18") then had to stop. I'm not sure I like the green. I'm now debating using the white again or adding a splash of color with some blue or orange fabric I'm planning on making Kaitlyn a dress out of. I decided I wasn't in a rush to sew up the front panel seeing how even if I did I still couldn't finish the purse until the stinkin' ironing board cover comes out of the dryer. I'm back to square one with nothing to do.

On a totally different subject if anyone would like to do a swap for a cloth grocery bag hop on over to swap-bot. I'm doing a swap for a handmade or store bought grocery bag along with two small kitchen items. The kitchen items can be something like a frig magnet, dish towel, or even a recipe. You must be signed up by July 28th to participate.

Another swap I'm hosting is for children's travel toys. In this swap you buy 4 small toys, coloring book, crayons, or any other toy or activity item for a child 1-5 years old. The sign up deadline is July 31st for this swap. I'm excited to see the fun items Kaitlyn will get for our long flight back to the States in a couple months.

Reusable Grocery Bag Swap

I never did post a picture of the grocery bag I made for the swap last week. The lady I was swapping with had in her profile that she is collecting coasters for stocking stuffers. I pulled out two different fabrics and decided to give reversible coaster making a try. Now tell me why I couldn't find a tutorial in time to make these?

The back coaster was my first attempt and the front my second. My first attempt was horrible!!!! Besides the fact I used burgundy thread which matches the other side I didn't fold it right. I cut out eight 5" squares with the intent of making 4" coasters. My mistake happened when I cut eight 4.5" of fusible fleece. I meant to cut the interfacing at 4" so it would give me a line to fold the fabric in and wouldn't cause bulk. It was tedious folding the sides under 1/4" (yes it took a while to notice my mistake). I sewed 1/8" all around the sides then sewed 1/4" spiral all the way to the center. I was very disappointed in the outcome. Here I had three more to go and didn't like the first one. I didn't want to scrap the whole idea, but wasn't sure what to do. It was when I started turning under and pinning #2 that I realized my mistake. I ripped off all the fleece, cut 1/2" off making it 4" and ironed it back on. Instead of folding the sides under I turned the right sides together and sewed around the edges of the fleece while leaving an opening to flip it. The results were so much better. For starters I had the 4" coaster I wanted instead of the crude 4.5" I got with #1. Another change I made was using burgundy bobbin and sky blue thread on top. I've never mixed my thread on a visible portion of a project, but it actually worked out great. I sewed 1/8" around my 4" coaster closing my opening as I went around. I then finished it like I did my first by sewing a spiral pattern 1/4" all the way to the center. I successfully made four coaster and sent them all off with the reusable grocery bag to their new home.

I'm now working on a handmade purse swap with extras.

• So far I have a mini make-up bag which Moki refers to as a pencil bag. If you notice in the pictures the two she shows are different sizes. The instructions make the smaller bag. You would need to make the 10x7 inch strip several inches longer if you want to put pencils in it. It does make a cute little bag. I think it will be a good size to put a compact, lipstick and/or other small items into. I hate digging for those things and even more hate reaching into my bag only to come out with lipstick on my hand because the top came off.
• I've also made a tampon bag for the swap. Heaven help me I can't sew in a circle. All I wanted was a barrel shaped bag with a zipper. Again I couldn't find a tutorial. I even searched for anything dealing with pencils (hence the make-up pouch). I cut out a 6x6.5 inch piece of fabric and attached a 7" zipper to the longer side. I really thought sewing a zipper into such a small barrel would be the hardest part. Boy was I wrong. I had to guess on how big of circles to cut for the end. I knew it would be a bit to much fabric, but I went ahead and cut out 3" circles knowing I would have to cut some off after sewing it on. Pinning it on was a nightmare and sewing it on was worse. I finally got it on, but in the end it wasn't round like I had hoped. Hehehe... I decided I really didn't care because it did the job.
• I still have a tissue cover by Craftapalooza and mini notepad cover by Knitting After Hours to make.

Of course I don't have to make any of it, but thought I would. There actually wasn't a limit to how much you add to the purse. The only rule is 50% of what's inside must be handmade. By the way the purse I'm sending is the black and white one two posts below.

It's Easy Being Green

Last night I tackled the task of making a cloth grocery bag. We really hate using plastic bags because you can't recycle them. Sure you could re-use them once or twice yourself, but when your done with the bag, it's done. I heard someone say once when you throw something away it really doesn't go away. Your trash gets buried somewhere.

A while back we started requesting paper bags. Sure they are not as easy to handle and they take up more room in your car, but they can be recycled. Instead of being such a selfish, "right now", always easy, nation we need to really think how our actions may be effecting our environment.

We've done the cloth diapers so why not try using cloth grocery bags??? Almost five years ago I needed some sturdy fabric to cover something with so I searched the clearance fabric at Walmart. I walked away with some pale green fabric for $1 a yard. I bought more fabric then I thought I needed and was surprised when the project took even less then expected. For almost five years about four yards of the fabric as been stowed away until yesterday. For the body of the bag I used this tutorial by Wisdom Of The Moon. I didn't feel the bag handles in the tutorial were the best choice; they were not made to be strong being simply tacked onto the top. I decided to use this tutorial from Making Something. The bag turned out great. I love how the bottom of the bag turned out. Because it's all one piece it should hold up better. I made the handles out of the same fabric. I cut two 4"x22" strips. I folded them in half, ironed, opened it up and folded each side into the fold, then folded it back in half and ironed. It made the handles 1" wide. I then sewed four seams down each handle 1/8" apart. I did the same thing to the top of the bag. Oh, give me a moment I'll see if I can get a good picture of it.

I didn't take a picture of the bottom corners, but you can kind of see they are folded up just like the instructions said they would.

Here you can see the four seams I put in the top and handles of the bag.

Here you can see how generous the size is. Maybe I should have loaded it up for a better idea. I really see now why Sara said she wanted to make some smaller bags for canned goods. Maybe I'll stitch that one with red thread or put a strip of random fabric on it so the baggers at the commissary will know it's for cans. By the way you all should really check out Sara's blog. She has a lot of helpful tutorials on there. I've had a lot of fun clicking through all the blogs she has linked from her site.

Now I'm off to make another bag. Another project I recently made was a diaper clutch for a baby gift. I'll have to show that one to you later.