Here, carry this! A reusable shopping bag sewing tutorial.

 Shopping Bag Sewing Tutorial

I'm a bit of a reusable bag hoarder. I have far more bags than I could ever fill in any single shopping trip. But I love collecting them and adding them to my 'container' obsession collection. Yes.. I have a problem.. I am addicted to containers. Boxes, baskets and bags galore. Now, don't take this as some indication that I'm an organized person.. because I'm not.. but I love containers.

 

Along with being only semi organized on a good day (and we just started potty training Master Luke. *pulls hair*) I sometimes decide I need extra stuff on my plate. So, I recently participated in a 'Shopping Bag' swap with some other members of a sewing group on Facebook. And it had a deadline. Yikes!

 

Anyway, the type of bag was left up to the interpretation of the sewer and I decided to go with a pattern I made modeled after a plastic grocery store bag. I created this pattern a couple years ago and made a bunch of bags I gave around to the ladies in my RE office at Christmas.

 

 It was a fun swap and the bag I got was big and amazing and fun. I was using it right away.

 

So here it is, in the wee hours of the morn, whilst children sleep and husbands snore,

The Tutorial.

 

I took apart a plastic grocery bag and ended up with the pictured half bag pattern. The dotted line is a pleat that folded into the bag. For this bag I used about a 1/2 yard of corduroy floral I had in my stash, along with some teal colored lace. You can use pretty much any fabric and any embellishments you would like. I found this fabric was probably heavier than I would use in the future or that I have used in the past.. but it worked out fine for this project. I bought the double fold bias binding and thread at the local craft joint.

 

I folded my fabric and cut 2 pieces, placing the pattern on the fold.

 

 

I wanted a pocket so I started with that. I cut a rough 'bowl' shaped piece to a size appropriate for the front of the bag. This was about 10"x10".

 

 

I folded and ironed the top edge down about 1/4".

 

 

Flipped it over, folded the top down about 1" and ironed again.

 

 

I then sewed a 1/4" seam from the fold to the crease of the original 1/4" fold on both sides of the  top of the pocket.

 

 

I then trimmed just the top seam allowance and snipped the corner as shown.

 

 

I then flipped the 1" piece back over, tucking in the corners and pushing them out with a blunt, pointed object (I use a small dowel) and sewing it down along the edge across the top.

 

 

I then ironed the edges up a 1/4" all around.

 

 

I added a piece of the teal lace here, sewing it down across the top of the pocket. Then I pinned the (camouflaged!) pocket to the front of one of my bag pieces in about the center and sewed it on close to the edges leaving the top open.

 

 

I then added a length of the lace to the 'back' piece of my bag, placing it at about the height as the pocket lace.

 

I then put the 2 pieces WRONG sides together. I'm doing a French seam here. It will enclose your seam and make the inside of your bag finished.

Sew the straight sides and bottom and the top part of the handles together with a 1/4" seam. Do not stitch the rounded part or the square, center handles closed.

 

Turn the bag inside out and stitch the same using a 5/8" seam, enclosing the other seam within the seam line.

 

 

Then I folded the sides over at the place the dotted line fell on the pattern piece. I folded one to the front and one to the back. I sewed them in place along the bottom seam line only.

 

 

This is what that pleat looks like from the outside.

 

 

I then pinned the bias binding around the handle holes. On this type of double fold, bias binding, one side is a smidgen narrower than the other. It's made that way so you can sew on the narrower side and be almost certain to catch the binding on the other side.

My point is.. Put the narrower side facing up on the side you intend to sew on.

 

 

 

I actually turned my bag inside out and sewed from this angle. It was much easier to sew around that smallish hole. I put the narrower side of the binding on the patterned side.

 

I then finished off the big opening the same way. I did learn that I have a lot to learn about attaching bias binding.. but it turned out ok.

 

 

I then folded over the handle from the outside at the point the dotted line was on my pattern, which happens to be the same depth as the pleat you already created, and sewed a straight line across the top to attach it.

 

 

And here it is! Finished shopping bag. Oh.. I did add a little tab and snap to the pocket as an afterthought.. but I didn't catch any photos of it.. sorry!

 

 

The End

Suck on These Beads Baby! Teething Necklace Tutorial

                     

  Knotted Nursing and Teething Necklace

 

Every so often I see a mom wearing a big ole chunky necklace that a wee babe in her arms is playing with and chewing on. Sometimes they are silicone beads, sometimes wood beads, and sometimes cloth covered beads of some sort.

 

I wanted some of those necklaces! My little hulk baby Master Bruce isn't a passive infant anymore. At 4 months he is Eyes Wide Open to the world. Those little hands grab (and yank!) at everything, and now that he's making some signs of teething (already?) much of that is going straight to his mouth. So without further ado, here is my version of the Knotted Nursing and Teething Necklace.

 

I started with a strip of fabric that I liked.. about 45" long and 5" wide. I found a coordinating ribbon from my stash. Then I took a trip out to JoAnn Fabrics and found these untreated 1" wooden beads. This shape is actually called 'wheels' and I chose it because it seemed like an interesting textured shape.
 

Then I ironed the fabric in half right sides together, lengthwise. Stuck one of my beads in and marked it's width. I then sewed it into a tube at that measurement and trimmed away the excess

I then turned my tube right side out. I happen to have a handy little tube turner tool but you can feed a length of ribbon down on a safety pin if you don't have one.

Then I started sticking in beads. I knotted it at about the middle point and put 4 on each side with another knot in between and ending with a knot.

I got my shiny brown ribbon and stuck it in the open ends of the tube and sewed it shut. My fabric happened to be cut selvedge to selvedge but if yours isn't you just tuck the end of the tube in to finish the edge.

 

Then I cut the ribbon at it's center and did a lighter melt to then ends. Ribbon like this is usually a synthetic and if you 'melt' the ends with a brief pass of flame it finishes the cut fibers.

 

 And there you have it! As you can see they look really hot over my modern NKOTB t-shirt my dress form wears.. and the slobbering Master Bruce loves them too!

The End

 

I Dyed and Went to Wrap Heaven!

 As part of my current baby carrier obsession, I decided I needed a dyed wrap. I was seeing lots of mama's talk about them in my carrier diy group on Facebook and I loved the way some of them were turning out. So I joined the 'Dyed Baby Carriers' group and snooped around in there during a few breastfeeding sessions and got some ideas and instructions on how to do what I wanted. Following is how I got to that fine dyed wrap you seen my chunky monkey lounging in!

I bought some Osnaburg utility muslin and a tie dye kit at my local Hancock Fabrics. It contained some pre-measured bottles of 3 colors - Blue, Green and Turquoise. I only used the Blue and Turquoise.




I then washed and dried my fabric, cut it to the size I needed and serged all the edges the way I like them. I then folded it accordion style to the width of my shoe box bucket I decided to use for dying.

I then hung a tension rod in my shower (you could use the one the curtain hangs on.. I just happened to have another one), put a tv tray table in the tub, set my dye bucket on it and mixed my dye in the bottle. I then poured it into the bucket. I hung my fabric above the bucket and adjusted the rod so that 1/3 of my fabric was laying on the bottom in the dye. I carefully added more water until there was a few inches in the bottom and then wearing rubber gloves I dipped and swooshed and moved the fabric around until it was saturated and laying evenly in the dye solution.

 

 
 
I let it sit for about 45 minutes in the dye and then spread it over the tension rod and sprayed it out with cold water until the water ran clear. I used straight pins to hold it up on the bar. (Of course I forgot to photo the spray out the first time so yes.. this photo depicts the turquoise spray out.)

 After the water was running clear I wrung it out as best I could and put it into a hot rinse cycle and then into the dryer on the hottest setting. Then I repeated the process with the turquoise on the opposite side!

You can see by my finished photo that I did a much better job on the turquoise than the blue. But doesn't everybody do something better the second time?

 

In the end I loved it.. imperfections and all. It looks so beachy in 'real life'. I actually wish I had left one edge the natural instead of the middle so it appeared to be sand leading to water leading to sky.

Also.. note that I did not follow all the steps a perfectionist dyer might. They scour (boil) their fabric with dish soap and soda ash (washing soda) and add soda ash to the dye. I'm both lazy and impatient and really this was just an experiment so I didn't do all that. If you want to do a dye job 'right' I suggest doing some research before starting. But if you just want to have fun, get to dying!



 

The End

Lucky Mustache, or Freezer Paper Stenciling Tutorial

Lately I've been obsessed with 'Babywearing'. I didn't wear Master Luke much beyond the Bjorn because the thing was uncomfortable to wear and I didn't know anything about new fangled (actually Old School!) type wearing. So, with the arrival of Master Bruce, much more learned in the ways of the Mommy, I decided I must try wrapping. You can see MB all wrapped up when we went to visit Santa at our boat club. A 'wrap' is basically a long piece of fabric you wrap around you and baby and tie at the end.

 

Then I found this Facebook Group dedicated to DIY babywearing gear. Making, altering, decorating freaks just like me... but all about kid carriers. After spending a bit of time stealing ideas I decided to make a Ring Sling. Basically it's a shorter piece of fabric with 2 rings at one end that you thread the other end through. Sort of like those 'D' ring belts. You can see MB snuggled up in the first one I made on a recent lazy Sunday morning. See also the pic of ML helping Mom try it out when MB was asleep.

 



Turns out that I prefer the Ring Sling over the Wrap. So what should I do with my wrap? Cut it up and make it into two Ring Slings of course!

While I'm waiting for my rings to arrive in the mail I realized, these aren't blingy enough for me.. they need decoration. So on RS #1 I used some stencils I got on sale at Michaels and added some rockets and stars. It took FOREVER!

 

Then, for some reason I was envisioning mustaches on RS #2. (Probably because a crafty gal in the Group made a carrier cover out of a kids mustache decorated hoodie, and it ROCKED!) I also wanted to incorporate some shamrocks because, well, because I love them!

So, following is my great nap time feat of the day. Freezer paper stencil Lucky Mustache!

 



First I took out some of my trusty plastic coated freezer paper. You can find this in your grocery store in the same spot as plastic wrap and tin foil. I drew out a design that I liked. In this case a giant Shamrock crossed by a giant Mustache. Then I cut out the parts I wanted painted.








Then I ironed it, plastic side down, using a warm iron on the NO steam setting. (yes.. the iron is not actually plugged in yet) Make sure you go over any small parts- corners, thin lines and such, to make sure they adhere to your fabric.





Then I started painting! I used a combo of a sponge tool and a brush. If I had had a bigger sponge I probably would have skipped the brush.

Once I was finished I pulled the paper up and voila! Lucky Mustache!

 The End