MIFS #181 - -Who says you can't wipe your face on your shirt?

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This a post originally appeared on my blog 12/09. 
We made the switch to cloth napkins some time ago. I found some nice napkins in a clearance aisle and bought those for our dining room napkins. For the kitchen we used old baby washcloths and cut up towels. I prefer cloth napkins to paper, and love not having to buy paper napkins all the time.

Those original kitchen napkins have gotten a lot of use. It was time for something different.

My husband had several dress shirts that had various stains or small rips making them unsuitable to wear to work. I had them in a pile, not quite sure what to do with them. Then it occurred to me that they would make good napkins. I broke out the scissors and the sewing machine and got to work.

The first step was to cut up the shirt. I wasn't worried about exact measurements for these napkins. I cut squares that are roughly 10x10 inches.

Next I ironed the squares, and folded the sides over about a 1/4 inch and ironed the fold. Then it was simply a matter of sewing the folds. I used a zigzag stitch to sew it all up.


With use, I have noticed some fraying. To prevent this, I should have made my zig zag right on the edge, or folded and sewn the edges over a second time. The fraying is minimal, and it really doesn't bother me that much for these everyday use napkins, though.




The final product. Sixteen napkins were made from two shirts in a couple of hours.

I enjoy using cloth napkins. They work better, and save us money. Making them from old shirts makes them practically free. It also is a source of great amusement for my kids sitting around the lunch table. They find it hilarious that they get to wipe their face on daddy's shirt.



Stephanie is a mom, homeschooler, homesteader in the hills of West Virginia. Find more of her adventures at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

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Vintage placemat --> Clothespin bag

Kellie is a crafty momma who blogs regularly at Greenhab and the Green Phone Booth.

I love picking up kitchy vintage linens, napkins and place mats whenever I see them at second hand stores. I have a big collection of them in my sewing stash just waiting for the right projects. Now that the weather is finally starting to get nice again, I've begun line drying our clothes out on the porch. For the past two years, I've gotten by with a plastic bag for my clothes pins, but this week I found some time to turn a cute sunshine yellow place mat into a clothes pin bag.

For this project, all you'll need is an old place mat and some velcro. You can make the bag any size you'd like, so there's really no need for precise measurements. If you were making one as a gift, you might want to line the bag. In my house, I'm Laundry Queen and am guaranteed to be the only one who will ever see this, so I left it unlined.

First, cut a few inches off one end of the place mat. Turn the larger side (which will be the bag) inside out and square off the corners to create a boxed bottom.

Turn the bag right side out. Fold the top in twice, iron, and stitch. Set this piece aside.

With the small scrap piece, fold the ends in, iron, and top stitch all around. This piece will be the strap for the bag.

Before attaching the strap to the bag, you'll want to attach the velcro pieces. One will go on the end of the strap. The other goes on the back of the bag (outside, top) as seen below.

Now we'll attach the strap to the back side (inside) of the bag like this...

Make sure you attach it so that the velcro pieces will match up when you fold the strap over.

Now that I'm looking at it, you could probably leave the strap off altogether and just use clothes pins to hold it up. I like it this way though, because you can sort of slide it down the clothes line as you go.

Enjoy!

To-Do List...

Kellie blogs regularly at Greenhab and the Green Phone Booth.

What a whirlwind the last two weeks have been - activities and birthdays and running from here to there. I've sewn tooth fairy pillows for our first lost tooth and birthday party favor bags for Macy's 6th birthday party. It's been lots of fun, but hasn't left me much time to create anything new. Oh - and did I mention that I got a food mill for my birthday (which isn't actually until June)? So I may have spent some time making and canning jam this week when I could have been sewing.

So instead of a tutorial today, I thought I'd share with you some of the things on my to-do list. These are a few projects I can't wait to work on once life settles down.

First up is this water bottle sling from Betz White on Petite Purls. I love pretty much everything that Betz White does! 

In the summer time, like anyone else, we spend a lot of time outside, at the park, the zoo, hiking, etc. and, quite frankly, carrying water bottles for every kid gets old - and heavy. This summer each of my kids will be getting one of these slings so that they can be responsible for their own water.

I'll also be employing the puzzle solution I found on Sutton Grace last week. Our puzzle area looks much like hers. The boxes seem to get broken so easily and pieces end up everywhere. This idea is so cute!

Sonia at Cozy Homemaking has also inspired me to make some new coasters for our dining room table. I think it's finally spring here, so I'm feeling the need to redecorate a bit. I have more sets of coasters than anyone could possibly need but that doesn't seem to matter when I see the adorable "Tea Time" coasters she made.

What projects are you working on? Anything I need to add to my list?

Make a Market Tote

Kellie is a crafty momma who blogs regularly at Greenhab: The Browns Go Green and the Green Phone Booth.

I am officially ready for the farmer's market to start! I was standing in line at the store the other day, behind a woman with a cute little tote bag. I asked her if she made it and she told me that it was just a freebie canvas bag that she covered in her own fabric.

Genius!

And now I've stolen her idea to make this cute little market bag for myself.

For this project you'll need a canvas bag and some cloth to cover it. I picked up this cute vintage piece of fabric at a yard sale last summer and have been waiting for the perfect project for it.

Measure your bag. Add one inch to the width (that's 1/2 inch on each side for seam allowance) and add 1.5 inches to the height (that's 1/2 inch at the bottom for seam allowance and 1 inch at the top to fold over). If you're using a bag with a bottom that is squared off, you'll want to add half the depth onto the height of the fabric.

Ex: You have a 10 x 10 inch bag with a bottom that is 3 inches wide. Your width will be 10" + 1" (seam allowance) = 11" total. Your height will be 10" + 1.5" (to account for the bottom) + 1.5" (seam allowance) = 13" total.

Once you have two pieces cut out in this size (one for the front and one for the back of the bag), place them right sides together and sew the sides and bottom, leaving the top open, of course.

If your bag has a squared off bottom, you'll now want to square off your corners on the bag you just made. I always find this part hard to explain. You want to take the right side seam and make it face the bottom seam. This will make a triangle for you like this...

If your mat has diagonal lines like mine, it makes it easier to measure the next part. If the bottom of your canvas bag is 3 inches wide, you want to measure 3 inches across and mark a line with your fabric marker. In the photo above, you can actually see that mine is 6 inches.

Sew across the line you just made, then cut the excess triangle off like so...

Now turn the top of the bag down 1 inch and press. Turn your bag right side out. Place your canvas bag inside of the bag you just made. I pinned the bottom corners together to prevent it from shifting and pinned the tops of the two bags together.

Sew all around the top of the bags, very close to the top. I sewed a second line about an inch lower as well for durability. As you can see, my bag has a little pleat on the front. I'd like to say it was on purpose, but I accidentally sewed the sides with a 1/4 seam allowance instead of 1/2 and had too much fabric...blah blah blah...

Now you're done!

The canvas bag I used had two pockets on the outside. I flipped it inside out so that the pockets are now on the inside and I can use them for wallet / cell phone / keys.

This is such a frugal way to give new life to an old canvas bag. Have fun!

Simple Seat Belt Cover

Kellie is a wife, mom, crafter and blogger extraordinaire. Her blog is Greenhab: the Browns go Green and she also blogs regularly at the Green Phone Booth.

The Browns have been seen around town lately sporting our clunker 1991 Ford Explorer. It's certainly not fancy but, since the engine blew in our nicer(ish) family car, it's gotten us from place to place and through two weeks of snow. (Anyone remember when you had to get OUT of the car to turn on the 4WD? Yeah, 'nuff said.)

ANYway... I always thought that a seat belt was a seat belt was a seat belt, but the ones in this car seem to be choking all of us. I thought it was just me, until the older kids started complaining about it too. My quick fix was to make little fleece seat belt covers for all of us. These are so easy that you can crank one out in under 10 minutes - and do it by hand too if you don't have a sewing machine

For this you'll need some fleece and some stick-on velcro. You could definitely use another soft material like flannel, but I think you'd need to add some padding to it.

First you'll cut two circles of your fleece. A seat belt is something weird like 1 & 13/16 inches wide, so I rounded up to 2", and made the whole circle 6". (I assume all seat belts are a standard width, but you might check yours just to be safe!)

Pin your circles together and sew, leaving a hole to turn it out. (After doing these I realized it would have been even easier to just sew the two pieces together, then trim the edges using pinking shears. I'll definitely be doing that next time!)

Next mark a line two inches in from each side, making sure the the two lines are 2" apart. Sew along each line so that the whole thing folds easily.

Add your stick-on velcro and voila! You now have something that looks like a little burrito....or a feminine product I guess.

Makes driving much more comfortable!

Clipboard Car Caddy

Kellie is a tree-hugger and craft-addict. She blogs regularly at Greenhab and the Green Phone Booth.

I have finally found something to keep the kids from killing each other while in the car: drawing! Coloring and drawing keeps them occupied for about 30 seconds at a shot at home yet, in the car, it turns into a whole new experience. They make up stories and illustrate them, draw pictures for all of their friends, practice writing letters and numbers. It's like having little alien children that I don't really know. But I'm NOT complaining!

The only thing that doesn't quite work for me is the mess - there's always a zillion stray pieces of paper, crayons under the car seats, colored pencils rolling around, and someone looking for something to press on. After much thought I designed this clipboard caddy that holds paper, pencils (or markers) and crayons.

For the project you'll need a clipboard (mine is 9" wide by 15.5" tall), fabric (I used less than a yard), velcro strips and velcro circles with the sticky back.

From the fabric, cut:

• two pieces 9.5 x 9.5" (small pocket)
  
• two pieces 9.5 x 16" (large pocket)
• two pieces 9.5 x 15" (lining)
• one piece 9.5 x 29" (outside)
  

Let's start with the easiest part - the lining. Take your two 9.5 x 15" pieces, face right sides together and sew along both 15" sides. Sew the bottom too, but leave a large hole for turning the whole project right side out later.

{I've allowed for a strict 1/4" seam allowance, unless otherwise noted.}

Try it on your clipboard just to make sure it fits. It should be snug!

Next we'll make the two pockets. Take the 9.5 x 9.5 pieces, face right sides, sew all the way around leaving a small hole for turning. Turn, press. Repeat with the 9.5 x 16" pieces. Don't worry about sewing up the turning hole yet - we'll catch that later.

Now we'll structure the pockets. Starting with the 9.5 x 9.5 piece, fold the bottom up 2.5 inches and press; fold the top down 2 to 2.25 inches and press.

This is going to be the pocket for crayons, so we're going to make one inch wide pockets, one for each of 8 crayons. Beginning from the left, measure out 1.5 inches and draw a line. From there, make lines every inch. When you get to the other side, you'll be left with another 1.5 inch opening. This is good; this is what we want!

Sew along each line and also up and around the top flap. At this point I also added the sticky velcro circles that will keep the pocket flaps closed.

Now we'll do the same with the bigger pocket. For this one, we'll fold the bottom up 5" and the top down 3". Repeat all the same steps to make little pockets for your colored pencils.

Great job! Now put those to the side for a moment.

Take the 9.5 x 29" piece (this is the outside piece that the pockets will attach to) and fold it in half with the right sides facing OUT, wrong sides together. Press so you'll you exactly where the bottom will be.

Now bring the pockets back and arrange them how you'd like - I put the large pencil pocket on the bottom and the crayon pocket on the top. When you pin them where you'd like, make sure you only pin it to the top layer of fabric.

Sew the pockets onto the fabric by sewing the bottom and both sides but make sure you don't sew the flap part that folds over...because then it wouldn't fold over.

Now that the pockets are sewn on, we can complete that outer bag. Fold the long piece up so that right sides are now facing. Sew the sides closed. Go slow - with the pockets already attached it's a bit bulky and will try to wiggle under your presser foot.

Flip the bag right side out. Insert it into the lining piece so that the bags have right sides facing each other. We're going to sew the tops of each bag together, but we need to insert the velcro strips first. They'll hold the bag securely on the clipboard. Mine fit really snugly, so I think you could probably leave the velcro out but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Cut two sets (one hook, one loop) of velcro. I started with 3" strips and trimmed them down later. On the right side of the bag, about one inch from the end, insert one piece of velcro between the inner and outer bag with the hook (or loop) facing down. Insert the opposite piece (loop if you used the hook on the other side) between the back two pieces of the inner and outer bags, again facing down. Repeat on the left side. It should look like this from the top when you have it all pinned:

I hope that makes sense because it's feeling hard to explain. (I'm also thinking now that you could use ribbon instead of velcro and tie it at the top of the clipboard.)

Sew the tops all the way around, then pull the inside bag out through the hole in the bottom of the lining piece like this:

It may need a little pressing at this point. Gently slide it onto the clipboard. It should fit very snugly. Attach the velcro pieces - you can trim them now too if they're too long.

By sewing the pocket sides and bottom you also created a little pocket where you can store smaller pieces of paper!

Add your pencils, crayons and paper and you're ready to go!

If you have any questions just leave a comment and I'll try to clarify. It's not a hard project at all, just many little things that all need to fit together. It's a lot like making a purse with a lining.

Enjoy!