Sadly, I don't know where I saw this idea, so I can't credit the person who came up with it. It's pretty cool, no? So today I decided to make it. 

​I thought it would take me a couple hours. It took me all day.

​Fortunately, I made a pattern out of paper. As simple as it looks, my set of rulers is a little different and I had to work out a couple things and the sequencing of sewing it all together. 

It's not bad, and I hope it doesn't fall off the wall once I hang it.

A couple days before Christmas, I got motivated to make some presents for family members: a car trash bag and a holder for plastic bags. Since I could imagine actually using both, I thought they might be appreciated. I made a set for my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, and my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I chose a fabric for each person I thought they'd like.

For the car trash bags, I followed this excellent tutorial on YouTube. For the plastic bag holders, I watched a few YouTube tutorials, all similar, all nice. In terms of basic design, especially the handle, I followed this tutorial. However, I had to make adjustments because I decided I wanted to quilt the bags. Once I was done with the quilting, I tried to add the channel along the edges and insert the elastic, which I did but it was not easy. The big problem was that the elastic didn't stretch and expand nicely because of the heaviness of the fabric due to the quilting. So I added a strip of unquilted fabric to the top and bottom, made the channels in those, and put the elastic in them. In the end I really like how it looks and it works perfectly. I love the feel and look of the quilting. It also gives the bag structure and body.

My mother-in-law's.

My brother-in-law's.

My my brother-in-law's girlfriend's.

And then I made a plastic bag holder each for my daughter Thome and me!

And then, not for Christmas but sewn on the day of, some microwave potato bags for Thome, Thomas, and me. 

I was given one and ended up loving it. At first, I didn't know what it was, but eventually I thought what the heck and I made a potato in it. It actually works. They taste better than a normal microwaved potato, I swear. They are indistinguishable from baked, IMO. Plus you don't have to prick them, just wash them and toss them in.

One time I left mine in too long and the bag caught fire on the corners. HAHAHA. So I wanted a replacement.

Luckily, I happened to come across a key piece of information as I was watching a YouTube video on DIY present ideas. She noted that you need 100% cotton everything for items going into the microwave. She also noted that normal 100% cotton batting has noncotton fibers in it! You need to order a special batting. I used Pellon Wrap and Zap.

The funniest thing is I tried to find the same potato fabric as on the bag I'd been given, thought I couldn't, found something else, and it turned out to actually BE the same!

Finally, I made some curtains for my daughter's room in her apartment.

They'll hang in a fringe, just like the ones I made for my kitchen.

Here are the curtains and her quilt in her room!

And then, really finally, a couple days after Christmas, I made two of my sisters a potato bag each.

And then for their (my dad's) house, a dragonfly plastic-bag holder. 

It's not perfect. Mishaps occurred in the making, as per usual, but it will serve its function and I think it's amusing. 

I have been thinking I should get a car trash can. Then I saw someone with a nice one that hung over the back of the driver's seat. Hers is tubular, compressible mesh. I went searching at Amazon, but couldn't find hers exactly, and I didn't really like what I saw. 

Then I had an idea to make my own. Just a cloth bag with some way to attach around the seat. As I was searching for fabric, I remembered this white twill I had left over from my Regency stay project. I had plenty. Next the straps turned into elastic, which I first thought I'd stretch into place, but then I realized cutting each strap in half and attaching Velcro would be much more practical. 

With all that white, I realized I could put some design on. At first I thought applique, but then it seemed like so much work and I had no good ideas for design. And then I got the brainstorm to do an iron-on transfer. 

Back in May, I updated our bedroom. I got the idea from one of my sisters who refinished and decorated a bedroom in my dad's house after moving back temporarily after a breakup. It looked so cute! It really hit me how much a pretty environment affected my mood.

Our bedroom was pretty bare and unattractive. We had a couple dressers that were my husband's as a kid, a couple nightstands with the lamps from his childhood bedroom, a bed with a mission-style headboard, and a couple of tall and cheap bookshelves. The only decorations were a mirror above the long dresser, a print of a boat and lake above the bed, and a watercolor of a barn that my mom had painted. We did have blinds on the windows but those were never pulled down.

I got rid of one of the bookshelves; it fell apart as I moved it. I got rid of one of the dressers. I hung iron-like rods and long, flowy, gauzy white curtains that I got cheap from an outlet store. Then I went to TJ Maxx and got fake flowers and new bedside lamps. I grabbed an old chair from my parents' house--there is an overflow of furniture in that house--and a lamp from my daughter's old bedroom. I added a rug under the bed from Home Depot.

The room was looking much more cozy. Next came a blue shag rug from Rugs.com. ​

Finally, I wanted a footstool in front of the chair. What I really wanted was a proper classic upholstered wooden footstool. ​

I had a nice bit of quilting cotton with the perfect pattern and another bit from which I could make some piping. The part that gave me trouble was the stuffing. I first filled it with poly stuffing, but it wasn't dense enough. Next I added bean bag chair pellets, mixing them in with the stuffing. Well, it was denser and I called it quits, but I didn't like how squishy and misshapen it looked and how much noise it made when you touched it. 

I was planning on constructing my own wooden footstool out of wooden parts from Home Depot and then refashioning the fabric into the pillow top, but I had too many project pans in the fire to get time for that. 

But then I passed this little find in a trash pile...

I took it apart and noted how it was put together. It was thin board screwed into the top of the frame, and on the board was a loose pillow covered in the burlap fabric, which was stapled to the board. Thin strips of batting were laid on top of the pillow to round it out, and a piece of muslin covered the burlap edges on the underside of the board, so it all looked finished and nice even though it was getting screwed into the frame and would never be seen by anyone.

I began to reconstruct it, first throwing out all the cloth and batting materials because they were disgusting and dirty. I made a new inner pillow out of an old sheet, filled it with a rectangle of high-density foam, and padded it with batting. I cut up the old pouf fabric down to the new size I needed and resewed the piping to the top. I stretched the fabric over the pillow and stapled it into the board. I tacked down a new piece of muslin. 

Meanwhile, my husband cut the legs down for me and painted it. I woke up this morning and he asked me how it looked. He had screwed the top onto the frame and placed it in the room while I was sleeping, but I had walked right by it when I got up. 

It looks fabulous!

I made this kick-ass bag! Very simple to construct...if you are not me. It seems I am doomed to turn even the simplest of projects into a shit show, and this one was no exception. Still, it turned out pretty awesome. It is rather enormous...it needed to be this size...but I hope it holds up and does its job.

It started like this...I bought a fence to take camping so we can let The White Ingrate hang out outside, without being tied up.

It came in a big cardboard box, and I was surprised at how heavy it was. Not awful, but heavy enough that it might be awkward to cart around. Thinking of tent- and Clam -carrying cases, it struck me that a similar bag for the fence would be nice. At first I thought I'd make a case with a zipper, but I quickly realized that that would be unnecessary and a bag open at the top would be fine. I stopped at Joann's and got some red and cream cotton canvas duck. It wasn't on sale, so I went with the minimum I thought I could get away with. At least I had measured the fence and done a little research on bag construction beforehand (two nice vids here and here), so I had some idea about what I needed.

Once I got home, I proceeded carefully, nervous about the amount of fabric I had to work with. God forbid I'd have to go back and get more fabric. Not for the time, the drive, the gas, the expense, but for the embarrassment. I decided to first cut out the main panel, since it would be the largest bit of fabric I'd need to cut and if I made a mistake with it, I'd be history. I'd seen a few options for constructing the sides—cutting a front and back, cutting a side, back, and bottom panel, and adding a lining—but in the end I cut one piece for front, back, and bottom and decided on no lining. It's only for carrying a damned dog fence after all.

After that, things didn't go according to plan.

I needed enough fabric to make two, two-colored handles, a pocket, and a bottom reinforcement panel. (After looking at the way the handles were attached on a canvas Lands End bag I have, I saw that the best way to hide the bottoms of the handles was with a panel along the bottom, but also I thought it couldn't hurt to add some reinforcement.)

But after cutting out strips for the handles, I realized I had measured them wrong. I had measured the Lands End bag handles and then cut strips out of the red and white fabric. I realized they were too narrow after I had partially constructed the first strap: I had sewed a red and white strip together (to make the front and backs of the handles), folded in the ends, and then folded everything in half again. When I compared the would-be handle to the Lands End handle, mine was a quarter inch too narrow. That seems small, but it was enough to make a big difference in how the handle felt (the Lands End handle was just 1.25 inches wide). Fortunately, I compared before sewing the folded bits together permanently.

I remeasured the fabric that remained and had barely enough to cut new strips a little wider, though not as wide as I would have liked. But once the new strips were cut, the white fabric was gone and there was just a little strip of red left. I didn't have a big enough piece even for the pocket and definitely enough not for a bottom panel.

But...I had two very, very long red and white striped pieces and that one strip of red. While it's just a bag for carrying a damned dog fence, I wanted that panel and the pocket, so I spent more time than a neurally normal person might have spent reconstructing fabric. I sewed and ironed the red and white strips together and ended up with a reconstructed piece just big enough for the bottom. 

Finally, to finish the inside seams, I copied the construction on the Lands End bag and covered the seams in 1-inch wide twill tape. I have enough of this tape to last a life time left over from the Civil War ballgown project.  

Finally, a side note about my sewing machine. I used a jeans needle, and my Pfaff Ambition 1.5 handled every seam and intersection on this canvas duck beautifully. ​

I made cushions for my daughter's friend who was having her first child. I like how they turned out . . . I hope they are durable.

Once I started making them, it went quickly and smoothly enough. I had a hard time getting started though because of three issues: finding enough fabric, questions about what style to sew, and questions about the best (and most comfortable) construction.

First off, my daughter's friend bought the fabric. I misunderstood and thought initially she only wanted a bottom cushion so I told her to buy a yard. When I learned she wanted the top cushion too, the hunt for the fabric was on.

The yard had been purchased at Joann's in Columbus (2 hours south of me), so I went to my local Joann's a couple times, and looked at the company's online selection. The fabric was nowhere to be found. My daughter went to the Columbus Joann's, and I looked at another Joann's near my dad's. Nope. I went to a couple Michaels and a Hobby Lobby. No luck. I decided to find a suitable back-up fabric so I could use it to make the back and bottom of the cushions and use the one yard for the front and top, a light yellow broadcloth.

In the end, I liked the tufting or buttons and the classic shapes.  I couldn't decide on the filler either. It seemed it should be fiberfill but I had these high-density foam pieces that seem so comfortable. I finally decided to make a couple test cushions out of the yellow broadcloth, use fiberfill, and see how they felt. They were good and plenty comfy. I decided to use the test pillows for the insides and make covers out of the fabric. I forgot to interface the fabric—I really wish I'd remembered for the sake of durability, but at least the double cushions provide some sturdiness, I think. ​

I made some new curtains for the camper so we would have lots of red to look at. We had white blinds in the bathroom and over the sink. My husband put up rods and I made curtains for those windows and the window at the foot of the bed and over the table. I used the same fabric as for the quilts. I thought solid red would be too much red so I added a white stripe. I also had a white stripe running through the tie-backs. All extra work for nothing because the tie-backs looked so busy and terrible we are using the all-red backs instead. The white stripe on the curtains doesn't look great either, but we're going to have to live with that for some time.

Here are the sets over the sink and by the bed...along with the new backsplash tile we put up...now that looks super cool!!!

Same curtains, different vantage point.

Here's a curtain over the table...didn't get both and too lazy to get more pix...

And here are the bathroom curtains...sigh.

We remodeled the kitchen and I sewed some curtain tops for the windows. We looked in the home dec fabric section of Joanns but didn't see anything that would work. So we went to the quilting fabric and found something we could agree on. My husband because it had the colors he thought would work and me because it has cute birds on it. I'm not much a fan of the colors of the fabric for the kitchen. They don't really add much and I would prefer some excitement. He was all about tying the gray countertop and the brown walls together. Anywho, that's what we got.  

I have an apron that came from a restaurant. I like it because it's simple and it works well--it covers, it's comfortable, and it's absorbent so I can wipe my hands on it. Well, it's rather stained after all these years. I got a bright idea to make a new one...out of terry cloth...because if I wipe my hands on it...why not make it out of towel fabric? 

Finding terry cloth--supposedly one of the world's most-made fabrics (?)--not so easy. Yes, I could get it online but it's hard to be sure of the quality from an image on a computer screen and the description when one doesn't know how to decipher the weight details and such, which I don't. Aside from not wanting to wait, or pay, for delivery, I saw something that dissuaded me from buying this online. I was on fabric.com looking at one fabric, supposedly made in the US of A out of premium cotton, and put it in my cart. At checkout, it said fabric.com was an Amazon company so I thought I would check out Amazon since I could get free shipping. But on the  Amazon site the very same product was listed as 100% polyester. Ew. A towel made out of polyester. So I got spooked. 

Then I stopped at Joann's. They had terry cloth. It was 100% cotton, not all that nice, but I figured what they hey, I could try it. They had no color I wanted so I got white and some gray dye. I dyed the fabric and it turned out light blue. Irritating. 

Then my husband and I were at Menard's getting something for the house and I looked down and saw terry bath towels in the perfect shade of gray. They were cheap--cheaper than the Joann's fabric not to mention the dye--so I got them. 

First I made the apron using my restaurant apron as a pattern. Then I dressed it up with the fabric I made the curtains out of. 

So maybe a terry cloth apron was not the best idea I have ever had. But it should do the trick for a while and I think it looks kind of cute.

​UPDATE: A terry cloth apron was one of the best damn ideas I ever had. 

I love a hanging towel. I had one in the old kitchen...can't find it right now...but it wouldn't have matched the new digs anyway.  I noticed my hands are always dripping with something...cooking stuff, dishwater, clean water, food...and if the towels are behind a door, that something is going to drip on the cabinet doors. No, not my new, clean, white cabinet doors! So I made new hanging towels that matched using the scraps from the towel I made my apron from. I searched for a pattern and wouldn't you know it, found a free pattern right away on this site. Turned out cute, though these are quite luxury as they were made from a bath towel not a kitchen towel, so they're thick. But that's an awesome bonus. 

My sister bought a shirt for her daughter. She thought it reflected her perfectly. But the store only had size that was too small. So my sister asked me to make it into a pillow.

Sewing Wallets Step by Step is a Craftsy class. I bought it not too long ago and watched it soon after. The wallets looked cute and like I would use them. The teacher, Deby Coles, is excellent. She breaks the process down into manageble pieces and explains and demonstrates so you can easily follow.

My daughter (Thome) visited from college over Christmas break, and I asked her if she'd like to learn how to sew and try this class with me. She said yes! and we had a blast making the first one, the Super Simple Wallet. I had bought some quilting cotton for the project already, a solid and a compatible print, and she was satisfied with the fabrics, so we decided to each use both but switch which would be the lining and outer parts of the wallet. They came together beautifully. She sewed like an old pro. Thank goodness she was there because she saved me from a measurement error (though I managed to make another one!).

Then we checked out the Pop to the Shops wallet, and my daughter really liked it and thought she would get a lot more use out of it. So we decided to pop to the (fabric) shop hahahaha, select some new fabric, and make ourselves each one of these wallets.

Oh my, it was fun to watch my daughter in the fabric store. I should have felt guilty. First I get her addicted to coffee and then to the fabric store. She was very pleased with her choices.

These wallets also came together with no problem. Ooh, that's not quite true. Of course I mismeasured one thing, of course it was in one of the fabrics we had little of, and of course I had to figure out a way to get around it. (I cut the zipper pocket linings an inch too short, so I just pieced together scraps to get the proper size. It worked fine.) We just had a lot of relaxing time together and a lot of fun sewing these up.

Thome's wallet is on top, and mine is on the bottom.