shopping bags with produce bags

here is a cute shopping bag with a presidental print fabric that I picked up at Alco in Colorado City. They have a pretty decent selection of fabric and it's never priced over $3.99 a yard. They don't have huge amounts though. Anyway, as you can see, this is kind of unique. One of my sisters selected this for another sister of mine. Hope she likes it! Shown here with a mesh, drawstring produce bag included with every shopping bag! Another shopping bag that one of my sisters said looked like it's calling should be boxer shorts. None of the 'men' in my house agree and are not interested in boxers made from this fabric. So, I guess the remainder will go on to be something else. I did make a pair of slippers from this as well.

Below: here they are all wrapped up and gift ready! I love ribbon and tying things up like that! also shown here is my super adorable business cards that Jeffrey got me as a gift. thank you!!! I appreciate it a bunch-very generous!!

the gift of a shopping bag and tissue holder

My daughter, Brittany, works at a credit union and not long after starting there, she was required to bring a gift for a lady whose name was drawn. The gifts were to just shower her with kindness for the day, which is very sweet! Above is a cute little tissue holder that matches the shopping bag that I made to give. At Dollar Tree for $1 is an 8 pack of those little pocket size tissues! What a deal!! I made a ton of these and gave at Christmas! Easy and cute.

Above: the shopping bag all ready to give. I love tying everything up with ribbon. It's just so gifty looking!

Below: the bag laying flat.

Below: packaged and ready to be given!!

Turns out the recipient really liked her gift. I think it was the very best gift she got, but that's just me saying....

chalk roll to match chalkboard placemats

I used the same oil cloth that I used on the backs of the chalkboard placemats here, but choose different fabric for the inside and the velcro tab to match. There are three going to the same house and I wanted each to be different. This is only one of the varieties that I made. I am really excited to see how they like these and the chalkboards.

I had found numerous instructions for making these and they were for crayons and had 16 slots. I thought that was way too much for chalk. And I was only finding boxes of chalk at stores with these 6 colors. So, I again, came up with what I wanted stemmed from someone elses cool idea.

Super Cool Chalkboard Placemats!

I found the tutorial for this project at Little Birdie Secrets blog. This was the easiest project I have done in awhile! I made these as a Christmas gift and I think they will be a big hit! I'm thinking of adding either a tie or velcro to secure it when rolled, which led me to think of making a chalk roll instead of a crayon roll to go along with it! I will let you know and add pics if I decide to do that!

Men's Boxer Shorts

I made these yesterday as a gift for Christmas! I really like the fabric a lot. It's 100% cotton. I used a Quik Sew pattern and am super pleased! I had made my own pattern, but it lacked good instructions! I spent most of my time confused, but with this I was done in about an hour. I had cut the it out of the fabric while I was cooking supper, so when I got to the sewing part it took very little time.

back view

tote bags

These are my favorite bags so far! I really enjoy bags and making bags, so I know there are many more to come! The first bag is from fabric I found at a thrift store. Its a heavy weight fabric. I immediately knew what I would make from it. I had originally thought of using some brown corduroy for the bottom of the bag, but I found this suede like fabric and liked it for the bottom alot. I ended up using the corduroy to make a really cute owl backpack for a 4 yr old. I will put a picture of that on my blog soon.

I call this the skinny bag. Also thrift store fabric with the suede bottom. I have both of them for sale on etsy.

bibs and burp cloths

The pictures do not do these justice! These are soo cute and soft! They have terry backing and I was making them for a boy, but I found some cute fabrics to work. I really liked the bandana print bib/cloth. Alexander kept saying all of these were not good for boys, but later thought that maybe for a baby it was ok. He IS 13 you know, so being a man is his main focus these days.

I was real pleased with how great they looked folded and tied. I was really pretty happy with the whole project. It was quick and fun. The recipient was completely floored! She really was happy! That was my goal!

mittens

I had a request for 16 pair of mittens. I had only made a few pair-ever and now I was faced with making 16 pair!! I went to all the thrift stores in my area-which is not many-and grabbed up all the pretty and cute 100% wool sweaters they had. I washed them all in hot water and dried them. Then I started cutting out and mix matching for some really pretty mittens! Above is the stack of cut out, ready to be sewn wool mittens. I found a web site on accident that sells mittens that are made from recycled sweaters and they charge $36. Are their mittens better? Are they lined or something? I thought that was outrageous, but then again I am pretty frugal about things.

Here are some of the mittens all lined up and ready to go. I really hate that this is the only horrible picture I have of these. They really are cute. I had to use my cell phone to photograph these.