Bag It Up!

 I may have mentioned that I have been making a lot of drawstring gift bags lately for all the showers at our congregation. 

Oh, here. And here. And a few other places too. 

Recently I had a couple more baby shower gift bags to make. And instead of using my standard gift tag that I made up

I decided to make a baby version.

Most of them are the same kind of idea as the standard one was. But what really tickled me is when each mother sat there and looked through the ideas before even opening the bag. I had really just figured they would be a way to say, "hey, don't throw this away, you can reuse it." They each seemed to almost be checking off ways they were planning to use it though. It made me giggle (silently, to myself, cause, you know, I was at a baby shower). 

I am still on the gift bag thing however. It's just so much better than some piece of thin cardboard that will barely make it home to be thrown in the trash.

Chick bought a Christmas gift for a friend's little one recently and then asked if I might sew one for it. She intends to secretly transfer the gift to her friend to be saved for Christmas morning but Christmas paper might be too noticeable in her trunk. A nice sturdy bag, however, not so much something he would notice. 

Sturdy because all the bags I've made recently have also been lined and I've decided that I prefer that. Especially when I know the person is going to keep it.

I think it turned out really cute. And so did Chick. 

Since I was already at it, I just went ahead and made gift bags for mine and Chick's Bunco Christmas party. They turned out really cute too.

Now, I'm looking forward to that party as well. Can't wait to see the reaction of whomever gets them. 

I'm finding myself wanting to go buy more Christmas fabric. I have to keep reminding myself that the idea is to use some of what I have up. But these are pretty cute! So if you see me shopping Christmas fabrics, remind me of that. 

Or not. You know, whatever.

I may be a little obsessed.

A Spoonful of Sugar

 After much indecision and wavering back and forth, Rugrat decided this year that she wanted to be Mary Poppins for Halloween.

Initially, I planned to do my best to put together a costume for her. I even purchased a pattern when they were on sale at Hobby Lobby that I thought I could use. 

But, then, I happened across a costume of the type she wanted on Amazon. This one:

Link

And then, they kindly put it on sale for 40% off (it was still early for Halloween). All of the reviews said it was a good quality costume (one of the other reasons I tend to make them is because they are NOT typically good quality) and the extras really made it worth the [regular] price. So, we decided to order it rather than make it.

It was as described and I was impressed.

The one thing it did not come with, however, was the carpet bag. Rugrat insisted she needed a carpet bag to make it right so we still had some work to do. The question was how to get hold of a carpet bag. It's not like they're just sitting at our local department store luggage section.

First stop, hit up the thrift stores. We figured any kind of similar style overnight bag would work well enough. No luck there unfortunately. I guess people don't really have overnight bags so much anymore?

We did, however, find this.

I think it cost us $1 or less. It had been marked down. Apparently, people don't really use garment bags anymore either.

It did, however, provide enough fabric to make our carpet bag and Rugrat was find with the outer pattern. 

Next, I had to figure out how to put it together. I took a gander at this video. He goes through the making of a couple of carpet bags with an eye towards authenticity. We didn't really care about authenticity so much as that it looked right. But he had measurements that I could use. So, onward and upward.

I chopped that sucker up and measured out some pattern pieces, then sewed them together to get the box bottom of the bag.

The garment bag's outer fabric was a very thin canvas so it didn't have much structure on its own. I should have put interfacing on it but I didn't think of it until too late. 

So now I had the body of the bag. What next? Oh yeah. Some way to hold it.

The lining of our garment bag was a black vinyl, also very thin, that would make some very nice straps. So I went to it.

Then I had to make a place to put the straps.

Again, it didn't have as much structure as I had hoped using that canvas would give it. But I just happened to have an Amazon box that fit in the bottom perfectly and gave it just the right amount of  sturdiness.

I think it turned our alright. If I wanted it to be something I used on a regular basis, I would probably go back and interface it as well as line it. But I made this with the intent of only using it for her costume. Being able to take out the box in the bottom and fold it flat makes it easier to store with her costume. So I was pretty happy with it in the end.

And Rugrat was pretty happy with it too.

Sweet!

Home Improvement

 Something we've had a hard time with since buying our house 15 years ago is the fact that there was no place outside with shade. There were no trees that were large enough to give any. And, on many of the houses built after ours, they did add a covered back patio or porch. So they must have recognized that it was an issue later on.

Unfortunately, though, not on ours. The last few years, it has actually become a bigger issue because  the weather has been coming in our back door some. Initially after moving in, we installed a screen/glass door on the back so I could keep it open while little Rugrat was playing outside and I was working inside. 

The wind in Oklahoma is not kind though. And that poor screen door took a beating every year.  So much so that a few years ago we finally took it off. 

Then we realized that it had been doing something besides get beat up by the wind and rain. It had been keeping the rain (and all the other weather) out of our house. We began to notice water damage to the door frame and trim. That is going to be an issue.

So, a couple of months ago, we decided to look into getting a patio cover. It would be a chunk of change but sooooooo loved and appreciated by both us and the dogs. And now we knew it might save our back door some damage too. Sounds like a good investment.

We were initially told (in August) that it would be November before they could install it due to their work load.  But at the beginning of October, we got the call for them to dig the footings.  They had hoped to get the concrete poured that Friday before the weekend, leaving several days for it to set and cure but the inspector didn't come by to approve it until nearly the end of the next week. So, we had a week there where we skirted around holes that would have definitely resulted in a broken bone if we had stumbled into them. Then, suddenly this week, in a matter of two days we had a cover.

I thought the dogs might be a little freaked at first but they don't even seem to have noticed it. And now we're Oklahoma weather ready -- at least somewhat. My eldest daughter mentioned that if we have to run for the shelter, it will be nice not getting soaked right as we step out the door. So, one more plus.

I'm thinking it will be well worth the expense of adding it.

Simple Things

 I tried my hand at canning some mandarin oranges. Used half pints so they would be in serving sizes.

I think they turned out very pretty.

Gathered in all the tomatoes from the bushes. We have three boxes/flats sitting on our table ripening along with a paper bag full of cherry tomatoes.

But we are moving the ones with a blush piece by piece to this little bowl on the counter to get riper.

I also finished up a fidget mat. This one was a totally random collection of things. I took out my smaller fabric pieces bin to look through. Any piece that was large enough to get a square from, I cut. 

Then, I dumped out some jars of random things and pulled out some lace I had never used and found a random zipper, etc. and I went to town on it.
 

It's got a lot to look at and a lot to play with. Somebody will probably love it. Ha ha. 

Lots of simple little things that make up the rhythm of our days and give us a normal to come back to when the world is running us amok. 

Hoot Hoot

 Chick has become somewhat of a designated sub for my Bunco group. And last Monday was no exception this month. 

So off we went. 

At the end, prizes were given out. Once everything was done, a friend who was sitting next to me leaned over and whispered something. She had received a prize but, unfortunately, it had some scented things. She whispered that her husband was highly allergic and told me to meet her outside for a hand-off because she couldn't take them home.

As it happens, Chick is a big fan of candles. So she went outside to put them in the car while I helped clean up.

As sweet as it was of her to think of us, I felt bad that she didn't have her prizes anymore. 

I knew that she liked to wear aprons while cooking though. And I just happened to have some fall fabric on hand. So, I thought I might make her a fall apron just for kicks. I used a preprinted pattern I had from my home economics class in junior high. We won't talk about how old it was but you can guess. But I followed the directions here. 

I wanted to make the ties long enough to wrap around the waist and tie in front. As it turned out, I had just enough fabric to do that.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture before Chick carried it off and gave it to her so I can't share how cute it turned out.

There were several things she passed along so I wanted to add one other thing. I came across this little fella and decided to make one for her as a fall decoration. You can find the free pattern here.

Again, I didn't grab a picture before he got carried off but then I decided to make one for me too.

I think mine turned out pretty cute. 

Rugrat has already asked a couple of times about making one for her as well. I might try  to make a larger one for her but I haven't decided yet.

The hardest part of making these is getting the bottom on. You have to put a little bag of whatever you are weighting it with (rice, in my case) and then hot gluing the bottom on.

But, seriously, if that's the hardest part, I'm up for it. I would like to get a fat quarter bundle that coordinates so I could make three different ones that all either share a back or tummy fabric to set out. But I haven't yet done that.

Let me know if you decide to make one. I'd love to see yours.

Another Soft Toy

 I attended one of the many baby showers we will be having in the next few months at our congregation last Sunday. In this case, it was for the mom of one of my Sunday school students.

Since I teach the four-year-olds, there is going to be somewhat of a gap between the brothers. And it occurred to me that he might be feeling a little left out of everything. Not to mention that his life was going through a lot of changes that might be hard for him. So I kind of wanted to get him a little gift.

One of the things I knew about this little man is that he is a BIG fan of trash trucks.

Mmm hmm. Trash trucks. He loves them! In fact, his mom told me that his grandmother is making him some trash truck sheets to encourage his move from the toddler bed to a regular sized one (so they can use the crib mattress for the new baby).

So "love" is not an understatement. 

I had gotten a typical gift for the baby but I first thought to find a toy trash truck for my student. Guess what. Not so easy to do as it turns out. Especially with a time crunch as I had left myself.

But then I remembered my little partial role of printable fabric (left over from the making of a certain weatherman doll). I looked up a little clipart of a trash truck and, without too much fussing, was able to print one that looked pretty good. I reversed the image and printed another.

Then I put 'em together, front and back.

It actually turned out a lot cuter than I expected. 

I was still a little afraid it might be kind of silly so I handed it off to Mom after service that morning.

I was informed at the shower later that he LOVED it! It apparently went to lunch with him and was carried around until she had to come to the shower. She thinks it may become his soft toy for preschool too.

It made me happy I went to the little bit of trouble it took to make it. And I'm also glad he didn't think it was silly. :)

Halloween Hot Pad

 I mentioned that I practiced using my new free motion foot and ruler on a piece of Halloween fabric to make another oversized hot pad with. 

You can see the quilting in this closeup. I thought it looked really good.

The practice was so I could get the hang of it before trying to quilt the baby blanket I was making.

Which I then realized was much too large to do that with on my little machine setup. And gave up on.

But, once I got the baby gift bundle done, I came back to my new hot pad to finish it up. That began with trimming the edges nice and straight for binding it.

Then, I just needed to add a binding. I made that out of some other Halloween fabric I had. I think it turned out quite cute.

These were both yard cuts I got from the clearance aisle at Walmart after Halloween one year for a couple of dollars each. Not too shabby, huh.

So, my baby blanket didn't turn out quite like I was hoping for.

However, I still got a cute little Halloween hot pad out of it. And how timely! The weather is just beginning to change.