crafting101

Well, here it is, almost the end of the month and I have found a great little bag that is perfect for teachers! It’s actually a reusable sandwich holder that can double as a placemat! That is super neat!

I found it at The Small Object’s blog and it’s called simply a Reusable Sandwich Wrap. This is great for anyone taking a sandwich to work and it’s great for the environment. In fact, I think I’ll have to make several of these for everyone to use - even the hubby! She used fabric on the outside and vinyl on the inside, she plans on making another one with fabric on the inside. She also mentioned that you can adjust the size so accomodate subs as well. I think that you could also think of somehow making something to hold chips or cookies, maybe use a little tougher fabric that holds it shape better so they don’t get crushed.

So on the topic of lunches, I found a very neat idea for a handmade lunch sack. Have old jeans? Here’s a place where you can use them! Over at FamilyFun.com, you can quickly make a personalized lunch sack to go with your brand new sandwich holder. The instructions seem quite simple, probably could make this in an hour or so. Plus, you can get creative! Who doesn’t like to be creative?

So let me know if you make any of these things. I plan on making some of these lunch bags. I think the kids would like them. Too bad I didn’t see it before school started! I could have saved some money!

So today our family went to Washington D. C. with our two oldest daughter’s Girl Scout troop. We had a blast, but let me tell you, taking this trip showed all the different types of bags you will see. All the girls were told to bring a backpack to carry the goodies from the trip. Now you say backpack and everyone thinks something different. We brought backpacks, others brought bags and others brought oversized purses. In reality you needed a bag to tote on your back since we probably easily walked five to seven miles today; a bag to hold a water bottle since it was hot; a bag to hold a notebook, coloring and a snack; pockets I’m the bag for your train tickets and itinerary; and a bag to hold leftover lunches. In essence, a really heavy duty hikers type backpack.

I have a backpack that is also a diaper bag so it pretty much has all these features. My daughter carried a backpack from my college so it had all those features. I was just amazed at all the different types of bags I saw because since some weren’t exactly backpacks they had problems carrying things since they weren’t prepared.

I have no pattern for today, I’m actually writing this on the train back to Richmond. I just wanted to write something regarding bags for all my readers and to tell you that tomorrow and Monday I will have the final bag patterns of the month since October means Christmas! TTFN!

So I haven’t gotten to making my camera bag, today did not go well. Ended up having my battery go dead while out running errands and thank goodness there are some nice strangers out there that gave me a jump! So that made the day go longer than expected. But I did find a neat pattern for anyone who loves fish!

I found this bag here at Knitting in a Happy Camper. I thought it was so cool! Unfortunately there’s no pattern on the site, but she does mention where she got the idea from and what she did to change it up for her. I live people who are creative!

I love the colors that she used and there’s loads of more pictures on her website. My friend Kristy loves fish so she would so love this as a purse, I just know she would!

I’ll see you tomorrow where I’ll have another pattern for you. I can’t believe that the month is almost over! Almost time to start thinking Christmas! TTFN!

Back on to the subject of teachers, how about making a bag with their school logo on it? Every teacher loves school spirit, even the parents like this gift! The neat thing about this bag is the person showing the bag on their blog used old sweatshirts with the school logo on them. How’s that for having a great idea plus recycling at the same time? Makes me want to go get my old La Porte Marching Band sweatshirt that’s just hanging in my closet and make it into a bag!

So I found this pattern at Sew What? , a blog dedicated to making bags. Fits the theme rather nicely for this month!  You can see photos and read about it here. She doesn’t give a pattern, but shows you inside and out so if you’re getting good with these bags, you could probably whip this one up. Just remember: if you are using an old sweatshirt, just be careful, measure twice, cut once because you can’t get the shirt back. I think for me, I’d use something that isn’t too important just in case you mess up before getting your precious sweatshirts out to use.

This does get me to thinking. I have my old band sweatshirt, a couple of sweatshirts from our high school musicals and one from Project Graduation…hmm…instead of them wasting precious closet space, I can make them into a bag! My husband will love that! TTFN!

P.S. I didn’t get my camera bag made today, but I’m going to do it first thing in the morning. I really want to make it!

Today I have a new bag for you to make! This is something that I’m going to try and make tomorrow afternoon, we will be going to Washington D.C. over the weekend so I’d love to have something to hold my digital camera. I don’t have a huge one, just a simple point and shoot, but it has yet to have a case and it needs one. So here’s what I found!

This bag is made by http://www.evilmadscientist.com and you can view the pattern here.  It’s meant for a camera that comes with a strap, mine doesn’t so I have to figure out how to adapt it. Easy enough - I can make my own straps! I can do that, not a problem. I do like that it’s made out of recycled jeans which if you know anything about me, I love to recycle! I also love orange so I might have to use the same colors!

Tell me what you think, I’d love to see if anyone makes one of these. It seems simple enough and she gives great instructions. I still haven’t learned how to make buttonholes so I will probably use velcro for now or some sort of hook with a button. I will post a picture once I am done, I will be getting all my wonderful chores done today and tonight so that way I can sew tomorrow. I haven’t done it in a few weeks so I’m ready to sew some more!

So, this is totally not related to school or teachers, but I found this and just had to share! It does fit our theme of bags, purses or totes and it’s something that I am going to try and make for my friend having a baby in the next few months. Better get started!

The bag is a diaper/nappy bag and with all sorts of colors and fabrics, it can be really unique and cool. I think it’d even work as a purse! The website is  ladyknight.wordpress.com and you can get to the tutorial here. She provides lots of pictures, clear instructions and measurements if you want to make it larger or smaller. Since I’m done with the baby thing right now, if I made it a few inches smaller, it’d be great as another purse. Not like I don’t have enough purses, huh?

Check out her blog and let me know if you make one and let her know too. I’m sure she’d love feedback as well! TTFN!

Good day! I was browsing the internet (like I have nothing else to do!) and was looking for a very simple bag to make. I found this tutorial online from Cut Out and Keep.

I have made bags like this before as diaper bags because you can place the handles on there to create pockets on the outside. If you want to make pockets, hem the top of the outside fabric, but don’t attach the top of it to the main fabric. That will keep the sides open and the handles are sewn on along each side to create the pockets. Plus if you make the handles long enough, they can support the bottom of the bag as well.

This is a quick, fast project, without any problems, it could be done in under an hour, at the most two. These make awesome diaper bags, I’ve made several and people love them. Mix and match fabrics to make totally different types of bags too. If you want to get complicated, add a zipper on the inside to close it up!

Today I turn back to my grocery bag theme for a minute, but you know, these bags don’t just have to be used for groceries. They can easily carry books to and from the library, what about items to the beach? No sand would stay in the one I’m about to show you for sure! These are great for sleepovers with the kids or for carrying items in the car for them.

Today is a crochet pattern, if you look at the picture, you wouldn’t think it’d hold anything, but it does! It’s called a Reduction Tote and it’s a free pattern from CrochetMe.   I like this bag because it has a nice strong base, lots of airy openings on the sides so that makes it pretty flexible and goo, strong handles. Plus there’s a neat pocket on the front that you can stick your keys or wallet in or your cell phone. Makes a great little tote for simple places that you go.

The other cool thing about this bag is when you aren’t using it, it’ll fold neatly inside the pocket that you made for the inside! People are getting pretty creative here! I’m all about taking up less space if I can. We live in a pretty small space as it is with six in our family so any place I can make something smaller and not seem so big, I’m all for that.

You could technically make several of these bags and see how they are hanging in this picture? You could have one hanging up and have it holding all the others that you made? Then when you’re off to the store, just grab the one bag and it’ll take up less space in teh cart too while your shopping and then just hand them to the bagger once you get there. I’m sure you’ll get lots of comments and I can only imagine how confused the bagger would be too! I know ours get frazzled when you use your own bags, especially at Wal-Mart! TTFN!

Tons of people out there are “going green” and I don’t blame them! I’d much rather have twenty bags just for grocery shopping neatly stacked in my pantry than fifty million plastic bags stuffed here and there just wasting space. Don’t you feel the same way?

Since you and tons others do, here’s a neat website I found that gives you 35 different types of bags you can make as reusable grocery bags. The site is tipnut.com and I’ve gotten many patterns for things from them. They are full of ideas!  But since today’s topic is on the bags, click here to view the 35 different patterns you can choose from to make!

My favorite new pattern of bag that I’m just going to have to make is called the Fabric Grocery Sacks by ohfransson.com. They are too cute and can be made out of any piece of fabric and the neat thing is they can be rolled up and tied and that means you can stick them in your purse or suitcase or a drawer in your kitchen! Aren’t they just darling? I need to get to making them because I need to keep these in the car for when I’m out and I forget my Kroger bags or Wal-Mart bags and I can use these instead. I might even get some neat comments too!

Let me know if you make any of these bags! I’d love to see what you do!

Everywhere people are talking about going green. You see more and more people using cloth bags to shop with. Some knit or crochet or sew their own. The fun part of this going green thing is to actually recycle something and not just recycle as in take it to the recycling center, but recycling objects you find around your house.

I have always been known to have a gazillion plastics bags. My husband was always complaining about how many I had. Well, I decided to go something with them. Instead of just throwing them in the plastic bin, I found a way to cut them into strips and making a ball of “plarn” or plastic yarn and then crocheted me a bag. It’s pretty neat and simple.

I did find one site called Pie and Coffee which offers a neat tutorial on how to knit your own plastic bag out of plastic bags. I have not knitted one of these bags, but I have crocheted one and I will try and get a picture of it here tomorrow.  Also, if you do a search on YouTube.com for videos on cutting plastic for bags or making your own bag out of plastic yarn, you’ll get hundreds of videos to watch. It’s quite a learning experience!

These bags are good not just for the environment, but for anyone needing a bag to hold anything. These are really durable and can get wet and it won’t matter! They don’t stain either, they just wipe off! Enjoy and have fun!