Everyday Crafty Goodness

Reusable grocery bags are all the rage now.  There are so many pretty ones out there but I refuse to spend money to buy them when I can make them myself.  Here’s one I made out of a busted umbrella I found in the trash! 

1.  Remove the umbrella fabric from the frame (careful not to poke your eyes out).  Cut out each of the seams and you should have 8 triangle pieces.

2.  Iron the pieces on a low setting.  Use a rotary cutter to neaten up the edges.

3. Cut 2 of the triangles in half lengthwise.

4. Take 2 triangles and 2 of the half triangles you just cut and piece them into a rectangle.  The right angles of the half triangles should be on opposite corners of each other.

5. Sew the pieces together and press.  Make another one.  These are the 2 sides of the bag.  Sew the 2 sides together (right sides facing each other) on 3 sides.  You should now only have 2 triangles left.

6.  Cut 2 strips (about 11″x3″) out of 1 of the remaining triangles.  Fold each strip in half and sew lengthwise.  Turn them inside out and press flat - these will be the handles.

7.  Fold the top edge of the bag down about an inch and a half on the wrong side of the bag and press (this will give the top of the bag a little more strength for the handles).  Center and attach the handles.  I squared out the bottom of the bag but you can leave it as is.  Turn the bag right side out.

8.  Now the really fancy reusable grocery bags out there have their own little pouches.  This is where the last piece of the triangle (the one with the velco tab!) comes in.  Cut a 6″x6″ square out of the triangle (I had to decrease the width after I took the picture). 

9.  Fold the square in half lengthwise with the velco tab inside and sew the side and bottom.  Turn right side out.

10.  Roll up your bag and stuff it in the pouch!

This bag is super light and it takes up no space at all.  Throw it in your backpack, car (I mean, bicycle), pocket, and you’ll have a waterproof bag for any occasion!

I haven’t been very productive lately … I can’t believe I haven’t posted on my blog in over a week!  With the long weekend coming up, I’ve decided to start decluttering again.  First thing to go will be this vintage Vitamaster stationary bike.  Someone threw it away and I brought it home because I like the way it looks (check out that big ass seat (literally), you know it’s vintage b/c the seat won’t give you a wedgie).  It actually looks kind of cute in my living room but I could live without it.  I posted this on Craigslist and someone’s interested in it.  If that falls through, I’ll try Freecycle and if that doesn’t work, I’m going to see if I can take it apart and stick it in a recycling bin.  I’m sure the metal can be recycled and that was one of the reasons why I “rescued” it from the curb.  I also have some lumber from various projects that I’ve been “saving” … yeah, those will go on the curb with a FREE LUMBER sign this weekend.  Good thing there are other people like me who like to rescue free crap!

I’m taking a class at the studio and I’ve decided to work only with porcelain this summer.  So far I’ve made some porcelain soap dishes and threw some little vases.  Throwing porcelain on the wheel is like throwing white chocolate … it’s so smoooooth and it kind of melts in your hands, yum!

I went to a farmer’s market yesterday and got some veggie seedlings.  I have red swiss chard, Thai basil, and an arugula salad mix.  I also bought some bok choys to eat.  I love how Asian veggies are popping up in farmer’s markets.  I’m going to plant some of these seedlings in containers and I’m sharing the rest with my friends who are starting a garden in their backyard this weekend!

I have one hairy dog!

I finished another 100% bamboo yarn market bag and this time I used a contrasting yarn for the handles.  For the next bag I’m going to look for a pattern that has a tighter weave.

A few years ago I made a compost bin out of a trash can and drilled holes around it for ventilation.  I composted for a summer (dumping in kitchen scraps, weeds, dried leaves, and dirt) and gave up because I wasn’t sure if my compost bin was working or not.  This weekend, I took a peek inside and found all this “dirt” in it!  I’m still not sure if that’s real compost or if one of my neighbors just dumped some soil in it.  I poked around it with a trowel and found these buried inside…

WTF?!?!?!  Who the hell dumped these MacGyver DVDs in my compost bin and how long have they been in there??  Anyway, MacGyver was my hero when I was a kid and I’m thrilled to have the DVDs (wherever they came from).  He probably could’ve made a kickass compost bin with a tire, wire hanger, and a tube of chapstick but I think I’ll start using my ghetto bin again.  I wonder what else buried in it?!

Now that the show and sale is over, I finally have some time to work on some crafty projects.  Like a lot of people, I’m doing my bit by bringing my own bags to stores.  This is a bag I made with 100% bamboo yarn.  I bought 6 skeins of bamboo yarn a couple of years ago when I first heard about it but I only used one skein for a scarf and the rest got put away in my yarn basket.  When I saw this pattern from Knitty, I knew I had found a great use for my bamboo yarns (OK, my immediate thought was “ooooh, I’ve never worked with hemp yarn before … look at all those pretty colors, I want some!”).  I sort of followed the pattern except I used applied icords as the handles and I switched the garter stitch base to the inside of the bag because I don’t like the look of garter stitches.  I’m already working on my second bag and I think I’ll just keep on knitting bags with my yarn stash and maybe when I’ve made a dent in my stash, I’ll get me some of those cool hemp yarn to play with.

This is the conversation I had with my sister on Thursday night.

The phone rings.

Sis: Hey, what are you doing this weekend?

Me: (Thinking: I want to finally nail down the baseboards in my bedroom, clean all the windows, basically spend the whole weekend spring cleaning.)  Oh, nothin’ much, just hanging around.

Sis: C (her bf) and I want to come up to Boston.

Me: (!) When?

Sis: Either Friday night or Saturday morning.

Me: (OMG, can I clean the entire house by Friday night?!)  When will you know?

Sis: We haven’t gotten the tickets yet, we’re trying to see if we can find some cheap tickets.

Me: (Oh f#ck, the craft room/guest room is a freaking mess!!) Um, when will you let me know when you guys are coming if you guys do come?

Sis: I’ll call you back.

Me: (I can’t deal with this - I’m gonna watch Law and Order and knit my bag.)

The  phone rings again half an hour later.

Sis: We got tickets!  We’re flying in on Saturday morning!

Me: (Yes, that’ll give me Friday night and Saturday morning to clean the house.)  Cool, see you guys on Saturday.

I ended up just knitting on Friday night and I basically did a “crap relocation” and moved all the crap from the craft/guest room to another room and closed the door on Saturday.  I did get some cleaning done (probably more than I would’ve done if I didn’t have visitors) and had a great time hanging out with my sister and her bf.   We ate too much, complained about our bulging bellies, walked around Boston and Salem, and ate some more.  Oh, and I had time to finish knitting my market bag.  T’was a very good long weekend indeed.

Wow, the show and sale was a great success (for the studio and me)!!  I only had 5 pieces left so that meant I sold about 90% of my inventory.  I also got to meet 2 people (Hi Rose and Melynn!) who left comments on my blog at the show and sale and that was very cool because I’m always interested to see how people’s paths cross.

So what now after the show and sale?  I’ve already started on knitting a grocery bag and I plan on doing some sewing soon.  AND I’m finally going to get my act together and start posting things in my etsy store.  I know, I’ve said it before, but I’m serious this time!!  I’ll probably have more supplies and vintage pieces to sell than my own pieces but I plan to take a ceramics class in the summer so I should have more soap dishes and other stuff later in the summer.  Whew I’m relieved that the show and sale is over but now I’m excited about all the new things that I’ll get to make!