DIY - Sandwich Wraps

In honor of my oldest getting set to start first grade - that's right, first. Where has all the time gone? - I decided to make something useful. He's going to need to bring lunch next year. I'm not sure I'm prepared for that. Anyway, instead of using a million sandwich bags, I decided to make some reusable sandwich wraps.

I saw a craft show a couple years back that featured making your own "fabric" by fusing together grocery bags. The concept is all about ironing plastic between parchment paper to make usable fabric for bags, etc. This gal made it seriously beautiful by using strips and shapes cut from colored bags. I've been dying to try it.

My girlfriend and I were chatting about it and she showed me this one that she bought a while ago. I like how it makes a nice little placemat too.

I borrowed it with plans to copy it. I also searched around Pinterest for some ideas and found this great one from Chica and Jo, but decided to make a few changes. Hers was based on diagonal orientation and I wanted mine horizontal (thinking it might keep the sandwich a little fresher, but I'm not sure that matters).

Here's how mine came out.

Want to make one (or three)? Here's how I did it. First gather a bunch of grocery bags (the Target ones are great because they are made from thick plastic). Good thing I frequent Target on a regular (weekly) basis. Lay out the bags so they're nice and flat. Cut the handles and bottom seam off.

Then cut off the colored part of the bag. You should have a big rectangle. Lay it flat on your parchment paper. I folded it over to make a square and laid another one on top, flipping it over, so you have have a thickness of three bags.

Cover it with another piece of parchment paper and iron it on medium heat (no steam). It will shrink up significantly. Keep fusing it until you have a nice square about 12x12. You can add more bags to the sides if it gets too small. Next, I used my rotary cutter to make it a 12x12 square.

Lay your plastic square on a 14x14 piece of fabric (I found this cool skateboarder fabric on clearance at Walmart for $1/yard).

Fold in the sides until they are even with the edge of the plastic and over once more. Pin in place. This makes a nice edge around your wrap.

Miter the corners by folding the fabric in a diagonal. Like this.

Take your piece to the machine and sew down your edges. Now, it's time to finish it up. Cut a piece of velcro about 2 inches long and sew the scratchy side to the top center of the wrap.

Fold in the sides.

And the bottom to determine the location of the loop side of the velcro. Pin it and sew it down.

You're done.

I made three and even followed a little tip from the Chica and Jo tutorial. I cut out the letters to spell "I love you" from a Walmart bag and fused it in the center. Cute, huh?

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We Wear Short Shorts... Um, no.

I had the best visit last weekend with my girl Jessica. It was pretty funny that it only took us about 20 minutes to get back to finishing each other's sentences. Isn't it fun to have a girlfriend like that? She flew all the way out to Denver from Los Angeles to catch-up with me and catch-up on some shopping.

We headed to downtown to hit H&M - I've wanted to go there for years. It turns out I should have done it years ago. Much of the pieces they have are really young and trendy. Not that I can't rock young and trendy, but it doesn't really reflect well on a mom picking-up your kindergartner in a tube top and short shorts.

While I'm on the subject of short shorts (nice seque, huh?), Jess and I shared our rant about pajama shorts being WAY too short. I recently bought a cute little set at Target.com for about $7.50. Can't beat that, but when it arrived, the fabric was crazy sheer and the shorts were super short. No amount of Nair was going to make those look good.

(Nair Girls)

Turns out Jess was having the same problem. I'm sure my husband would have liked the Target PJ set, but my kids may have ended up scarred for life. We searched and searched for some cute (and not booty revealing) shorts, but no luck. What's a gal to do? Duh, turn a pair of PJ pants into shorts.

Jess had bought some silly Snoopy pants on sale recently and brought them with her to Denver.

(Snoopy)

Sunday morning before a last little shopping venture, I decided to cut them off and hem them up for her. While she was wearing them, I made a little cut about an inch and a half longer than her desired length.

(Chopped)

After laying them flat to get a straight cut, I chopped those little puppies off. Next, I took them to the iron and pressed in a hem, doubling it over so they wouldn't fray. A couple quick seams and tada! New non-booty revealing pajama shorts. See how much shorter mine were than the Snoopy ones? Yikes! Hello bikini wax.

Fabric Covered Notepads

I fell in love with these cute little fabric covered notepads from Skip to my Lou while perusing Pinterest a couple weeks ago and thought they would make great teacher gifts. Since Parker is in year-round school and is off track, he missed teacher appreciation week. He has the absolute best kindergarten teacher.

I decided I should give it a try and made a couple tonight. I'm in love. Want to make one too?

Here's what you'll need:
Coordinating fabrics (1/4 yard makes two notepads)
Iron-on fabric stabilizer (for stiffness)
Spiral notebooks (mine are 4x6)
1/4 wide elastic (optional)
Thread
Sewing machine

First, cut out your pieces. You'll need:
7x14 inch piece of main fabric
6x9 inches of fabric stabilizer
2x6 inch piece of coordinating fabric for pen holder

Next, iron on your stabilizer in the center of your main fabric following the instructions on the package. I just eyeballed this step.

I hate ironing - in fact I've been known not to buy things that require ironing - but this step is important. Iron down the edges of your fabric 1/2 inch all the way around. I used the edge of the stabilizer as a guide.

Next, fold in the sides of your cover (this will slide over the edges of your notepad to hold it on). Again, I used the edges of the stabilizer as a guide.

OK. Time to head to the machine. Sew down the seams on the ends of your fabric. Pin down your folds if you want (I just remembered to tuck them in) and sew around the whole thing leaving the smallest border possible. You want your notepad to slide in fairly easy, so if your seams are too big, it will be tight. Don't worry though, you can trim the edges of the notepad cover to make it fit if neccessary (I did it, but just a little ;-)).

Now, let's add the pen holder. Iron in the sides like you did on the main part.

Sew down the top seam only. The others will be sewn directly to the body of the cover. Place it on the front of your cover. Be careful not to sew through the flaps and pin in place.

Sew down the first side only.

Now, create a little pleat to allow space for the pen. Pin down and sew along the bottom and up the other side.

This last step is optional. It will create a strap to hold the book closed while not in use. When I do it again, I will probably attach it to the front of the book, so when wrapped around it will be in the back of the book. See how mine is in front in the final picture? I think it will looks better on the back.

Now, slide in your notepad - trimming if neccessary - and make more. Lots more. I bought four notepads, but I'm heading back to Walmart tomorrow so I can make more.

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Pajama Pants

In honor of my most repinned pin on Pinterest (say that three times fast), I decided I had to make these for my weekly Pinteractive post. So far this pin has gotten more than 175 repins! Crazy. I was just looking for a good tutorial on how to make some PJ pants for Parker.

I made him some out of an old Paul Frank robe and they weren't perfect. I wanted to keep the pockets from the robe, so the legs were a little wider than I'd like. Enter the great little tutorial from My Cotton Creations.

Parker likes anything and everything "rockstar" and this fabric was just too perfect. $1.50 a yard on clearance at Walmart. Score. I laid a pair of pants he already owns on top to determine the length. I added several inches for the elastic casing and bottom seams. I also wanted them to be slightly longer since he's growing like a weed.

Like the original tutorial I folded the selvedge edges in toward the middle like this.

But, to make things easier, I folded it over again and laid the old pants on top. Follow the edges of the old pair to make a pattern for the new ones. I added about an inch for seam allowance. Now you'll have two identical pieces - one for each leg.

Next, open up both pieces and lay them on top of each other right sides together.

Pin the crotches together and sew them with a straight stitch. I zigzagged the seams to reduce fraying. If only I had a serger.

Next sew up the legs and zigzag or serge the seams.

Grab your iron and double fold down the hems (so you won't have any fraying). Do the same to create about an inch channel for the elastic (I used 3/4 inch elastic). Sew them up, but leave about a two inch opening to insert your elastic. Measure and cut the elastic and insert using a safety pin. Sew the ends together and close up the whole. Tada! Pajama pants for under $2!

They were so easy and take about 20 minutes. I even made a pair of shorts for Dillon with some left over camo fabric (he loves everything camo). And a pair for me using the fabric I had left over from my simple skirt tutorial. Because I'm only a little bit wider than the boys, I couldn't use the fabric width to make the legs. Instead I decided on the width I needed and folded the cut ends in. It made for easier hemming, since the selvedge end was now on the waist and hem.

I'm going to make some t-shirts to go with the pants using my bleach stencil shirt process. What do you think, guitar for Parker's? Layered leaves for Dillon's?

Dinosaur Habitats

The boys have been building "dinosaur habitats" in the backyard for a few weeks now. They are basically a bucket of water, rocks, grass and some plastic dinosaurs. Super cute. Right? The only problem with this is that they want to bring them inside. Uh, no.
So, I was thinking terrarium and saw this awesome one from Yellow Brick Home on Pinterest. I have these glass hurricane vase things from my MIL (they used to house festive holiday decos - like glass ornaments or Valentine's conversation hearts with a candle). They have been collecting dust in a cabinet for a while, so I washed them, loaded the boys up and headed to the Home Depot.

I couldn't find charcoal, so I hope they last. The original tutorial suggested a layer of rocks, one of moss, one of charcoal (for absorbing extra water) and one of potting soil. Since my my hurricanes have a little foot on the bottom, I hope the extra rocks will help with drainage.

We bought some succulents and ferns, moss and potting soil and reused the rocks from the fish tanks that no longer hold fish (RIP Fishy and Happy Fish II). Here's how they turned out. I love them (and those boys).

Here's how we made them. First, we washed the rocks (I was nervous about any residual fish germs). Then layered everything in the hurricanes like this: rocks, moss, potting soil. Next, we planted our little pants. To finish off the look, the boys decorated the top with dinosaurs, rocks and a little patch of moss (that's the grass). We watered them and done. The boys want to put them in their rooms, but I like them so much they are currently decorating our living and family rooms. Here is Parker's (the blue stuff on his chin is marker).

And Dillon's.

And a close-up.

Simple Skirts

I've been making some super cute skirts this week and thought I'd share. I bought this fabric on clearance at Joann's a few weeks ago. It was in the remnants, so I didn't have a choice as to how much I could buy. It was a little under a yard. It's a little shorter than I would normally make, but perfect for spring. And I do like wearing things a little low on the waist.

To make it, I cut two panels of fabric about 1.5 times my hip measurement (I just wrapped it around, no tape measure required).
2. Stitch them together on the sides (a simple straight stitch works great).
3. Next, I created a hem by double folding, ironing and stitching it. I did a similar fold/iron method around the top, but created about 1.5 inch channel for the elastic (leave about 1.5 to 2 inches  to insert your elastic).
4. To add a polished look, I put a quick seam around the top of my channel about 1/4 inches from the top.
5. Finally, insert the elastic (wrap it around your waist to determine the length) using a safety pin and sew the ends together.
6. Close the hole you used to put in the elastic and done. I love it!

I love it so much, in fact, that I made another one, but with pockets! I love pockets. Here's a great tutorial for the pockets. I had to take mine apart three times until I read the tutorial and could finally see how it works. This fabric is amazing - $3 a yard on clearance at Walmart. I bought all they had (2.5 yards) and have enough for some cute pajama shorts (more on those later). Pow! Here it is!

It's two inches longer than the brown one. Wore it yesterday and got tons of complements. Yay!

And there you have it. Two skirts for about six bucks.

Map Art Bridal Shower Gift

I went to a bridal shower this weekend for my cousin's fiance, who happens to live in the Denver area. My aunt came in town and we trekked across I-70 in the crazy wind.

I love personal gifts, but since I just met this lovely gal this weekend, I didn't know a whole lot about her. So, this is what I made.

I've seen a couple of similar ideas on Pinterest. Here and here. They are totally cute, but not exactly what I was looking for.

I bought a frame at Michaels for 50 percent off. Yay! And grabbed an old driving atlas from 2004. Since it was so old, I figured my husband wouldn't care if I ripped it apart. I also liked that there were close-up versions of each map, so I could get the detail I wanted.

First, I drew out my patterns on scrap paper. I folded it in half (so I could cut two patterns at once) and cut out the girl first. Then took the second pattern and cut off the skirt and hair, so they would be the exact same size. I know, genius.

Next, I located the towns each of the betrothed were from. In my case, Riverside, CA and Northglenn, CO. I placed the patterns on the maps, so I would get the name of the town in the chest area of the cutout, traced them lightly in pencil and cut them out. Here are those.

Nice and neat.

The next one wasn't as easy because the part of the map I needed was along a fold. After carefully piecing it together, I taped my people together, so they were holding hands and placed them on the map. Under the glass, you can't even see the patch job.

The lovely couple met at the National Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY. I loved that the map actually showed the location and name of the school.

The maps didn't stand out well on that awesome burlap paper (yep, it's paper), so I mounted them on black cardstock on cut them out again, giving a little black border. I played around with the idea of adding some kind of text, like the wedding date or the names of the bride and groom. But, in the end, I decided that wasn't needed.

The bride loved the gift and it was the most personalized gift at the shower, except for maybe the hilarious "wedding first aid kit" made by the bride's sisters, including "Man of Steel" underoos for my very embarrassed cousin.