Wet Beach Bags

I'm going to call these Beach Bags, all though you could use them for whatever wet stuff you end up with. Me? I need a wet bag at the beach, or any mall fountain.  My kids like to "stick their toes in".  Yup. Toes. Toes to head!

I've outgrown the need for a diaper bag, but do you ever outgrow the need for a wet bag? They're great for muddy little shoes, restaurant spilled on clothes, potty accidents, and so much more. I keep one in the trunk of my car and I'm really surprised at how often I use it.

I've even used mine as a temporary trash container.  Fast food wrappers and ketchup packets and straws and cookie wrappers and all of that sort of thing has to go somewhere. The best is when my kid bursts into a bloody nose mess and she needs a bag to toss in the used kleenex. Like I really want to pick those things up off the car floor! Yuck!

Good thing they are easy to launder! Stinky wet stuff and all can just be tossed into the washer and dryer. Presto! Mama's work is easier than ever now!

These are made from Polyurethane Laminate fabric. It's BPA free, same thing that I use for the sandwich and snack bags.  Since they have a bigger purpose, they are 16" x 14".  Nice and roomy.

Cars Twirly Skirts

I love this Redondo skirt pattern! It comes together so nicely and the kids just love to twirl in these skirts. The pattern is from Studio Tantrum.

This time I tried something different: Five panels and five thin panels for stripes.  I really like how it came out!  The thin stripes broke up the busy print fabric nicely without being too bold. I will do this again, the thin stripes. It measured out to be a little more than if I had used 6 panels, not too much but still lots of twirl.

I also decided to try to invent some sort of yoga waistband. I used ribbing and some knit elastic, I'm not sure if I got the desired effect, but close enough. It's soft and can be folded over. I think I'll make the waistband longer and easier to fold over. It should be comfortable and hold tight at the same time.

I made two of these skirts. They are birthday gifts for two adorable little girls who love Lightning McQueen. I'm so glad they adore these skirts because they are sure a lot of fun to sew!

Superhero Capes

I made six superhero capes in one day!  Thank you, serger!

I was only going to make one superhero cape for Henry. It would be a great 3rd birthday present!  If Henry has one, Alfie will want one. Charlie should have one too. The girls will each want one.  Next thing you know, I had six capes done.

I used some old royal blue polyester. This stuff was given to me and it's probably from the 70s. But it's bright and keeps it's shape, so it was just fine for a quick party cape. I used up my leftover cheap red fake velour stuff for the outer side of the capes. It's too flimsy on it's own so the two fabrics were a great pair! 

I decided to applique a  superhero emblem on each cape.  I cut them out and ironed them on with fusable interfacing, then topstitched along the edges.  This ended up being very important since every cape was a different length. Alfie had the smallest cape and Gracie had the longest. We'll need to tell them all apart! 

Since I didn't have a pattern, I just freehanded the cape shape.  I tried to make it shoulder width across the top and taper out to the bottom. I made the neck in backward bib fashion and used velco as the fastener.  I wanted velcro so that it will pop off if the cape gets stuck at the top of the slide or something, I don't want the kids to choke!

I serged around the outside edges and have the seams on the outside. No turning! Much easier and the kids really didn't care. With the serger, I can get away with finished edges on the outside from time to time, and this is one of those times. 

The birthday turned into a superhero party since every kid had a cape. They all loved the capes!  It was so much fun to see them all in their capes running and "flying" around saving the world from imaginary villains.

Sandwich and Snack Bags

More Sandwich and Snack bags!  I've been making a bunch of them as gifts and for my girls' lunch pails. They are just perfect for lunches and snacks on the go!

So far, the bags have been holding up really well. I handwash them sometimes and I toss them in with the laundry sometimes. Either way they come out clean and ready to reuse. No problem! I'm actually quite impressed with how well they are washing up.

Again, the nylon zippers are the best. I like using zippers rather than velcro on the bags. The nylon zippers are a lot easier to sew in and a lot easier to use. The metal zips just can't compare, but they are fine. Not that big of an issue to complain about, but I do think I've lost count of how many sewing needles I've broken while sewing in the metal zippers. Had to add the cost of a couple packs of needles to the cost of my sandwich bag supply!

Costs so far have been pretty good. I can get a lot of snack bags out of one yard of PUL fabric. I am not sure how many snack bags, but it's close to a dozen. I counted it up and promptly forgot. That's me. Ha!  The zippers are a cost if I buy them; they run around $2 each.  I'm almost out of my zippers in my recycled zipper stash. That was really cool having recycled zippers to use and not spend money on them, but the drawer full of zippers is now just a  handful. They were mostly the metal zippers anyway.

The PUL fabric is where the money goes. It's $16.99 a yard? I think? But if you get a coupon it that brings the cost down. In any event, a dozen bags costs around $25 - $30 to make. If I bought them on etsy from someone or through retail that would cost me a whole lot more!

I also bought some food printed fabric to make lined snack bags. The PUL is plain white and then I put a quilting fabric over the outside. I think these are my favorite because of two reasons: 1. the seams are all on the inside and 2. they are just so cute!

These have been fabulous gifts. Everyone likes them a lot and I can give more than two.  Here are photos of the fun snack bags that I've been making lately.