Little Makeup Bag

My husband invited me to tag along to an overnight conference. I could hang out in the hotel and just relax while he and his cohorts went to meetings. I thought that was a grand idea! I quickly threw together an overnight bag, but I didn't have a makeup bag that I wanted to take. I had one that was too big, another that was too big, and another that is too dark inside and I can never find anything in it. Hmmm.

What else would I do in a situation like this? I made one!

First thing I did was look through my zipper stash and I found a 7" plastic pink zipper.  Great!  Then I looked through my PUL fabrics and found something that matched up. I cut two rectangles of the PUL so that the zipper edge was 8" giving me plenty of room to secure the zipper on the corners.

I sewed the zipper on each piece, one on each side, and then I sewed up the sides and bottom of the bag.  When I finished, I boxed the corners on the bottom edge to give it a little volume and a base to stand on. Worked great!

My little makeup bag was cut and sewn in about 20 minutes. It was the perfect size, not too heavy and a nice bright color. Love it!

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.

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.

Sandwich and Snack Bags

More sandwich bags!

Yesterday we went to the park and tested our new polka-dot lunch baggies with a little picnic. They were great!

After I got the kids to bed, I made eight smaller snack sized reusable bags.  They are cute! And handy to have.  One thing I noticed about the reusable bags is something I hadn't thought of at all - and it's a huge perk!

The kids can reseal the bags all by themselves!  As opposed to ziplock baggies. This is super awesome!

These eight baggies are destined for my daughters' school's Little Farmers' Market. The kids sell things (usually cookies, garden vegetables, and little crafts). They keep half of their profits and donate half to their classroom.  The school they attend encourages green living, so they are very appropriate for the Little Farmers' Market.

I think I'll buy some plain white PUL (polyurethane laminate fabric) and make some lined sandwich bags next. It will be fun to have lots of different prints and colors. Also, I have some Star Wars fabric that would be fun to turn into sandwich bags for my daughter's lunchbox!

A little tip with making these lunch bags:  I think using a plastic zipper is best. I have mostly used metal zippers because I am recycling my zipper supply.  I went to a fabric and notions garage sale one day and it was actually more of an estate sale; I asked if there were any zippers because I can always use a few and the lady running the sale said "wait here". She was back in a minute with an armload of zippers!  Almost all were metal and a lot of them were taken from garments, or had been used in some way. I washed them all and tested each one to make sure it worked (after I got home and untangled the huge wad of zippers).  That was three years ago and I'm still well stocked with metal zippers.

Besides, I broke two needles on my sewing machine putting in the metal zippers!

I hope the metal zippers do not pose a problem with the sandwich baggies. I'll buy some more plastic zippers soon.

Reusable Sandwich Bags

I finally ran out of sandwich sized ziplock baggies. I still have an endless supply of snack sized ziplocks though, so I will keep using those.

My kids go to a wonderful school that encourages healthy living. A lot of the kids use "green" snack bags rather than disposable plastic bags and now my kids will join the green lunchbox revolution. They will have reusable sandwich bags!

Honestly, I don't know how "green" polyurathane laminate fabric is, it's care and cleaning with use of soap and water, or the industry of zipper manufacturing as opposed to the manufacture and disposal of ziplock baggies, so I'll just leave that side of it alone. Let's consider the reuse of PUL bags as environmentally friendly.  I will use these in the girls' lunchboxes and for our snacks when we go on outings.

My friend uses them all the time. She's had her sandwich bags for years and she says they wash up great and stand up to all sorts of snack packing. She has three children and they all lunchbox at school and on outings too. I figure if a mom of three has been using the same little bags for years, they might be handy.

She has both zipper and velcro style bags. All of hers are PUL lined with something cute on the outer side. I decided to only use PUL which means my seams are exposed to the interior of the bag and might become crumb catchers. We shall see.  Maybe I will cover the seams with double folded bias tape, that might be a good trick.

These four sandwich bags took me about an hour to cut and sew together, although I had interruptions and I wasn't sewing in a hurry or anything. I am sure if I only had a half an hour, I could have still done up a couple of them at least. I used old zippers taking this reusable thing to a new level.

Here they are!  And yes, the green bags are actually pink polka dots. Who says being green can't be cute?

Wet Stinky Bags

My daughter is turning into a hippy. Long hair, baby wearing, openly breastfeeding, Prius driving, organic veggie eating and cloth diapering. Kinda like her mom!  (kinda)  I'm so proud of her!

I have never been courageous enough to use cloth diapers! Even the thought of cloth diapers makes me want to run away screaming. I'm a big believer is using disposable dipes and getting rid of them as fast as possible! Wash 'em? Ewww! Not me!

But for those who do use cloth diapers, there is a need for this thing called a "wet bag" to store the wet stinky diapers in while on the go. Then when you get home, you add them to the mountain of wet stinky diapers waiting for the next laundry cycle. The wet bag is outing survival gear. It's a must have! Seriously, you wouldn't want to tote your soiled diapers in a ziplock baggie or a plastic grocery sack would you? No! Those are disposable plastics - that would defeat the whole purpose of going with cloth diapers. I'm having a hard time grasping the concept too.

My daughter wanted some wet bags since she's just starting this whole cloth diapering thing. She was using disposables before and recently discovered that she could be even more of a hippy by going with cloth and doing more of the one household chore she hates: laundry.

What's a mama to do but sew some cloth diaper wet bags for her little girl and make her a happy mommy.  I do enjoy spoiling my girls with whatever they want from my sewing room! 

I picked up some PUL at the fabric store a while back. I was going to make her some wet bags before she started using cloth diapers but I was thinking of swim suits and that type of wet stuff. it's nice to have a place to store wet things especially if you take a trip to the beach, pool or splash pad. I guess she can use these wet bags for that purpose too. Wet is wet.

PUL is polyurethane laminate. It's fabric that is sprayed with plastic. Nicely water resistant! It's also not cheap. It's not so expensive that it is out of reach, but you don't want to waste any, that's for sure.

I made four wet bags for Katie of varying sizes, and one bag that would hold a small item or some wipes. Two of the bags I used just the PUL and two of the bags I used scrap fabrics on the exterior and PUL as an interior lining. One bag was lucky enough to get an outside pocket for dry items. That was her idea, and I was nearly done sewing them when she told me that a dry pocket would be nice, so only one bag ended up with a pocket.

All of them have a plastic zipper. The zippers are all from my stash and so they are whatever I had on hand, not necessarily the best color choices and not all of them heavy duty sports zippers. That would have been ideal.

Anyway, the wet bags were simple. They are just rectangles with a zipper. I didn't use the serger on the bags because the PUL sort of hugs the needle and I thought the last thing I need is a serger problem, it's a finicky machine. I just used the sewing machine. I doubt there will be any fraying issues.

I also added a loop for carrying or hanging on the stroller. Since the wet bags will be filled with wet diapers, they might be kind of heavy and the loop might need to be strong if she uses it to function as more than a decorative touch. Because it will be utilized to hold a lot of weight, I made the standard tube out of fabric, and then threaded an athletic shoe string through the middle of it. That should be durable!

I enjoyed making the bags. They're cute and practical. Plus, they were easy and a nice break from my other sewing project in progress. Plus, I made my daughter very happy! She is such a good mommy to her sons that I don't get much of a chance to help out. Seems she handles parenting with such ease.