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 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.

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.