Picnic

Sandwich Wraps

I really took notice of how eco-conscious our friends are when they came to visit us in Lake Tahoe this past summer.  After our daily trip to the lake, which always consisted of a picnic lunch of sandwiches, chips, and fruit, they would rinse out the plastic sandwich bags and hang them to dry throughout the kitchen to be used again the next day.  Now, I'm all for saving the environment and all by my OCD put me in panic mode with that "trash" laying around the kitchen.  To solve the problem and make everyone happy, including Mother Nature, I made some reusable sandwich wraps.

I lined them with plastic so you can wipe them clean with a sponge or throw them into the wash.  Sewing the plastic can be a little tricky because it sticks to the machine so I recommend putting a layer of tissue paper over the plastic.  Then sew through the tissue and rip the paper away when you're done.

Lemonade Stand

I bribed Bijou yesterday morning while trying to get her dressed for school, that if she cooperated and got dressed than we could do a lemonade stand in the backyard after school.  She could sell lemonade to me and her sister and to her stuffed animals.  She whipped right into shape, got dressed quickly and was enthusiastic about our afternoon plans.

I was surprised when I picked her up from school several hours later that she didn't want to do the lemonade stand anymore but wanted to get ice cream across the street instead.  I told her "no," bit my lip, and thought, "you know how lucky you are to have a mom who makes you a lemonade stand for you when you are at school, and you don't even appreciate it."

And then she fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept the rest of the daylight hours of the day.  Leaving the lemonade stand in the backyard looking lonely and unloved.

And tomorrow is a new day.

Gift Tags From Inchmark

Back-to-school also marks the beginning of birthday party season in our household.  To prepare for the festivities, I downloaded this gift tag template from Inchmark and got busy with my x-acto knife and fabric scrap pile.  I know a few of you are self-proclaimed "paper lovers" so this post is dedicated to you.

   

You can also download a holiday version of the tags here.

Clothkits

I stumbled across this company via Jane Foster's blog.  They sell little kits filled with adorable fabric, notions and instructions for you to construct the garment yourself.  It would make a perfect project for my monthly craft night.  I hope I can convince Bijou that these dungarees are cool.  I remember wearing them when I was a kid.  In fact, this company was around in the 70's and recently relaunched.  It's a British company but they will ship to the U.S.  As you can see, I was nice enough to do the currency conversion for you.  Unfortunately, the conversion is $1 to $0.60 so it makes these kits a little expensive.  It makes me sort of wish I just got the clothing and didn't have to sew it myself.  Oh well, that really is the fun part!

Dungarees, $45 USD.

Traffic lights frock, on sale for $29 USD.

Birdie dress kit, $29 USD.

Funky Chicken Skirt, $25 USD.

Shadow Puppet Theater

A few months back I made some shadow puppets from templates I found online.  My goal was to have our three-year-old guests in Lake Tahoe this summer put on some after-dinner plays for the adults.  I spent about 5 hours making this "theater" using a font I found online and a freezer paper printing technique.  This technique is great because it produces a very precise image and does not make a huge mess, however, it can be time consuming if you are making a large print.  In the future, I'd recommend using transfer paper, it would be much faster.

I hung our theater in a doorway using a pressure bar to hold it up.  You also need to have a bright light source, I just took the shade off a lamp.

The kids loved the theater but were a little lost for words when it came to making up their own dialog so we just had them sing songs with their puppets and had them do a little Q & A with the audience.

Plastic Bag Sack

We LOVE organization in our household!  When I saw this little craft project for keeping your plastic bags all neat 'n tidy, I knew it would make a great addition to our pantry.

To make:

Fold a dish towel in half lengthwise, wrong side out; pin along the edge that's opposite the fold.  Pin twill-tape ends to one open end to form hanger.

Sew a seam 7 inches from the folded edge to make a tube.  Stitch twill tape in place.

Thread elastic through the towel's existing hem: Snip one small slit in the towel's hem.  Flip tube over and repeat, making a second slit.  Tie a large knot at one end of elastic; attach safety pin to other end.  Slide safety pin through 1 slit, and ease through hem and out the other slit.  Tie elastic ends together.  Turn bag right side out.

This craft project and instructions is from Martha Stewart Living.

Haus Pillows

I bought this Kokka fabric a while ago and have been thinking long and hard about what I wanted to do with it.  At $28/yard it's best to think long and hard before cutting it up.

Pillows are probably the simplest of sewing projects and these house pillows are no different.

To make:

1.  Draw a house on a piece of paper and cut it out.  This will be your pattern.  I drew half a house and folded it over so it would be symmetrical.

2.  Trace your pattern onto the fabric and cut out 2 houses.

3.  With the right sides facing each other, sew a 1/4" seam along all of the sides leaving a 4-inch opening in the bottom.

4.  Turn right side out and stuff with poly-fill.

5.  Top stitch the opening closed with a 1/8" seam.

6.  I also embellished mine with doors from fabric scraps and a chimney but this is optional.

Beach Bag

For my friend who shares the same name and astrological sign as I, "Happy Birthday Lisa, my fellow Gemini!"

A beach tote with interior pocket.

Apple Prints

It's the end of the school year and to show our appreciation for Bijou's teachers I made some patchwork eye pillows and had Bijou help me make our own gift wrap made from apple stamps.  Her teachers spent the majority of the year with 16 three-year-olds so I hope they find a lot of time to relax this summer and make good use of these eye pillows.

I attempted this project over the weekend and Bijou pitched a fit about wanting to eat the apple rather than stamp the apple.  We tried again this afternoon with success!

We used red acrylic paint.

Imperfection gives it character.

I drew little stems in with a colored pencil to help it look more like teacher appreciation gift wrap and less like Valentine's Day gift wrap.

Produce Bags

Now that the Berkeley farmers markets have gone plastic free, the farmers ask that you bring your own bags. You can also buy bags made from corn from them for 25 cents each.  The problem with the corn bags is that your food will spoil faster if you leave the food in the bags after you get home so you always have to swap them out.  I decided to make my own produce bags to use at the farmers market and the grocery store out of some leftover muslin.

My daughter is starting a french-immersion program in the fall so to get into the spirit of things I stamped french words onto each bag.  I hope my spelling is correct!  I'm in the process of learning the language myself.

baie: berry

vegetal: vegetable

le fruit: fruit

This doesn't seem like it will be so hard after all!

les noix: nut

          chocolat: chocolate

 

 

le legume: another way to say vegetable.

 

fraiche: fresh

To make:

1.  Cut different size rectangles from the muslin.

2.  Fold the rectangle in half with the right-side facing each other and sew 1/4" seam up the two sides leaving the top open.

3.  Sew a decorative stitch around the circumference of the bag.

4.  Press 1/4" seam around the top of the bag and then press a 1" seam.  Stitch around the bottom edge of the top hem.

5.  Use a seam ripper to rip a small hole in one of the side seams in the top hem.

6.  Using a safety pin, thread a piece of cord through the top hem and tie it off.

7.  Stamp whatever you like onto the bag.

This 7-piece set is available for sale in my shop.