Make a Hanging Laundry Bag

 Hello Readers. For some reason kids don't always put their laundry in the hamper. Why? I do not know. I am sure there is a reason for this universal problem. I thought if it was more fun to put the laundry where it should be, I could solve this problem at my house. Let me show you this hanging laundry bag that you and/or your kids can play laundry basketball with. 

Make a bag for that laundry.  

I made this laundry bag with an embroidery hoop and some fabric. I used a 12" hoop and a piece of fabric that was approximately 22" by 48". This will make a bag that is a bit larger than I needed to fit around the hoop but it will work out great. You can make a smaller bag if you think that would work better for you. The opening of the bag just needs to be big enough to fit around the hoop. 

 

I folded my fabric in half and it made a square. That was going to be my laundry bag. I had to sew the bottom and the one side seam closed. The bag needs to be open at one end, that will be the top of the bag.

 

I sewed the bag closed as needed and I was done. The top of my bag was the woven edge of the fabric so it did not need to be hemmed or finished. If your fabric has a raw edge, fold it under twice and sew a small hem around the opening of your bag before moving on to the next step. 

 

Here is a look at my bag. It has an opening at the top just like I needed. Now, I need to put it on to the embroidery hoop. 

 

I put the bag around the inner hoop. I folded the edge, over and into the hoop. 

 

I placed the larger outer hoop around the bag and fit it next to the inner hoop. The open end of the bag fits in between the two rings of the embroidery hoop.

 

I twisted the screw to tighten the hoop together and it held the bag securely. If the hoop is loose, the bag will fall out of the hoop when you put clothes in it. 

 

I used a piece of black ribbon and tied it around the top of the hoop. The ribbon fit in the closure easily and it was easy to tie a bow to attach the ribbon. 

 

I used the ribbon to tie the laundry bag to the hook on the back of this bedroom door. You could also tie it on the door knob. That would make it lower, perfect for younger/shorter kids.

 

You could also use a long hook style wreath hanger on a door like this. 

 

This kind of hanger doesn't need any tools for installation and is great if you don't want to damage the door by installing hooks with screws. It's great for rental homes. 

 

Now you can toss laundry into the bag and make a game of it. Your kids  will (Hopefully.) think putting their laundry where it is supposed to be is loads of fun and you will not have clothes on the floor when they should be in the hamper. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Make a Handkerchief Table Runner

 Hello Readers. I love the look of vintage items and fabrics. These beautiful handkerchiefs were at a thrift store just waiting for me to snap them up. The colors and designs were just gorgeous. I liked them so much that I couldn't imagine using them for a runny nose. But what could I do with them? Let's make a colorful table runner. (Similar hankies here.)

This table runner is a bright colorful touch on this dresser in a woman's bedroom and it was so simple to put together.

I love vintage tags. This handkerchief is from the Philippines. Look at that pretty scalloped edge. 

I bought these handkerchiefs before I even knew what I wanted to do with them. I thought about what I could make with my hankies for months. They were so pretty I wanted to use them in clothing but they were so sheer, I could not figure out a way to do that without exposing myself. I decided that home decoration would be a better use. 

I had 4 handkerchiefs but that was plenty for this project. You could use 3-5 and get the same look and effect when you put them together. I ironed my hankies nice and flat and tried a few different arrangements to see what I liked. 

 

I decided that keeping the squares in a straight line would work best for my dresser. You can arrange your hankies however you like but putting your favorites in the center will make them the focus on the table or dresser you put them out on. 

 

I used white thread to sew these handkerchiefs together. All my hankies had a white background so the thread would blend in well. I put the edge of this yellow hankie on top of the red hankie, overlapping them by about 1/4 inch. I stitched along the edge of this yellow hankie to attach them to each other. I could have just spread the hankies on my dresser but I thought they would shift around and perhaps slip off the dresser over time. I wanted them attached to each other in one piece so they would stay put.

 

 I attached one hankie to another to another until they were all attached to each other in a straight line. 

 

I spread the runner on the dresser. It was long enough to hang down a little bit on the right and left sides of the dresser. That is just what I wanted. The different colors are pretty all together and I was happy with how it looked.

 

I added some white milk glass pieces that would look nice with the hankies and they were usually on this dresser anyway. 

 

I loved how the runner turned out on my dresser and it was so easy to make this fun colorful decoration. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Replace the Back of a Denim Jacket

 Hello Readers. This white denim jacket seemed perfect. It was soft and broken in a bit. It was the right size and it was a bargain at a neighbors yard sale. My friend E bought it and took it home and realized it had 2 large unicorns on it. The unicorns were attached with all the power of the universe it seemed. She was not loving the unicorns so... let's fix that by replacing the back of the jacket. 

Old jacket-new back panel.

Someone decorated this jacket with a couple unicorn patches and they were the most secure patches I have ever seen in my sewing career. I thought I could just remove them but I was wrong.

 

I worked on removing these patches for a while and it wasn't going well at all. There was some kind of adhesive as well as stitching and I could not remove it. 

 

After a while I had to give up. I moved on to Plan B because this was messy and sloppy looking. I never like to give up so if things don't work out the first time, there is always a Plan B.

 

 I decided to cut the back of the jacket out. I cut out the three back panels and shoulder/neck panel. You can see my cutting expertise here. I used my sharp scissors to get a clean cut edge. I cut out the fabric inside the seams, leaving the seams in place to keep the structure of the jacket intact.

 

This fabric was in my stash and it was very close to the weight and feel of the white denim. I pressed it nice and flat with a hot iron. I wanted it to be a smooth as possible before I cut it. 

 

I used the piece I cut of the jacket to cut out a new jacket back. I cut around the white denim piece and added about 1/4 inch all around the piece. That would give me enough room to sew it to the jacket. I did not want a big seam allowance because I didn't want to change the size of the jacket at all. 

 

Now I had a piece of the new fabric that was exact shape of the old back of the jacket. I could sew it into the jacket and it would fit right in. 

 

I used my serger to sew all the way around the piece to prevent fraying. If you do not have a serger that is OK. People sewed without sergers for decades. I also sewed without a serger for decades, you can too. Use a zigzag stitch on the edges to prevent the edges from fraying. It will work out just fine. 

 

I pinned the new piece into the jacket. You can see the blue pins here. This would hep keep everything in place while I sewed. 

 

I pinned all around the new piece for the jacket. I did stab myself with a pin, but I persevered.

 

I stitched the edges all around to sew it into the jacket. I tucked the new piece inside the opening I cut from the jacket and sewed right on the edge of the jacket seam with a small zigzag stitch to cover the cut edge of the jacket. It was easy to use the edge of the jacket as a guide for where my stitches should be. 

 

I stitched on the outside of the jacket so I could see where the edges of the jacket and the new back piece overlapped. I wanted to make sure the new piece was tucked into the jacket neatly.

 

The piece I cut out fit into the jacket well. The jacket came together quickly and easily. I liked how the new fabric looked too. 

 

I tried to make the design of the fabric well centered in the jacket, you might not have a design or pattern in your fabric to worry about, a solid block of contrasting color would be fun too. Use whatever fabric you like. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Heart Hoodie

 Hello Readers. Valentine's Day is coming soon. I love to make clothes with a theme. I don't know why but I do. Let's just go with it and have some fun with it. I had this plain sweat shirt on-hand and I decided to dress it up a little. 

New Sweatshirt! 

This was a plain sweatshirt jacket. It was simple and it had a zipper in front. That means I could open it up to sew the heart on it. 

 

I also had these sweatshirts that I could use for this project. 

 

I cut 3 hearts out of the sweatshirts. I wanted one in each color. 

 

I took the heart shapes and ironed on some fusible interfacing to give them more structure. I ironed the back of the hearts to the bumpy side of the interfacing. 

 

I played around with the placement of the hearts. I rearranged them until I liked how they looked. 

 

I pinned the hearts in place and sewed around the edges of the hearts to attach the hearts to my jacket. 

 

I sewed the hearts on the sweatshirt one at a time.

 

I used thread that matched each heart to keep the colors the same. 

 

My sweatshirt was ready for Valentine's Day. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Fabric Bag

 Hello Readers. I saw a bag online recently and loved it but I had similar fabric in my fabric stash. I thought I could make a similar bag for myself using what I already have. I used the directions from La Fabrique des Heart'istes below but this time I made a much bigger bag.

I made my own bag. 

My finished bag. This is a great project because you can use any piece of fabric. The process is folding the fabric together so it can be any size. Below is the first bag I made from about a year ago. This piece of fabric started at approximately 48' by 42', but all the steps were exactly the same as below.

 

  I made a fun little bag recently. This was really simple to make and the shape was straight-forward. There is a information on this and other projects from the maker La Fabrique des Heart'istes on

My fun new bag!

I wanted to use this fabric sample that I had on hand so I did not follow the recommended measurements very closely. The bag still turned out great. 

I folded my fabric square in half with the right sides facing each other. I sewed around the outer edge and left a small opening to turn it right-side out. I turned it right side out like this.

I ironed the fabric so that it would be flat and straight. 

I gathered the fabric together like this. 

I used a small piece of fabric to wrap around the center. It is going to be a sort of handle. The edges of the faux suede are folded in so there are no cut edges showing. 

I sewed the "handle" together so that it wrapped around the large piece of fabric.

The bag needed to be sewn together. I stitched the 2 sides together along the edges, where I was pointing. I only sewed the lower half. The top needs to stay open, that is how I will put things in and out of the bag.

I folded the bag so that the seams were in the middle. I had to sew these 2 sides and the bottom seams together. 

I was done sewing all the edges together. You can see all the seams. 

I flipped the bag right-side out to hide all those seams inside. 

When all the seams are inside the bag looks cleaner and the openings at the top make it easy to tuck items inside. The way the fabric is folded, the inside has the same fabric as the outside. It looks nicely lined. 

 

I made a second larger tote bag from some fun dog fabric. Thanks for reading along, go check La Fabrique des Heart'istes on YouTube or Facebook for more sewing ideas.

***Year End Update***- These bags are so fun. This was a great project.