why I love thrift stores!!

When I saw them I had to have them.

sweater sleeve scarflet

Add button hole and button in appropriate places

My husband thinks it's silly to wear a sleeve

around my neck.....oh well.

re-usable lunch bag

I've gotten to the point that I hate throwing things

away. My two oldest are in school and school lunch

is a ridiculous 2.95 (did I also mention that I'm cheap?).

So I've started making re-usable lunch sacks. I love them!

I basically used a paper lunch sack as a guide, but I wanted

to branch out and try something with handles. I've seen

people use laminated cotton, but honestly, I'd prefer just

using cotton lined with canvas. I have two reasons for this.

1. Cotton and canvas are more affordable (cheap like me!)

2. I can throw the bags in the wash no problem. While the

other can only be wiped down. Yogurt smeared bag bad.

Throwing yogurt smeared bag in washing machine good.

The fun thing about sewing these bags is I can be creative

and functional at the same time. I love functional stuff to

also be pretty. It makes me smile and my husband laugh.

sheet bag

This bag used to be a sheet. It's true! In fact, I

slept in it as a kid. I'll tell you a secret..............

I love old fashioned retro stuff! It makes me

happy. The sheets that I massacred....vintage.

Lovely, lovely vintage.

The bag? Easy. Sew two rectangles together, square

the corners, add a ruffle or two, and some handles

and ta-da! A bag is born. If there's any interest, I

would love to do a more detailed tute. But some of

you are probably already thinking I'm crazy for

cutting up a sheet to make a bag.

You're probably right!

giant soft pretzel

I am an allrecipes fanatic! A lot of my most favorite recipes

come from that web site. Recently, my kids and I were

having a soft pretzel craving (okay, mostly me) so we tried

this. May I say fabulous!!

I will admit that they're better warm, but that wasn't a

problem at this house. I haven't tried freezing them yet

but I bet they would freeze well. Someone adventurous

will have to try that out and get back to me.

the ellie doll

I haven't sewn nearly as much as I've wanted to.
Sick babies and house work are to blame. Yuck.

Her name was Molly until my 2 year old confiscated
her and named her Ellie. So Ellie she'll be.

I quite like her...although I've always had a soft spot
for simplistic designs. I guess It's probably because I'm
not a very patient person. Meh, patience is overrated.
Right?

At any rate my baby girl was pleased with her so I

suppose that's really all that matters.

re-usable snack bag tutorial

I feel like my family goes through snack bags like water!
I use them for everything!! So this, I felt, was a necessary
pattern to draft.
I used 2 coordinating fabrics, but you can use whatever
you have on hand.

The dimensions are as follows: ahem...
7-1/2 inches wide and 6 inches tall. Use a small bowl as a guide
to round your corners on the bottom. Cut 4 of these (2 outer
2 lining).

Grab 1 outer and 1 lining. With right sides together stitch
the top about 5/8 of an inch. Repeat with the other set.

Turn those right side out, and press the seams flat.
Now sew the velcro all the way across the top of the
lining side of the bag. Like so...

K, now with the right sides of the bag together stitch
a 1/4 inch seam all the way around leaving the top open
of course. Flip the little thing right side out and stitch again
around the outer edge this time with a 3/8 inch seam.
Like this.....


And, you're done!