Grocery Bag Holder

This is a very simple project you can do in about an hour. My sister wanted me to make a grocery bag holder and dispenser, she picked out the color and I sewed it all by hand. One note the pre quilted fabric is a little difficult when it comes to stringing the ribbon.

I took about a 15 inch square folded each of what will be the open ends over ½ inch or so depending on the ribbon you want to use. Then pinned the long edges together and sewed along the pin lines. Note: do not sew over the pockets created when folding the edges over.

Then string some ribbon through the pockets you created. This is not always an easy task, you can try a needle to guide the ribbon, a chopstick to push the ribbon, or what I ended up using was a long bit of wire folded in half to give you something that is sturdy enough to push, yet still bendable to make it around the corners. The ribbon will be short on one side to tie the ribbon in a bow and the other long to be able to hang it on the wall.

External Hard Drive Bag

External Hard drive bag

I was running out of space on my flash drive and decided to go big and get a 160 GB hard drive. Then I came upon the realization I didn’t have a way to keep it safe. I decided to make a little pouch to ameliorate the situation.

I used the sleeves from two of the leftover shirts of my t-shirt quilt along with some spare batting and ribbon. When cutting the sleeves make sure to leave some excess above the make crease for the drawstring portion of the bag.

I then pined and sewed the bottom of the bag and batting together, making sure the batting didn’t show outside of the bottom seam.

Next sew the black fabric down over the batting and pin the ribbon just above the main seam on the outside fabric. You will have to cut a slit in the outer fabric to let the ribbon out.

Now sew the outer fabric over ribbon.

Next sew these two layers together and be careful not to sew the ribbon into these layers.


Tada you are done!

Newspaper Bow

Bow Instructions

I do not like to buy wrapping paper so most often I will wrap packages in newspaper, but I do not like to give boring looking packages so I dress them up with bows and “ribbon” around the package. I started doing this in 2001 and at the time I had access to the local newspaper [white gray in color] and the financial times [pink/salmon in color]. I liked to use these two to give contrast in my wrapping, now since I do not have access to the financial times I try to use a very colorful section of the news paper for the bow or I might use the add inserts to get the same color variation effect.

The steps are fairly straightforward but it takes some practice and possibly some finesse to get the bows just right.

NOTE: when wrapping with newsprint the ink might rub off on the item. In some cases this does not matter but if the item is cloth then it is best to cover the item in a plastic grocery bag of two to protect it.


1.Gather the materials you will need, newspaper, clear scotch tape , scissors, and a stapler.

2. Select the paper, you wish to use for you bow and cut into stripes as wide as you want, typically I cut them about an inch wide. They do not need to be perfectly even across the length of the strip. I usually cut a couple of sheets of paper thick with each cut and the paper is bound to wiggle as you cut, which helps to give you these odd widths. You only need a few stripes of full length newspaper for each bow. I typically use about 3 stripes for a 3 inch or so bow.

3. Take these three stripes and tape them together. Tape is only necessary on one side. You can always add more strips as you go along but I have found three finishes most bows.

4. Make your first loop with the strip and keep the layers folded between your thumb and index finger. The loop almost looks like an awareness ribbon.

5. Make two more loops in the same manor. This is beginning to almost look like a Celtic knot.

6. Staple these three loops in place.

7. Continue in the same manor adding three loops at a time. It is best to angle the loops to fit in the in-between spaces of the previous set of loops, to create a full appearance. I find doing more than 3 loops at a time gets too much to hold and I wind up having to start from the beginning when I try to do more than 3 at a time.

8. Continue adding three more loops.

9. Last two loops. Just judge as you are making it what size the loops need to be, they will be bigger at the beginning and smaller at the end.

10. Now we are almost done with the three strips we started with, so if you need more length you can add another strip or part of one if needed. To make the final loop I add a looped piece of tape to the bottom of the strip and fold it over in place to create a more polished look if you don’t want to see the staples. Though this step is not necessary and you could finish the bow in step 9 by making 3 loops and stapling them into place. THE BOW IS DONE.

11. Now it is time to make the embellishments. My goal is to make the “ribbon” around the outside look as much like real ribbon as it can be. To make the “Ribbon” around the edges tape three or so stripes together to wrap around in the traditional pattern with one part of the strip on each side of the package.[not pictured] After this is done there should be about 5 inches or so of the strip that is left over [though it can be done with more or less, the less excess length the less of the curl will show]. What I like to do with this is curl the ribbon. To do this first cut each strip into three smaller stripes, again these do not need to be even.

12. Take these smaller stripes and roll them around the end of the scissors

13. Pinch the newsprint to keep it in this new bent shape.

14. Voila! Curled ribbon!

15. The finished package

Gift Pillow

Pillow Instructions

For a friend that was retiring I made a pillow that her co-workers signed. I wanted to make a big huggable pillow so I bought a 20 inch pillow form 18 or so inch zipper and used leftover and scrap fabric to finish the case.

I cut 22 inch squares out of the front and back panels. Then I marked the lines for 20 inch square in the center on the fabric and then sewed the 2 squares together on 3 sides and 4 corners. You can either machine or hand sew the pillow together, seeing as the power was out the night I needed to do the sewing I opted for the hand sewing by lantern light, just makes me wonder where my rocking chair is ;) I then sewed the in the zipper. Note: always pin it in and test the layout before you sew it in place.

For the front panel I cut about a 16 inch square and decorated it with a computer and some embroidery leaving room for people to sign it. For the computer I cut 2 squares, one that was an inch or so smaller than the other. I rounded the corners on the smaller square to give more of the “tube” appearance. The keyboard was made out of a small checked fabric to give the appearance of keys on a solid background. The mouse was cut out of an oval of fabric. All of the pieces were padded with a little bit of batting to give it dimension. After the embroidered message was finished, it was time to gather the signatures on the front panel and sew it.

Tip: It might be fun to have everyone at the retirement, going away, birthday party, etc sign the pillow at the party. If you do this make sure you put a piece of card board in the middle of the pillow so the ink doesn’t bleed through to the other side.

T-shirt Quilt

Well again my t-shirt drawer was over flowing with shirts that i wanted to keep around but didn't wear them very often and didn't have the space to keep them around. so i turned them into a quilt. The quit is made up of 12 squares, but not necessarily 12 t-shirts as a baby doll shirt doesn't have enough fabric to form a 12 or 13 inch square. so for those shirts i cut the logo out that i wanted to keep and cut a square from the back of another shirt.

[the overall view]

once i gathered the shirts i measured the largest logo and used that as my base size to cut the rest of the shirts. i then cut all the squares and logos as the case may be and laid them next to each other to get a sense of how it would look. once i was satisfied with the placement i sewed the loose logos on the squares with a zig-zag stitch in a somewhat matching color, though clear tread might have been easier and in some cases better.once i had all the logos attached to the squares i sewed each of the squares into their respective rows and then the rows together to form the face of the quilt. Note: sometimes the fabric gets caught when sewing two loose fabric together so i take a skinny strip of regular cotton fabric and use that when sewing all of the seams.

[close view]

i then took the fabric and cut about a 5 inch boarder to cover each side, 2 x 90 inches and 2 x 60 inches in this case. though it would have been better to add a little more wiggle room so that the corner seams line up evenly. once the sides are sewn take a final measurement of the size of the quilt. likely you will have to sew two pieces of fabric together to have a wide enough panel for the back. find a big open space on the floor where you can stretch the fabric out and place the backing good side up and the top piece good side down making sure that if the patterns are directional they are set up how you would like them. then place a piece of batting on the top, cut it to size and pin the whole thing together.

[backing fabric]

then sew around all the edges you jut pinned up leaving about a 12-13 inch hole on one side to be able to turn the fabric inside out once the sewing is completed. then carefully stitch the hole up and you pretty much have a completed quilt! you will want to make sure you tack down the corners or somewhere in the squares so the batting doesn't ball up when you wash the quilt.

your fabric choices are up to you. i chose fabrics that would make me happy and fabrics that were soft and cozy for sitting watching TV in the cold or taking a nap. I used a standard cotton on a previous t-shirt quilt and sometimes it is a little chilly to use as a a solitary nap blanket.

[My other t-shirt quilt made in 2005, 50 by 70 inches]

[back of my other t-shirt quilt]

[up close on the tacking of the quilt around the moon and square detail]

happy quilting!

Camera Bag

I was tired of trying to hunt down all my camera accessories when I wanted to take my camera somewhere it somewhere so I thought I would make a padded bag to take it all around with me. My intention was to put the transfer cable, battery charger, Camera, spare battery, and spare memory card in one place. I wanted to make a little card that kept the battery and memory card in one place so A) they wouldn’t get lost and B) they could be easily transferred from the bag to my purse when needed. The final product ended up being way bigger then I needed, but it still works and I might make another one that is smaller another day. The pattern is still a work in progress so feel free to take it and adjust it as necessary for your needs.

Cut out pieces

• Make the Pull out accessory board
• For this you need two pieces of thin [non-corrugated] cardboard a little smaller then your fabric, which in step 1 we cut the fabric to 4x6 in.
• Also you will need two squares of clear fabric about a half and inch bigger then the object you want to put in them.
• Lastly you will need some Velcro to close the pockets and to attach the board to the bag as well as some glue to attach the fabric to the board.
• First place mark on the fabric where you want the Velcro and clear fabric to go, then first sew the Velcro on the fabric and then sew the Velcro to the clear fabric, then sew the clear fabric on the fabric with the Velcro already on it.

• Next glue the fabric to the board, to do this the fabric needs to be a little larger then the board, place the fabric pocket side down to the table then place the cardboard on top, run a small bead of glue around the edges of the cardboard and then carefully bring the fabric around the edges into the glue. To hold the fabric in place while the glue dries, you can use binder clips as clamps. Do the same thing to the other piece of fabric without the pockets on it. This will piece will serve as the back to hide all the gluing and where the Velcro to attach the board to the bag will be placed. Note the fabric may pucker when sewing on the pockets so you may want to use a slightly larger piece to begin with so you have enough fabric to cover the board.

• Then while that is drying you can make the pull loop for the board. I used a scrap of fabric about 4 inches long or so and at 1inch mark on each end I cut in a 1/3 of the way, note do not cut all they way across! Then you can fold the middle sections onto each other to create the pull loop leaving a broader gluing surface at each end. The middle section can then be stitched in place; I used a zigzag stitch.
• Once the glue on the two boards is dry then you can glue in the loop you just made, onto one of the board making sure it will eventually be at the top.

• Once the loop has dried part way you can glue to two boards together. To do this run a small bead of glue around all the edges and in the middle of once of the pieces and then sandwich them together and hold in place again with the binder clips until it dries.

• After it dries and the rest if the bag is made you can attach Velcro to the back of the board. I used 3 stripes of Velcro probably about 3 inches long horizontally across the back of the board. I used heat activated glue Velcro, so they needed to be ironed in place, if you don’t have this kind of Velcro you might want to sew the Velcro on before you glue it to the board. Once you have the Velcro bonded to the board then place the Velcro on the inside of the finished bag and use the iron to bond in place, but having a finished bag is a little ahead of things now…lets get to that.

• Making the bag.
• To make the strap, sew a straight stitch along the long side and then turn inside out.

• Then I cut the batting to the right size for the front, bottom, back and sides. I used 100% polyester 1/8 inch quilting light loft batting, for no particular reason other then that’s the first one I saw, seemed to work fine, but other things might work just as well.
• Then I pinned the batting to the fabric and sewed each piece on three sides before piecing it together, it was at this point I realized I probably could have skipped that step and used a bias tape or something to hide the raw edges on the inside except the inside pocket needs to have one finished edge, this will depend on how you cut the fabric.

• When cutting out the pieces I left the front back and bottom as one piece and while sewing the mega piece on three sides on this I also sewed the 12 in zipper in. Note again when working with zippers make sure the fabric about 2 inches longer then you fabric so you can disguise the edges properly, I forgot this when cutting my fabric. Also note to pin the zipper in place and see how it will work to make sure it is on the correct edge and correct side. I had to redo my zipper the first time because the way it was placed the inside fabric would have to have been on the outside.

• When piecing them together I measured down from the zippered edge 10 inches and pinned the side pieces on, then placed the inside pocket on one side and pinned it in place, then pinned the sides up to form the bag shape.

• Then we were ready to sew. This is really straight forward the bottom corners of the bag are a little tricky to get around because they have the most fabric, so take it slow, sew it while it is inside out one way I found to get around this is kinda fold the corner back and then forward almost like making a corner of a bed to do the corners decently, but I am sure there are other better ways to do this. Note don’t forget to sew across the bottom of the inside pocket after you have done one side, it should be a little easier to get at the pocket this way.
• Once this is done you can add the Velcro, I used about an 8 or 9 in piece of Velcro across the inside pocket again with the heat activated glue so I just ironed it in place and this is when I also ironed in the three stripes of Velcro for the board. Check to make sure the Velcro is fully adhered this may take a few times.
  finishing the bag

• At this point all that is left to do is sew in the other side of the zipper and attach the handle.
  For the zipper I just tucked in the raw edge and put the zipper in the middle and hand sewed it on.
• Then the side pieces extended above the zipper so I attached the strap to the middle of these sections and folded the rest of the fabric in at an angle around it. I hand sewed this but it could have been done on a machine.