Back to School

I sent my daughter off to school this morning with these itemsShe picked out the fabric back in July when I suggested that I make her a backpack this year. I had two reasons for this suggestion.

1. Last year she had a breakdown in the store when she couldn't decide which backpack she liked best.
2. I had seen a cute homemade backpack on somebodies blog somewhere out in bloggerland and I have been dieing to try making one.

I think that it turned out pretty good, considering I didn't have a pattern.
I love reading other people creative blogs, they give me so ideas. The lunch bag and boxy pencil case are a couple of other ideas from bloggerland, I don't know where I saw them but they were tutorials that I had read once, and again something that I wanted to try with my own twists of course. The two little bags are for her crayons because the boxes they come in don't stand a chance in a desk of a second grader. The tall one is for her pencil crayons and the little one for wax crayons.
I have one more backpack to make for my preschooler, but she doesn't start school for another week, so I have plenty of time to get it done....right?

Another green idea

I saw this idea out there somewhere in blogger land a month or so ago and I liked it for a number of reasons.

1. it's another "green" idea, to lessen the waste we are tossing out.
2. it was super simple.
3. it would make a great gift.
4. it was cute
5. and it used up more scraps from a variety of my fabric boxes.

So I sat down and put some together. What do you think of my reusable makeup remover pads with a mesh bag for washing them in?
They are made with soft flannel(remover side) and a fun cotton print to make them look cute. They have a layer of cotton quilt batting in the middle for softness and absorbency. I use mine a lot and think they are great.

A whole lot of tissue

I just made 50 tissue cozies today. "Why 50?" you ask. Well, good question. You see first of all, they are so quick and easy and fun to make. Secondly, they use up all kinds of scrap fabric(a huge shout out to my sister-in-law for passing on her scrap quilting cotton). Thirdly, for our Relief Society(our church women's group) 17th of March party(a celebration of it's organization), which I am in charge of organizing, we are doing a "Purse" theme. And I thought that these would make great prizes for the games we will be playing(oh, I just ruined the surprise...I wonder if anybody from church reads this blog?). Now of course we wont be playing 50 games, and I am not likely to hand out 50 prizes. "So what will I do with the remainder" you ask? Again, excellent question. Well you see, In April I will be attending a Moms and Tots garage sale as a vendor and I thought these would be nice little grab items. I have all kinds of great ideas for things to have available at the garage sale. I have been busy busy busy creating. It's been alot of fun. So if you are around on April 25, you should check it out, come see all the great stuff that I've been creating, maybe even pick up a little something special for you or your kiddies.

I'm on a roll

Alright, for the past month my brain has been really ticking, churning over ideas, things that I wanted to really be doing, while I worked on making Brides Maid dresses for my sister-in-law. Now that I have finished those dresses, I am working on some of my ideas.

I picked up the idea for these totally quick and fun tissue holders from one of my favorite blogs, Sew,Mama,Sew (this site continues to feed my churning brain). I've made a handful of them to have on hand to give as gifts. They are so easy that I used them as the first project for my beginners sewing class that I teach once a month.

My 6 year old thought they were so great that she wanted me to help her make one for her grade one teacher for Valentines day. She has her own little stash of fabric that she chose from. She has a little Singer sewing machine that she got for her birthday, so she did what she could on that and then I helped her use my machine to finish it off.