Reusable Sandwich Wrap

Last summer, I won this awesome book called Lunchbags! from a Sew, Mama Sew! giveaway. I loaned it to a friend, and now that it's in my hands again, it's time to make some stuff!

The first project I chose was the Reusable Sandwich Wrap. I'm not much on Ziploc bags. They leak into my purse sometimes, and I feel incredibly guilty and wasteful when I use them. Enter this environmentally-friendly wrap.

Choosing a fabric for this was not easy. I only had one oilcloth print for the inside (good old polka dot!), but I had a billion fabrics to choose from for the outside. I eventually chose a purple and white polyester gingham. Gingham is a favorite print of mine and because it's polyester, I don't see myself making any clothing out of it. I'm way too sweaty for that. (And if you read this and said, "Polyester and oilcloth? That's disastrous!" then you are correct.)

I made this with:
One square of oilcloth and one square of polyester gingham, with 4" snipped off the corners
One button
Interfacing
One hair elastic

The purple gingham actually came from the fabric stash my great aunt gave me, so it should be no surprise that it smelled of mothballs. As soon as I ironed the interfacing onto the polyester, my entire apartment started smelling like mothballs. Two days later, my apartment still smelled like mothballs. As I write this, mothballs hang in the air.

The first thing I did was sew a small rectangle of interfacing on the back of the gingham where the button was going. Then I sewed the button.

Pinning the two evil fabrics together:

One thing that hung me up for a bit was the placement of the elastic. If you make one of these, tuck the elastic between the fabrics after you baste it, that way the elastic will be hanging right out of the seam.

I sewed around the wrap, leaving a 4" opening. Then I turned it inside-out.

Top stitching was by far the biggest pain. I broke a needle, then my bobbin tension was off. There was much swearing and quitting and "I'm never working on this again"s.

The guinea sandwich: peanut butter with cream cheese and Granny Smith apples. Yummers.

A few notes about working with oilcloth:
Don't iron the oilcloth. It will melt and ruin your iron -- possibly even ruin your life.

Don't fold the oilcloth to store it; roll it up instead. Otherwise, you'll get really big creases like mine. They don't want to go away very easily.

What I liked about this project:
I used materials that I already had at home. No spending! (Hey, even the book was free from a giveaway!)

What I didn't like about this project:
Sewing slippery oilcloth to anything is a pain. This project was no exception. I punished myself further by combining oilcloth with polyester. D'oh.

What I listened to while I made this project: Avett Brothers (handsome AND talented)

Cardholder Project

This is one of the little projects I whipped up in about 2 hours in one of the Singer classes at work. (The classes are my absolute favorite perk of working at Martha Stewart!)

We used decorative stitches on the outside of the cardholder.

The only issue I had was that my fabric was kind of bulky in the corners (even though I clipped them), so the machine kept getting stuck and creating what looked like birds' nests in the corners. I trimmed most of the mess and pretended nothing happened...

I sent this gift to my Craftaholics Anonymous Gift Exchange partner as a little bonus to go with the Anthropologie-Inspired Bracelet I sent her!

Mini Lasagna Cups

I'm always jealous of food bloggers because not only do they get to make awesome food, but they also get to eat that awesome food. Win-win.

I've been pinning recipes over on Pinterest like a madwoman. A few nights ago I made these Mini Lasagna Cups, which are made from wonton wrappers. Genius.

I like the crispiness of the wonton wrapper even more than I like pasta. In summer I'm usually partial to Everyday Food's No-Bake Summer Lasagna recipe, but I think this one is good for rainy days when you need some warm comfort in your tummy.

Baby Janes, Now with Buttons!

The Baby Janes I made a few weeks ago now have buttons!

I used cute flower buttons from Joann's to complete the project. Here's my niece modeling them:

I started calling my niece Cricket because she likes to rub her feet together. Unfortunately, that means she's not fond of the Baby Janes because they interfere. I got an action shot of her in Cricket mode:

After about 5 minutes of this, she successfully ditched her shoes. Maybe her parents will have better luck keeping them on her feet.

Handmade Gift Exchange

I'm always bummed when I come back from vacation (I know you feel me there), but sometimes little things make coming home a lot nicer.

This time around, I had a package from my new friend Martha in Minnesota, as part of the Handmade Gift Exchange sponsored by Craftaholics Anonymous.

I sent Martha an Anthropologie-Inspired Bracelet, and she sent me these!

I think these will be perfect for bike rides and going out when I don't want to haul a huge bag with me.

If you want to get in on these, Martha has an Etsy shop!

Thank you so much, Martha!

Knotted Baby Hat

Warning: there will be lots of baby pictures in the next few posts because of my visit with my niece.

First, I tortured her with the Top Knot Baby Hat from Prudent Baby.

This is one of the quickest sewing projects I've ever made. I used old tee shirts as the fabric. (The below shirt is one my cousin impulsively picked up at a clothing swap. Thank goodness she couldn't fit it into her suitcase when she left.)

And the result on my niece was exactly what I wanted. I liked the double-knotted one much better on her. The green one-knot made her look like a Snork.

But the pink double-knotted one was pretty cute. I added a flower to this one.

Without the baby cuteness, they just aren't the same.

Anthropologie-Inspired Bracelet

As part of the Handmade Gift Exchange, sponsored by Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous, I sent my gift partner this Anthropologie-Inspired Bracelet that I found on Flamingo Toes.

Hand-sewing the yo-yos was surprisingly therapeutic!

The bracelet before adding the extra bling is also pretty cute!

What I liked about this project:
It was fast.
I already had most of the supplies in my fabric stash.
You can change up the bling and the yo-yos to make a lot of different styles.

What I didn't like about this project:
If I made another one, I'm not sure I would use hot glue for the filigree bling. The glue kind of went through the tiny holes and I had to scrape a lot of it off.

What I was listening to while I made this: Chuck Berry

Many thanks to Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous for organizing the Handmade Gift Exchange! Count me in for November!