Car bin sewing and how I did it

Where do you collect your rubbish in a car? Ideally you remove it every time you leave the car but it’s not always practical while shepherding children and carrying book bags and car seats. My car door storage was getting a little full of mint packet wrappers and used car tickets so I bit the bullet a solution was needed. Strangely enough it was the hanging storage pods for indoors that got me thinking and then I saw someone made one that was for sale that had a loop that hung over the gear stick and rested in the passenger side footwell. That was all I needed to search Pinterest and decided to pull out 2 Fat Quarters and have a go at one.

I started with

• 4 10 inch squared 2 for the lining and 2 for the outside.
• 1 3 inch by 14 inch piece that matched the outside. Construct would of worked to
• 2 10 inch squares Heavy/medium weight interfacing ( I think fusible fleece might work to if you have it)

First thing was to interface the outside fabric and on all 4 10 inch squares to remove a 2 inch square from the bottom corners.

These removed areas will help the bag be ‘boxed’ later. The squares removed are no longer needed.

Sew the bottom seam and the 2 side seams together using a quarter inch seam allowance on the outer fabric. Leave the cut out square area un-sewn for now

Do the same for the lining but leave a gap in the bottom middle to pull everything through later.

Now those corners we cut out, right sides still facing, pull the outwards so they make a straight line with the bottom and side seams coming together. Pin and sew this together. It may look strange but it will add a boxed edge and shaping to your bag. Do this on all both corners of inner and outer fabrics.

Now for your strap, fold it wrong sides together in half lengthwise and press it flat. Open it op and fold the edges towards to pressed fold press the new 2 outer edges then fold it so one side folds on top of the other looking a bit like a book being folded shut and top stitch with a small seam allowance on each side. The strap should have a width of about an inch.

With your outside fabric turned right way out either fold your strap in half or form a pleasing loop and baste your strap raw edge to raw edge along one side of your bag facing loop down. Use a smaller seam allowance than 1/4 inch.

Now the fun starts. Place the lining right sides facing with the outer fabric on the outside enclosing the strap and outer. Make sure your strap is safely facing down and your seams are matching. Pin the top edges together and the sew all around the top edge.

Now for the fun part! Full your bag through the hole you left in the bottom of the lining carefully but firmly.

Arrange it all in place and if needed give the top edge a press to make sure the inside isn’t poking out over the top edge. Iron it if needed. Then top stitch it around the top to hold it in place and reinforce the strap.

Now all that needed is to sew up the hole in the bottom. Either by hand or machine and go put it in your car.

As you can see it doesn’t take up much room and won’t get in the way but is handy for those bits that need putting in a bin. And it’s totally washable. I suppose it could be lined with ripstop or part of a recycled shower curtain to make it waterproof and easy to wipe out if needed but I don’t think we would need to.

Catnip squid scrap make

While hanging out on Pinterest last night I came across catnip toys to sew for cats. This led to following a link to Etsy to a how much?!? moment. Kick toys and catnip equal happy kitties I know but patience awaiting delivery and seeing how easy they would be to make considering I have everything led to a nip to my sewing area and make a quick trial one with some scrap fabric pieces I have laying around.

Gathered together

• a scrap of fabric 6 x 5 inches
• Polyfil toy stuffing
• Dried catnip

3 pieces of felt 2 inches by 3.5 inches

Simply fold your chosen fabric right sides together long ways and sew one short end and the open long end together. I used about a 1/4 seam allowance.

Turn the right way out and poke the corners out with a chopstick or similar. Iron the edges from the open end inside to form an unsewn hem for finishing off later.

Stuff the tube with polyfil/or stuffing of choice and catnip. I put a ball of stuffing then a pinch of catnip and repeated until the tube was almost full and well packed leaving a little room at the end.

Having no feathers, or anything else I felt might of worked,I raided my felt scraps and cut them 2 inches by 3.5 inches. The opening was how I came to my 2 inch measurement as I wanted it to snuggly fit.

Layering the felt and leaving a half inch border at the top I rotary cut strips lengthways up the felt. Scissors would of worked to.

Stilled layered and aligned I slotted the uncut edges carefully in the opening and sewed the edge shut encasing the felt and closing off the edges. I went over a good 3 times to make sure it was secure.

Most importantly it has a seal of approval from our Bobbie. Now I must make more before I get headbutted to death by the other cat for being left out.

Overall it was a quick make with everything I already had on hand so an ideal little gift for your kitties and a great little stash buster to boot. Size can be customised and anything you fancy added into the end for play or nothing at all, choice is yours 🙂

And hopefully the video works and shows first impressions from one of our fur babies.

Sew Happy.

After being so yucky I braved the world of sewing again.  I wanted to do something easy and fairly quick so that I had the chance of actually finishing something.

Bowl cosies are something we find great to have around the house and are great for using in the microwave around a bowl and just for holding hot or cold bowls without burning yourself. So out came my fat quarters to see what I fancied making these with. 1 Fat Quarter of fabric will make one bowl cosy with a little left over for other projects. Or they can be double sided and you could make 2 matching out of 2 Fat Quarters.

All that is needed for one is

two 10 inch squares of 100% cotton fabric

two 10 inch square of cotton wadding/batting

and cotton thread. I actually use normal polyester thread and it’s been fine but I should recommend all cotton especially if you are going to use it in the microwave.

Layer one square of fabric right side facing out with one square of batting and sew them together with a cross and repeat with the other squares

Ignoring the green line in this picture.  Fold the fabric right sides together and at the crease measre down and mark 2 inches and in from the edge 1 inch and  connect them in a triangle.  sew along this line and clip off excess leaving a 1/4 in seam allowance.  repeat this on other end and then fold in opposite way and reat so you have formed a bowl shape.  do this on your other square and they should look like this.

Place these 2 pieces right sides together lining up the corners and seams. Sew together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, back taking at beginning and the end,  leaving a gap along a straight edge to turn it all through. Clip your corners across the points, making sure you don’t cut your seams and then turn it all through your hole. poke the corners out with a chopstick or something similar and press the edges including the opening inside to look neat. then sew it closed by topstitching all around a small distance from the edge.  And voila you have a bowl cosy. Or in my case 3 because it seemed a good idea at the time.

It was so relaxing to sit and create without having to stop and sleep. I made some for my son and DIL last year and they love theirs and use them often like we do so they are great last minute gifts to make for Christmas or anytime really.