Yoga Mat Bag

Last night I finished my yoga mat bag.  Here is the pattern that I used.  It was very easy to make.

I used 2 skeins of the ombre yarn and 1 skein of the lilac yarn.

I took it to my yoga class today and my instructor loved it.  In fact I wasn't sure if I would get back, lol.

Yoga Mat Bag & Earphone Keeper

Here is how far I got with my yoga mat bag yesterday.  Today I finished the actual bag, and now I am working on the strap.  In other yoga news, my 4 year old went to yoga with me today and loved it.  

A few days ago my husband sent me a link on how to keep my earphones from getting tangled or lost while keeping them near my cell phone (I don't like talking with my cell phone to my ear).  The solution was to sew on two buttons and wrap the cord around them.  So I picked up these buttons on clearance for 50 cents and sewed them on.  After using it like this all day, it would have been better to get bigger buttons or to have used 3 buttons.

Friendship Bracelet Class & Yoga Mat Bag

Yesterday I taught a friendship bracelet class at the Wayland Library in MA.  I love how this library looks from the outside.

Here is my class set up before the kids showed up.

There was a 15 kid limit for the class, but I made 18 bracelet kits.  I like to give the kids options.   Because less than 15 kids showed up, they were able to take home an extra kit for a friend or family member.  The girls were amazed at how easy it was to make these complicated looking bracelets.  

Here are my tools / materials.  The screw driver and the knitting needle help to make a hole in the center of the cardboard circle.  The scissors are for cutting out the cardboard circle, add the 17 notches in it, and for cutting the embroidery floss.  The crochet hook is for pulling the threads through the center hole.  For directions on how to make the bracelets, please see my previous post.

This is the bracelet that I made on Monday for the class.

Here is the bracelet that I started making during my class.  The photo was taken at the beach that same afternoon.  It was a busy but fun day for me.  I taught the class in the morning (and had fun), then my family and I went to the beach that afternoon, and that evening I took my oldest son to see the Harry Potter movie at the theater (discount Tuesdays at our theater).

Here are some of the pictures that I took at the beach. 

If you want to see more photos by me, click here.

I started crocheting a yoga mat bag this week.  The photo on the left was taken yesterday at the beach, and the one on the right was taken today at the park.  I love portable crafts.  I'm going to have to hunt down another skein or two of that yarn tomorrow, because it is almost all used up.

A Day At The Beach

Today I took my kids to the beach.  I also took my crocheting.  On Monday I started making this market bag by Bernat (cotton yarn company).  It looks a little crazy right now and it feels a little slow going, but I am putting my trust in the strange pattern (not written like most patterns).  I got the pattern from one of those free paper patterns that you can find in the yarn isles of the craft store.  I hope that it turns out right. 

My oldest son made the sand face on the left.  We left the beach a minute before it started to pour.

I hope that all of you are having a good Summer.

Simple Birthday Goodie Bags

The end of birthday season is almost here.  One of the birthdays is for my oldest son whose party is next weekend.  He is having a laser tag party.  He requested that his goodie bags be simple black felt ones.  No painting or anything on them.  To help know whose bag is whose, I added some red and blue felt tags to the ribbon handles (added before the bag was sewn).  Red and blue are the colors of the two teams at the laser tag place.  I'll paint on the names of everyone who I know will be at the party, and then I'll bring a sharpie to write the names of kids who come but did not rsvp.  Right now I know 6 of the 9 kids will be there.  I'm so glad that he wanted a simple bag this year.  It makes getting ready for his party so much easier.  Now I just need to knit a sack bot for him (a robot sack boy from the game Little Big Planet 2).  I found some cotton yarn that looks kind of like woodgrain.  It is the one thing other than the goodie bags that he asked me to make for his birthday.

The felt is eco-fi felt, which is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles.

Instead of using a die cut of a tag this year, I just cut out some rectangles and cut a slit on one side of the felt tags.

Happy Birthday (Bags)

My oldest son is turning 11 this week, and his party is on Saturday.  I finished sewing 10 goodie bags for the party.  I only needed to make 9 though.

 I made them just like I would a reusable shopping bag.  I then cut out a food box and used it as a label.  I numbered 7 of them 1 - 7.  I left a space to write the child's name, otherwise they can just remember which number is theirs.

The larger cat tag is for my youngest son's bag.  Both of my kids have their name on their tags / bags.  The goodie bags are packed and ready for the party.

Last month I fused a bunch of plastic bags.  Yesterday I turned 2 sheets of them into bags.  This one is slightly clear.

The orange bags were given to me by an employee at Jo Anns.  I thought that the Boston Globe pink was a nice touch for the top of the bag.  Its a tall, thin bag, perfect for a bottle of wine.

I actually used these two bags to wrap some of my son's presents in.

Birthday Goodie Bags

Ever since my oldest son's 4th birthday I have been making the goodie bags for his parties.  I don't like those plastic ones.  The kids take them home and throw them away.  I like the goodie bag to be one of the goodies that they take home and use again and again.  I also hope that they get passed on to younger kids when the other child is to big for them.  This will be the 2nd year that I am making them out of printed fabric.  My son is having a lazer tag party.  I couldn't find any fabric that matched the theme, but this black birthday fabric works great.  I am making them the same way that I make my reusable shopping bags, only smaller.  I need to make 9 for this year.  Seven birthday guests, the birthday boy, and his little brother.

These are the fabric goodies bags from last year's water themed party.

This Pikachu one is from his Pokemon birthday party.  It is made from felt.  I just used fabric paint and google eyes to decorate it.

Here is the back of the Pikachu one, a poke ball.  I started painting these 3 months early, because I was pregnant with my 2nd child.  I knew that he would be born before the party, and that I wouldn't have much time to work on them after his birth.

I think Elmo was from his 5th birthday.  It took a long time to paint all of the Elmo faces.  I prefer to attach the child's name to the handle so that it can be removed and passed on to another child.  The soccer one was for his 6th birthday.

The back of the Elmo bag is fake fur and google eyes to represent some of the monsters on Sesame Street.  The back of the soccer one had glow-in-the-dark paint and the child's name.  I had to make about 27 of the soccer bags, because he wanted to hand them out to his whole class.  He opted to not have a party that year and do something special with us (mom & dad) instead.

Bags not pictured: Spiderman, mini golf, and the webkinz tiger.  The webkinz tiger was the most labor intensive.  I had to fuse a forest printed fabric to felt.  Then I machine applicayed fake tiger fur to it, along with fake white fur for the cheeks.  I embroidered whiskers, sewed on a button nose, and glued google eyes on it.  It looked great, and my youngest son still plays with his bag.

Jean Bags

I made these items today from one leg of a pair of jeans.  It was fun just playing around on my sewing machine, making it up as I went a long.  I got to play around with making button holes, which I learned how to make in October.  I think that these bags are perfect for little girls.

Gadget cozies.  It holds my i touch just fine.

This is my favorite one.  It is lined and has a pocket on both sides.

Here is the back of that same bag.

This one is unlined with a button closure.  The handle is made from the top of the jeans.

This one is also lined, and it expands at the bottom (where the pants leg got wider).

Weaving at the Textile Museum

Today I went to the American Textile History Museum.  They were celebrating their 50th anniversary, admission was free, and my friend was volunteering there.  It was great being able to work on my weaving in public while my 3 year old played.  They have a great kids' room there with lots of fun crafts to do (which I'll talk about on Tuesday).  Plus it was really nice hanging out with my friend for a little while (she took this picture of me).

As an early birthday treat to myself, I bought this cute messenger bag at the museum.  It is made from a recycled, plastic woven material (hagar design).  The museum had a special exhibit called "More Than A Number: a collection of Khmer Refugee transit photos and the stories of our heroic survivors."  A very sad yet moving story of Cambodian refugees, what they went through, and their textiles.  The purchase of this bag helped disadvantage women in Cambodia.

One of my last posts talked about how little critters seemed to enjoy hanging out with me while I wove outside.  Well this spider came out on my swing two days in a row while I was weaving.  Its kind of cool to be weaving around the original weavers.