Nesting Bags, or all purpose kid storage

With young kids at home I often have problem finding storage for all of the little pieces, precious treasures and tiny characters/animals/rubber ducks. Or in reality, my darlings aren't quick to clean up the little worlds they create in every corner of my house. I had some duck cloth left over from two other projects and plenty of fun fabrics that when I bought them had a project that I have since forgotten about...

Soule Mama posted a link about fabric buckets and I did a few google searches for fabric buckets/boxes/baskets. I decided against round b/c I'm not the best circle sewer. I wanted to be able to make them in three sizes with out spending my afternoon doing math.




After a few searches I figured out my approach (similar to here) and made three patterns out of a paper bag. I started with the largest base and made the sides as high as I thought would hold plenty of "stuff" - then made the next pattern an inch or so smaller, and the final pattern even smaller.

I cut out from the canvas and fabric. Made some rectangles for the straps out of the canvas. I skipped the batting b/c I didn't have it on hand and the fabric seemed sturdy enough. Sewed up the sides, made the handles (ironed them and did a top stitch to close), basted the handles on one the canvas lining, put the bags together (right sides together), sewed, flipped and top stitched. Voila!

As an after thought, b/c I had some extra squares of fabric from the cutting process, I added a pocket on the inside for the medium and large baskets.

 The kids love them and use them for all sorts of things, usually not storage.

Few more hats...

Knitting: my excuse to skip the laundry and watch some tv, but yet feel like I'm doing something very productive. I highly recommend it.


Introducing the "cookies and milk" hat! A customer on etsy asked if I could make this baby hat for her new grand daughter. She like the idea of a cookie to go with the "milk." I used a smaller needle size than the boobie beanies and it had a satisfying smoothness as a result. 

The next special request was for a boobie beanie but with a tan skin color and dark chocolate nipple. Same 3-9 month size as my original ones but again, fun to play with the colors a bit. 

Rainy Day Collage

 
Seems like these days most of my art is either with my kids or about my kids. I know it won't always be this way, but I do dream about working on a project for more than a few minutes at a time!


We've had some rain and time when the youngest is sleeping. I pulled out two board frames that I rescued from our "swap shop" (a shed at the town transfer station where you leave/take items). They were dark brown "art" from Target, but they boards had mounts and were in good shape. I stashed them for some yet to be determined project.


Also in my stash was some collage paper. A pack of assorted papers that I used two Christmases ago to wallpaper my girls' doll houses.

I had the kids paint the boards with sponges and they picked yellow and orange acrylic paint. The back ground still feels a bit dark, but the color really helped. 

Then we (I mostly) cut all sorts of shapes and while the paint dried we built flowers on the floor. It was fun to make patterns and layer. Once we had our ideas in place we stuck them to the sticky drying paint. We did use a glue stick here and there and later that evening I did a light layer of modge podge.