Sorry about that folks, I meant to post last week, but alas I was sucked into the awesomeness that is Diablo 3. Yes I know, shame, shame, I was sucked in like the masses, but in all fairness the game is extremely fun. Also, the boyfriend and I traveled across the grand state in which we live (Wisconsin for those asking) to visit our mothers for mother's day. Which was amazing because my lovely boyfriend Ryan had not seen his parents or anyone from his hometown in six months! But we had lots of fun and saw so many people most of last week was spent recovering and playing the game. Also Ryan's best friend, another Ryan, returned from some Army Training so we spent some time with him and his lovely family.
But back to the crafty things that fill my days, lol! This one totally floored me when I saw it on Pinterest. It totally appealed to the girl in me that holds onto tshirts I will never wear again but I get them from some event I was in or something similar. I just can't bring myself to sell them or give them to Goodwill or the like so they sit in my closet for years. Well no more of that! This is an awesome, fun and super simple way to up cycle your old event shirts or even just shirts you just can't bear to part with! Today I am going to walk you through how to turn these treasured shirts into super functional, awesome, a million and one use bags!
Like I said, I found this the other day scrolling through Pinterest and thought, I suck at sewing and I can totally do that! I can't sew a straight line to save my life and I found this so easy and you don't really have to be perfect on it. The part of this project that took me the longest was trying to get my sewing machine working, then pinning the bottom of the shirt. But that's enough of my yappin', let's get craftin'!
First: Cut the sleeves off of the shirt as close as you can to the seam without cutting the seam off, this will give your handles some strength.
Second: Using a plate or something else big and round, mark off what will become the top of your bag. I did this with sharpie so you could see it in the pictures, but I recommend using a washable fabric marker or pencil.
I didn't like how shallow that ended up being on this particular shirt so I just deepened it by eye. Make the opening so it would be easy for you to use. I felt that if I had left it the way it was it would have been to hard to get things in and out of the bag.
Now flip the shirt inside out, and pin all along the bottom of the shirt right by the hem. Like I said earlier this part took me the longest but that is because at first I forgot to flip the shirt inside out. Luckily I realized this before I started sewing or that could have ended up a big oops! lol.
Now sew! I read online somewhere that the best stitch for this kind of thing would be a zig zag stitch, but it took me most of the day just to get my machine working so I just did a straight stitch as close to the stitching of the hem as I could get. For extra strength once I finished going all the way across the bottom of the shirt once, I put my machine in reverse and went over it again.
All in all with out counting the time it took to get my machine running I was able to do four of these in about a half hour. I'm using them around the house for everything from a knitting bag, to a new purse for summer, to a lunch bag! I had so much fun I actually went around my house asking everyone if they had shirts I could do this to. lol. I hope you liked this fun and super simple project and I will hopefully be back soon with more things to fill my days!
So lately I have been having a lot of time on my hands so I've been trying to find different DIY projects to fill my days so I don't go completely stir crazy! After seeing a few of her things on Pinterest, I have completely fallen in love with everything on onegoodthingbyjillee . And thats where I found part of my inspiration for today's project making my own homemade laundry soap!! I was also inspired to do this because a friend of mine also tried it, and also I am insanely allergic to most laundry soaps and to me free and clear laundry soaps don't get anything clean.
So to make this recipe (and there are a ton of variations online but most contain the same 3 base ingredients) you are going to need 3 things, all of which can be found in the laundry section of your local Wal-Mart or similar such store.
Item one is Borax, the most trusted brand that I have found is 20 Mule Team. Borax is an all natural laundry booster and multi-purpose household cleaner. It is safe in all washing machines including he washers. It is safe for septic systems, can be stored indefinitely as long as it is kept dry so it is safe to buy a large box. The box I have I found at Wal-Mart for around $3.50 for a four pound box and that, I do believe, should last me at least a year or so and I do laundry about every day. It is safe to use for baby clothes and around pets but still please keep it out of their reach because we don't want them eating it :).
Item two is Washing Soda, I will repeat that again Washing Soda not baking soda. They will not do the same things. It is also know as Soda Ash and a good brand to get is good old Arm and Hammer. This is another all natural laundry booster that increases soap's cleaning power to get out ground-in dirt and satin, cut through grease, and it also helps neutralize and eliminate odors, not cover them up with perfumes. This really is a wonder product and I use it a lot not only in my homemade laundry soap but also in my homemade "oxyclean" that I will hopefully post soon. A 3lbs 7oz box of this goes for again around $3.50 at Wal-Mart.
The third and final ingredient is Fels-Naptha Soap. This is the actual soap in the laundry soap. It is an old school soap that is great for using as a pre-treatment for stains. It comes in the same type of wrapping as normal bar soap but is in the same aisle as all the laundry stuff. As far as I can tell it only comes in one bar packages but they are pretty big bars and are only $.97 a piece, so you really can't go wrong!
Finally how to but it all together to make the Laundry Soap! This is a recipe for powdered laundry soap for liquid I would recommend going here:http://tinyurl.com/7rb4uda . There Jillee has an amazing step by step (with photos!) blog post about it.
You with need:
1 bar of Fels Naptha soap (grated, I recommend getting a grater dedicated to this so you never end up with soapy cheese, I found mine at the dollar store!)
1 1/2 cup of Borax
1 1/2 cup of Washing Soda
Place all ingredients into an air tight container (again I got one at the dollar store to use just for this) and mix. It really is that easy. The hardest part and the thing that will take you the longest is the soap grating, but all the work is well worth it. All you need is about 1-2 tablespoons per load. For top loaders turn on the machine and let it fill with a couple inches of water, add this soap and let it dissolve a little bit. Then through in your laundry and let the magic happen!
I have to say after using this soap for a few weeks now I think I can safely say that my cloths are brighter and I have had no reaction to this at all. It doesn't give my cloths a strong sent but the do still smell clean and are nice and soft.
I know this post is kind of a book but I just wanted to be thorough with all my information. I hope you enjoyed and I hope to be back soon with more Things to Fill My Days.
Second: Using a plate or something else big and round, mark off what will become the top of your bag. I did this with sharpie so you could see it in the pictures, but I recommend using a washable fabric marker or pencil. 
Now flip the shirt inside out, and pin all along the bottom of the shirt right by the hem. Like I said earlier this part took me the longest but that is because at first I forgot to flip the shirt inside out. Luckily I realized this before I started sewing or that could have ended up a big oops! lol.
