Homemade Miche Cover ... using a placemat

Hmmm - I while back I made my own 'slipcover' for a Miche Bag and it was frustrating and stitchrippingly 'fun' (I'll post a picture of my first one at the end) ... so I put off trying another ...  Until I was hit with a brainwave while 'treasure hunting' in a thrift shop today ... Hey - these nice placemats are about the same size as a Miche cover ....

~~ Cardboard template of full cover~~

 (is for when I attempt to fabricate the whole cover)

~~~~~ Placemat $1.49 ~~~~

 (just seemed so much easier)

 Cardboard template for each side of bag.

Cutting 2 pieces of dark fabric, which will be the inside that the original Miche cover flaps will be inserted into.

The curved edge will be the top of the cover (as the original Miche cover is curved like that)

Press the edges of the insides down ...

I also pressed & hemmed the straight edge that will be the opening for the flaps of the Original Miche cover to go into.

 On my cardboard template I had marked where the 'Bottom' of the Bag would be, so I would know where to put the inside flaps. But after Trial 1 I ripped them on and repositioned them as far to the outside edge as I could.

~~EPIC FAIL~~ was trying to use fusible Heat activated hemming tape (2 times  grrr) that I just could not get to work ... so I gave up and sewed them to the placemat ...

 .... the inside view ...

... Inserting the Original into the Newly made Cover

Voila ~~~ The curved top edge isn't quite perfect ... but what the who ... looks pretty okay .... could always add some ribbon along the top to hide it I guess

I've got another one that I fabric glued the inside panels into place - I think it will look better without the seams showing

This is the first attempt to make the whole thing from scratch ... pretty wobbly seams along the top ... but I've gotten lots of compliments on it :)

Day 8 - Get your A$$ organized ... the Coat Closet ... so easy :)

Before:  Kinda messy ... however I did a huge purge before Christmas, I noticed a few ladies that were asking for warm winter coats on Kijiji so decided to weed out what I hadn't worn in a while and gift them ... I couldn't believe how many replies I got ... made me wish I had a dozen coats to give to people in need ...

AFTER: Shoes on the shoe rack, shelf straightened up ... I only wish they will all be this easy :)

Day 7 ... Organize the pantry ...

If you haven't taken the 21 day Organize challenge yet ... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! ... you're house is so clean? oh yah? I dare you to post pictures :) ... seriously, go to A bowl full of Lemons , and get inspired and motivated ... on to my pantry ...

BEFORE: to be honest, typically for me it's not that bad ... sorry :( ... but on a day to day basis only 1 or 2 things fall out onto my toes, and that's pretty good ... lol ... note Cleo, sniffing for stuff that has fallen out of broken bags, sad but true ... there's about 1/4 box of spilled Rottini tri-colour pasta down there ...


AFTER: Wowza!! Beautiful! Combined, Filled, Re-Jarred and Tossed ...



My Favourite Project: Transferring a bunch of stuff that was in bags with clips to some vintage Gem jars & Mason Jars that my Dad gave me ... Love the ones with the Glass tops ... Filled them with beans, cereal, chick peas, raisins, cornmeal and more .... and didn't cost me a dollar :)

Top Shelf: topped up my baking containers (sugar was empty, whole wheat flour was almost empty), tossed the stale crackers & cereal and restacked ...

Bottom ... Made the vintage 70's canisters accessible; they contain healthy snacks for the little boy, swept out the bottom and WOW!!

21 day Organize .... Day 1 Catch-up Junk Drawer ...

I don't have a junk drawer ... I have 3 ... and technically none of them are junk drawers, but they get pretty junky ... My kitchen only have 3 drawers (weird hey), 2 big deep ones and one for utensils ... so needless to say they all get extremely messy.

BEFORE: Bottom Drawer ... wow, no wonder I never know whats in there!

A few fun vintage tools I use ... food grinder, potato 'ricer' and decorator/cookie press ...

AFTER: Okay, it still looks kinda messy, but trust me, I know where everything is in that drawer now, purged & move some other things, seems a waste it's only half full now ...


BEFORE: Middle Drawer, mostly tea towels, dish rags, zip-lock bags, cling wrap, tinfoil and a bag of bags/straws/twist ties ...

AFTER: nicely stacked, found my handmixer (yay), found a stash of batteries (yay), found CHOCOLATE (double yay)


BEFORE: Utensil drawer .... the picture speaks for itself ....
AFTER: now the knifes are happily with the knifes and so on and so forth ...


and where did all these extra knives/spoons/forks come from ... and what do I do with them now? I better learn how to weld and put together a windchime or something ...

21 day Organize ... playing Catch-up with day 5 ... Under the SINK!

BEFORE: Basically my organizational routine is 'quickly open the door, toss whatever you need in & close the door quickly before something falls out' then pray you don't need it again for a long long time ...

there are a few cleaners of which I am making the switch over to all natural cleaners; essential oils, baking soda & vinegar are my staples .... no paper towels, note the BIG stack of rags ... Plastic Bags are kept for future uses (not to be tossed) as I have an ever growing stash of reusable bags at the back door and grab they when I go shopping ...

Progress ... how does the floor of the cabinet get so icky?

AFTER: Okay, I forgot the contact paper ... I don't have contact paper and I wasn't running out to get any , I'll keep an eye out when I'm 'treasure hunting' for some ....
other than that ... looks purty dang good :)

Dress the Dresser ... Yay!!!

Day 6 of the Getting Organized challenge ... get motivated, join the challenge with A bowl full of lemons ... I have to get caught up as this is my first day ... hey I only took the challenge yesterday ...and I do have Day 5 done also, I just have to post it :)

Well ... my messy little secret ... my dresser, my catch-all, my I'll put this away later ... what? I just close the bedroom door and no one knows! :) ... My bedroom set is a hand-me-down from my Gramma ... some of the drawer guides are broken so if I'm not careful a bruised toe can be the result ... I've often thought I might paint it to spruce it up a bit ... a bit more motivation is needed ... oh - plus I haven't had the mirror on since we moved into the house in 2005 ... It's in a closet, somewhere ...



Now, I have to make it clear that I did not skip the 'clean out the drawers' part ... I did just do that last week, mostly due to the fact I couldn't close most of them ... so they have been purged and sorted and folded, socks all match, sweaters with sweaters, jammies with jammies ... the only 3 drawers that didn't get touched are the 3 on the far left, which are hubbies ...

I found that mirror (there's actually supposed to be 2 and they stand up tall) but my son has one in his room ... I thought it might look good on it's side and I have to admit I really like it. I cleaned the dust bunnies with my homemade kitchen spray, then gave the whole thing, sides & front of drawers included a good rub with Lemon Oil, fancied it up a bit with some knick knacks ... voila - isn't it pretty ?

1, 2, 3 - Pants ... Yes you can make your child pants - Sew EASY

1. Find yourself a nice pair of pants you are no longer wearing
2. Find a pair of your child's pants that fit him nicely
3. Use those little pants as a pattern
4. I snipped off that nice thick elastic to use for the little pants
and ended up with enough for 2 pair :)

5. Sew up the inner seams of each leg, then attach the 2 pieces together. The great thing is they are already hemmed and the outer seam is already sewn due to where I placed the 'pattern'
6. Attach the waistband. I thought a zig-zag seam would add a little detail to a slightly boring pair of pants

Oh and last but not least add one of the things that the little boy loves most ... hockey ... of course he'll wear them now!

Same thing with the flannel bottoms

Nifty new PJ bottoms

New Fees Effective for 2011

OH YES!! I am doing this ;)
borrowed from Real Simple magazine October 2009 issue

A Cap! or is it a Hat? ... hmmm

My first ever Cap ... I finally gave it a try - it's all lined and everything!!
Just a little too big ... but with my large cranium you can't even tell :)
The brim is a little floppy - but I didn't have 'buckram' - so I choose to make it without it ... I will definitely have to get some because it would look better nice formed instead of flopping a bit ...

My Stuffy Scarfs :)

well ... thank you A Girl & her Glue Gun ... what an awesome idea ...!!

As soon as I read the tutorial on how to make these little critters I knew I had to make some!

As soon as I got home with the little 'victims' aka Stuffies soon-to-be-cut-in-half ... my son of course 'claimed' them as his own. He's not a real stuffed animal lover, but, it was 'new toys' and therefore 1) he assumed they were his 2) he would be amused with them for approx 3.5 minutes. I explained that they were not his (this scaled into an argument which I advise one to try to not do with a 3 year old), then I waited for him to move on to something else to play with & went and fetched them off of his bed.

Looking them all over I decided that Frog would be first to be dissected (seemed only right) ... at that moment my son came wandering in & wanted to 'help'. So he helped me cut Frog in half ... boys seem to enjoy this sort of thing ... I cut about 3 more different animals then started sewing.

a few more trips to the Thrift Shops and more sewing resulted in over a dozen scarfs and my son getting to 'Save' on of the stuffies from being 'chopped' ... a cow that he has named 'Moos' and he keeps reminding me that I can't 'cut' Moos ... lol