Tag: Green

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Bias Tape

I have a project  that I’m working on that needs double fold bias tape. Have you ever gone to the store and seen the pitiful selection of bias tape out there? Well, as I’m always telling my mom, “Google is my friend.” After a quick search I found an awesome tutorial with a short cut for making bias tape.

Since the tutorial has already been done, I will just post my pictures….
My bias tube.

Close up of tube showing the cutting lines.

Me cutting.

Big pile of fabric all cut out…

Using my ‘thingy’ to make single fold bias tape…

Close up of single fold bias tape…

Making the double fold….

Wind it all up on some cardboard and you have custom Yoda green double fold bias tape!

I promise I will put up a post with the project this will be going on.

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Rag Bags

I have always tended toward the crunchy side of life. I breastfeed for more than a year (I almost made it to 2 years with each of my boys), I use cloth diapers, the main cleaning chemicals in our house are baking soda and vinegar, and we use rags instead of paper towels.

I make all our rags out of old t-shirts. Instead of tossing it when it gets a hole in it, we put it in a box in my sewing area. After I have collected a few, then I will spend an afternoon cutting them up (I cut the seams out and any pictures get cut out) and I finish the edges with my serger.

If you take the step to go paperless in your home it is great, but once you do, you realize that you have to find a solution to the storage of the rags. I found a pattern for a rag bag in the book Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule that I just loved. It turns out it is very easy to make as well.

I ended up making a few more as gifts! One for my mom.

 One for my cousin J.

 And one for my other cousin J

I hung it from a hook in the dining room low enough so that my youngest (at the time he was 2) could get in the bag to have access to the rags. We use the rags for everything you would use a paper towel for; cleaning up spills, as a napkin, washing windows, etc…. I wash them with our towels, in cold water with vinegar in the rinse cycle. No fabric softener is used on them at all.

I am glad that we made the switch and even more glad that I found an attractive solution to rag storage!