Making Good Use

Pillowcase to Shopping Bag How-to

A couple of people asked for a how-to about making a shopping bag from a pillowcase. They're really quick and easy to make, and are ideal for carrying shopping, for taking to the beach or as a knitting / crochet / craft bag, or for just generally putting 'stuff' in.

 
Measure 18 inches from the bottom of the pillowcase, draw a straight line at this length across the width of the pillowcase and cut across. This gives the body of the bag. Fold over 1 inch on the top edge of this part of the pillowcase and iron flat. Now fold over a further 1 inch and iron this flat too. This gives a neat seam to the top of the bag.

 
From the remaining top portion of the pillowcase measure an 8-inch wide strip, avoiding any seamed pieces at the very top of the pillowcase.  Draw a straight line across and cut out.   Cut the 8-inch wide strip on either side of one side seam, open it out and carefully cut away any excess material from the inner pillowcase flap (if there is one.)  This strip will become the handles.  Fold the 8-inch strip in half lengthwise and iron a crease.  Cut along this strip so that you have two 4-inch wide strips.

 
Decide how long you would like your handles to be, I usually make them 23 - 24 inches long so that they fit on my shoulder but shorter handles to carry the bag in your hand would work well too.  Whatever length you decide you want your handles to be, remember to add an extra 3 inches for seaming and attaching the handles to the bag.  Try to keep the original pillowcase side seam as the centre of the handles whatever their length.  Cut the strips to your required length.

 
Using an iron, fold each strip in 1 inch at each short end and iron flat.  Then fold in 1-inch along each long side and iron that flat too.  Fold the two long sides together and iron flat.  This should give you handles that are approx. 1.5 inches wide x your chosen length.

Sew down the folded part on each short side of the handles.  Then sew along the folded edge length-wise on each handle.

 
Sew around the top of your bag.  If you would like to square off the bottom of the bag, turn the bag inside out and on one side line up the side seam on top of the centre bottom fold line.  This will give you a triangular shape.  From the peak of the triangle measure down 3 inches and mark a line straight across.  Sew across this line twice for added strength.  Repeat the process for the other side of the bag.  Turn the bag right side out again.  (You can easily miss this bit out if you want a simpler bag style.)

 
Decide where you want to position the handles on your bag.  I usually put them about 4 inches in from each side, and pin the handles in place.  Check that the handles match up on each side and that they aren't twisted.  Attach then end of each handle to the body of the bag by sewing a rectangular shape around the base of each handle.  The transformation from pillowcase to  shopping bag is complete.

If anyone is interested in any of the bags above, they're all for sale at £4.95 each plus £1.25 P&P in the UK (I'm very happy to post anywhere in the world but the postage would cost a bit more.)

Roses and Paisley - What a Nice Combination

 
Having found a rather spiffy, and slightly Cath-Kidston-esque roses and paisley print pillowcase at last Sunday's car boot sale, I thought it would make a useful bag for the summer.  Amazingly speedily, for me, it took no time at all to turn it from pillowcase to shopping bag.  

 

These pillowcase bags can hold one heck of a lot of shopping - as I found out when we did a mega-shop at Sainsbury's earlier in the week - and, equally usefully, can just be chucked in the washing machine when something being carried in them spills everywhere - something I also discovered after our mega-shop this week!!

 

Gone to Pot

This morning, for the first time in many months, I went to the Thursday car boot sale.  Oh dear, it was just stall after stall of traders selling cheap and / or knock-off tat.  I thought it was going to be a first for me in that I'd come away from a boot sale without having bought anything at all but eventually, amidst all the dross, I found this rather nice 1950s Crown Devon pot.

 
I suspect it originally had a lid of some sorts but that's obviously gone AWOL over the years.  I don't know what I'm going to use it for but as it only cost 50p I thought I'd have it.  I'm thinking it might make quite a stylish toothbrush holder.  I also got a brand-new long-sleeved Spiderman T-shirt for my nephew for £3.00 (from one of the myriad traders), and that was the sum of my finds.  Don't think I'll be bothering with that particular boot sale again in a long time.

No More Skirting the Issue

I don't remember when I last wore a skirt, it must be eight or nine years ago - and then only when the weather was boiling hot.  I've never really found a style of skirt that suited me and I'm always uber self-conscious about the oedema in my ankles and lower legs.  Just recently though, especially in the recent hot weather and since having lost a bit of weight, I've been thinking that I might just give wearing a skirt another go.

When I went to Evans a couple of weeks ago I had every intention of buying a skirt if I could find one I liked.  Find one I liked, pffh, I couldn't even find one at all.  They had plenty of strappy sundresses - one of which I tried on and it did absolutely nothing for me at all - but no skirts that I could see.  Cue Bank Holiday Monday's car boot sale and I found just the thing I was looking for, in just my new size. 

 
It's a Marks and Spencer pure linen skirt with a rather jaunty but subdued pattern in shades of burgundy, taupe and khaki.  It fits perfectly, is just the right length and only cost me £1.00.  When I got back home I really went to town and ordered a brand-new-with-tags khaki-coloured  M&S T-shirt to wear with it.  It was a buy-it-now ebay listing and even with the postage costs came to less than £4.00  Roll on some warmer weather and me, and my fat ankles, will be hitting the town - IN A SKIRT!!

Brown Paper Package

 
I'm really getting into wrapping presents in plain old brown paper gussied up with bits of lace and ribbon (so much cheaper than buying wrapping paper), and this time I even remembered to take a photo!  This is Mum's quilted runner all wrapped up and just waiting to be put in a jiffy bag and posted off to her this morning.  The little bit of cotton lace came from a huge bag of vintage sewing stuff that I found in the local junk shop.  The navy ribbon is from this stash and the whole brown paper and lace wrapping idea I first came across in this post on Domesticali's blog.

Sneaky Peek

 
Today is Mum's birthday and she'd asked me to make her a quilted table runner as one of her presents.  I'm ashamed to say I didn't quite get it finished in time to get it in the post for her birthday, although a marathon sewing on of the bias binding session whilst watching the Royal Wedding certainly helped speed things along.

 
Mum wanted the colours to be green and chose most of the fabrics herself.  I did add one or two squares from some fabric I had at home and the whole thing has come together very nicely.

 
The fabric on the reverse is some I bought aaaages ago in the Nylon Shop in Bristol and as it has foxes on it (Mum loves foxes) I thought it would make a very suitable backing.

 
Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mum.  I'll get the runner wrapped up and in the post to you tomorrow.

Mega

Despite an incredibly strong wind blowing from a rather chilly easterly direction, the car boot sale this morning was undoubtedly the best of the season so far.  I came away with

 
An unused vintage Clothkits skirt kit - £2.00.   I'm hoping this will be a good one for re-sale on ebay.

 
A whole host of toiletries, including some travel-size Cath Kidston shower gels and body lotion (£1.00), an unopened Bourjois trio eye shadow palette (50p)  and some other useful bits and bobs for me.

 
Five vintage wooden cotton reels - £1.00.  I collect these up until I've got around twenty or so and then sell them on ebay.

 
Five rather nice T-shirts for my nephew - 50p each.  I think he'll be particularly pleased with the 'Ironman 2' one as his birthday treat last year was a trip to the cinema to see 'Ironman 2' (poor Mum, who also accompanied the hoard of very excited seven-year-olds, said it was the most boring film she's ever seen!!).  It's getting harder and harder to find clothes for my nephew these days as he is now so tall he needs age 11-12 clothing to suit his height, and clothing in that age group is really hard to find at boot sales.  Today was a lucky day.

 
Et pour moi.  A lovely cotton scarf, brand new with the tags still attached - £1.00, and a really cute Matryoshka-print umbrella - £1.50.  I don't strictly need another umbrella but I just couldn't resist this one, especially as the handle is a wooden Matryoshka too.

 
And, very pleased with this find, a brand-new Philips Ladyshave for £3.00.  My old shaver is now refusing to recharge and last time I did my underarms I tried using P's rotary blade razor - it was a very painful experience and one I'd really not wish to repeat!!  I'll be charging this little beauty up this afternoon and trying it out ASAP.

I'll link this post to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday and Me and My Shadow's Magpie Monday.

Possibly the Best Royal Wedding Image of the Day....

 
.... is this photo of Larry, official title Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, dressed up with a Union Jack bow tie ready for the Downing Street street party, which appeared in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.  Very cute, very patriotic.

Cottage Cheese Pizza

In the continued quest for low-fat meal ideas P - who is an amazingly inventive 'concept chef' - came up with the idea of trying a cottage cheese pizza.  Luckily for me I love cottage cheese - and eat a great deal of it these days - but I have to admit I was a bit hesitant about putting it on top a pizza.  Do you know what? it was a genius idea and the pizzas were bl**dy lovely.

 
I did splash out and use M&S cottage cheese as the topping - onion and chive for me, prawn for P - as I hoped it would be less watery than some of the cheaper varities.  Although the pizza dough was a little bit soggier than when topped with cheddar cheese, it was still really really good.  The pizza bases were made in the bread machine and spread with tomato puree, then the cottage cheese, and topped with sliced tomato, a few green olives and a sprinkling of dried basil.  So, that's another low-fat recipe to add to the - ever-growing - list of favourites.  Kudos to the 'concept chef' for such a brilliant idea.

Lots of Laura Ashley

I didn't bother with the boot sale yesterday as it was just too hot, but today is much better - sunny and warm but with a lovely refreshing breeze blowing.  The boot sale was not as large as usual but I managed to find three different lots of Laura Ashley material.

 
Approx. one-and-a-half yards of upholstery material.  It was still on the large cardboard roll when I bought it so I wasn't sure how much was there but it's a fair size piece for £2.00.

 
Another piece of approx. one-and-a-half-yards from a completely different seller - for which I only paid £1.00.

 
And a pair of curtains that I am pretty sure are Laura Ashley glazed cotton as my Mum has the same pattern on her bathroom curtains.  I paid £3.00 for the curtains - they are in really nice condition and are lined too, although they do need a good iron.  All the Laura Ashley material is destined for ebay later in the week.

Apart from a good haul of fabric, I also found another pair of jeans for me for £1.00.  It's a bit of a relief to find another pair as I only had the jeans I bought the other week  that I could wear now.  From the same seller, and for 20p each, I also got a lovely pair of M&S loose linen trousers - very handy if this hot weather returns - and a pair of khaki combat trousers.  So that's me sorted with trews for the rest of the summer.

I've linked this post to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share and Magpie Monday at Me and My Shadow