Practical Sewing (?)

You know how you see something or need something and you think "Oh, I can make that" and you do and then your friends and loved ones look at you like you're crazy because, "you know you can just buy that, don't you?" And you look at them like they're crazy because: why would you buy it when you have all the stuff to make it yourself? (alternately, just "why would you buy it when you could make it?")

I'm pretty sure I'll hear that about my weekend sewing:

Friday evening my bedroom door kept slamming shut due to all the windows being open in hopes of a cross breeze. It was driving me crazy. So... I thought "I remember seeing a cute sewn/quilted doorstop on Sew Mama Sew a while ago. I should make that." It did occur to me at one point that I could just set something, anything in front of the door but... why?



Pattern: Nine Patch Doorstop by Elizabeth Green of Oh, Fransson! (pdf found on her post here)
Fabric: stash scraps in my favorite colors.
I filled it with some rice that was in my cupboard for a long time (like 2+ years long). It's good and heavy and it holds my door and if when I walk straight into it or kick it toe first it will be nice and soft on my foot which should mitigate some of the damage.*

Saturday, I finally got so annoyed and, frankly, disgusted by the ugly, worn out pot holders I had (and had been meaning to replace for a year or more) that I decided to do something about it. I pulled out a bunch of scraps, cut them to 2 inch wide strips and started stitching them end to end. Once they were all joined in a big long strip, I joined the 2 ends and stitched up one long side. I found this idea at Happythings. I love how it looks as it's all sewed up (sewn up?).



I layered the top then a layer of cotton flannel, a layer of cotton batting, then another layer of flannel and the plain cotton back. I machine quilted in straight lines, cut two 9" squares and bound them like a quilt. I forgot to allow for a loop so the loops were added later.



I'm not sure if you can figure out what my favorite color(s) may be... haha

Other practical sewing of late that I haven't blogged:

Recycling tote bag:
I have a bad habit of letting my cardboard recycling pile up. I live in an apartment building so I don't get a cool blue bin for city pickup and have to take my recycling to the drop off points (sympathetic "aww" can be inserted here)(I know! my life is HARD!) I always seem to end up struggling to find plastic bags or boxes to cart the fairly large amount of cardboard every 6 months or so (i know, if I didn't let it pile up this wouldn't be a problem, but like THAT's gonna happen).

So, once again, necessity won out and I sewed a solution:



Fabric is from Ikea. I made a simple tote bag about 22" deep and 30 inches wide. I made the straps wide enough to be comfortable and long enough that I can sling the bag over my shoulder when I eventually do remember to take my recycling to the drop off.



I think that's everything. I'm sure there will be more to come!

*You know how people say they are clumsy and then other people protest that, no, they are more clumsy? Well, at the risk of being a one-upper, I'm clumsier than those people all combined. I have broken, nearly broken, jammed out of shape almost every toe more than once. It's gotten so common for me to walk into stuff I sometimes don't even notice. I had a swollen, sore toe last week and couldn't figure out what I had done this time to hurt it. I hit my fingers on things because I don't know how long my arms are; I hit my knees on desks; crank my head on the door frame of my car... You get the picture.