earth day sewing

For ages I have wanted to make bags using this great tutorial on my friend Emily's blog. At 10 p.m. Thursday night I finally got around to it - and finished four adorable bags by 1 a.m. Just in time for Earth Day.


I got inspired to do this after finding a brand new Crate & Barrel dishtowel at our church Rummage Sale a couple weeks ago. The towel was too cute to actually use for dishes, so I started imagining what else I could do with it. I remembered the tutorial and headed over to C&B to see about getting another towel to match so I could make a bag. Since the dish towels were on sale, I figured I'd just make a bunch and give them away as gifts. The tutorial is so easy and the result so satisfying, I'll be making these as gifts for a while.


Since I had gone to all that trouble dust off my machine, I figured I should make something else. So I dug out a nice old tablecloth I never use and cut off the end to make this book holder for Liam's new top bunk. In the week the bunk bed has been up, Liam has been happily going to bed, reading with his little book light. It makes me so happy to see him snuggled up there reading. Trouble is, he has no where to put the book when he's done and throwing it down would surely wake up the lower bunk inhabitant. So I decided to try this idea for a bunk bed book holder.


So I hemmed up the raw edge of the tablecloth and then folded lengthwise to make a long pocket. At book-length intervals I sewed vertical lines, then sewed on bias tape in a couple spots so we could tie the pocket to the bed. There's a pocket for his book light and his books and his journal and pen. (Even if you just sew a very little bit, this was super easy to do. And it took less than an hour to make it.) Liam was giddy about his book holder last night and stayed up later than usual, reading and writing in his journal.


When should a mom stop reading her son's journal? At this age, I can't resist. Last night he drew a picture of his stuffed animal, a list of "Elliott's New Words" and this sweet note about Wisconsin. Papa and Gigi should pay special attention: Don't let up on the dessert.