Patriotic Green Bag Make-Over

If you are like me, then you have dozens of “green bags” that you have accumulated one way or another. My husband is always bringing them home from conferences that he attends for work. I love them, of course! In this tutorial we will give our green bags a make-over to make them into cute totes. I choose to do this one in a patriotic theme because the 4th of July is coming up, and my bag is the perfect shade of blue. You, of course, can use whatever color-scheme you wish. Let’s get started!

Materials:

• 1 green bag
• at least two colors of ruffled fabric (better than making your own)
• a sewing machine or needle and thread

Step 1

Look at your bag and decide if you want to do the ruffles all the way across, or just down the center.  Cut your ruffled fabric the length you need.  Go ahead and lay the fabric out in the order that you want the ruffles starting from the bottom and working up.  The ruffle that is going to be at the top, or your last ruffle to sew, will determine the color thread that you will use.  Mine is red, so I will load red thread in my machine.

Step 2

Pin the first ruffle (the bottom ruffle) to the bag and sew it to the bag using your sewing machine or hand sew.  Once that one is on, layer the next ruffle on top so that it covers the stitches of the first ruffle.  Pin in place, then sew.  Keep alternating ruffles as you make your way up the bag.

Once all of the ruffles are on, you have a super cute shopping tote!

How to Make a Coffee Cup Cozy

 

 

If you are like me and are completely addicted to coffee (or know someone who is), then here is a fun project to do that is quick and easy!  Let me begin by saying that I am not an expert at sewing, far from it, in fact.  However, I do enjoy creating and love making things!  So, don’t worry if your stitches are not perfect, just keep at it and maybe we can get better together!

Here are the supplies you need:

• Fun fabric and a piece of felt
• scissors
• A sewing machine (although these are small enough to sew by hand if you have the patience) and a needle and thread
• 1 large button (look for the extra buttons that come with your clothing) and a skinny hair band (I used a fat one-don’t!) OR Velcro
• 1 cardboard coffee sleeve-flattened and disposable coffee cup
• freezer paper to make a pattern
• pencil and a ruler or measuring tape
• iron

Ok, now that you have gathered your supplies, let’s get going!

Step 1-Making a Pattern

On a piece of freezer paper, glossy side down, trace along your opened cardboard coffee sleeve.

Once that’s done, mark a point 1/2 inch all around and scoot your cardboard sleeve up and over as you trace it again.

When you are done, you will have the actual size of the sleeve inside the bigger tracing of the sleeve.

Now, cut that out and place it on the back side of your fabric (on the felt it won’t matter which side) glossy side down.  With a hot iron, iron the pattern to the fabric (this eliminates pinning-yeah!).

Cut out your fabric.  Peel the pattern off and do the same with the other piece of fabric (either the felt or regular fabric, whichever you did not use first).

Now, its sew time!  If you are going the button route-follow these next few steps.  If you are going the velcro route, skip these next few steps.  If you like the button closure, here is where you get your hair elastic.  Remember I said that I used a thick one?  Well, learn from my mistakes and use a thin one!  Make a knot in the center of your hair elastic and cut off any metal pieces, if needed.

Stack the fabric wrong sides together with the looped part of the hair elastic in between the right sides and pin in place.

If you are going the velcro route, start again here!  Pin your fabric together.  Now, sew the two long sides and the side with the elastic.  Leave the other shorter end open.

Once that is done, turn it right-side-out, iron flat, and topstitch all around, turning in the open side and closing it up.  Using a disposable coffee cup, wrap the almost finished cozy around and decide where to put your button.  Sew the button on and use the elastic as a loop.  If using Velcro, decide where the Velcro should go for a snug fit and stitch it on.

Voila!  A cute coffee cup cozy!

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