Tutorial: Plastic Bag Dispenser

Remember these Target kitchen towels from my post JuneGreat Finds a year ago?  I intended to use them to make 2 more messenger bags.  But...

When this quilted fabric bin project came along, I caved in and used a small portion of the kitchen towels.  I ended up not having enough coordinated fabric for a messenger bag and would really like to use up the remnant.  So, when I was working the in kitchen one day and having to bend down to get a plastic bag under the sink, I thought, why not make a plastic bag dispenser?

Here’s how I do it:

 1. Cut your kitchen towel to about 19" long (that's what I have left with from            the last project).  With right side facing, fold the fabric in half width wise.  Sew along the existing stitch line length wise.  Now I have a long tube.
2. Press seam open.  From the wrong side of fabric, fold under 1" at both ends of the tube and press.
3. To create casing for the elastic, stitch all around the folded ends leaving a 2" opening at pressed seam (it's too bulky for the sewing machine to sew through anyway). Repeat on the other end of tube.
4. This is the opening for the elastic casing.
5.  Turn the tube right side out.  Decide which end will be the dispenser "top".  Cut ribbon to 13" long.  Fold 1" under at the ends and pin to the mid points of the sides of the tube just below the casing.
6. Stitch two straight lines to secure the two ribbon ends.
7. Mark elastic @ 5" long with pen.  Use a bodkin to thread the elastic through the casing opening.
8. Pull the elastic tight until you see your pen mark.  Tie a knot.  Snip the excess elastic off.  Sew the opening of the casing closed.  Repeat on the other end of tube.
note: It's easier to cut the elastic after you have tie the knot than to cut the elastic to 5" 1st and struggle with making that tie with limited material.
9. Stuff plastic bags in the dispenser.  Hang it and use it right away!

This tutorial is featured on Made by you Monday over at Skip to my Lou and on The Winthrop Chronicles.

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TinTinMama?

     VS.    

We were over at our neighbor's and started talking about the cartoon character Tin Tin. My neighbor asked F if she knew who Tin Tin was and had a good laugh when hearing F's answer. F: "That's my mom! TingtingMamMa!". Hahaha. Oh, baby, your mama is not as famous as Tin Tin. Or, perhaps I could change the blog name to "TinTin's Mama" instead to draw more misled crowd? ;)

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November Aha!--Trouble With Stitches

Who does not love neat stitches on projects and those eye-candy fabrics?  But once in awhile, I’d see these ugly pucks.  And I know, I have stitch troubles.

Ugly in the front. (picture on top)  

Uglier in the back! (picture below)

 I knew this was mainly a thread tension issue.  Tried adjusting thread tension up then down; nothing worked.  But, whenever I took out the bobbin and replaced it with another one, the stitches appeared to be perfect again.  

After a few incidences of having to change my bobbins, I took a serious look at them and noticed the ones that caused the pucks looked unevenly threaded.  Funny that I've ALWAYS used the auto bobbin winder on my machine, and never wind the bobbins by hand...  That's when I realized that I DID interfere with the winding by hand a few times when I was so bored watching the winder.  I thought I was doing the winder a favor by pressing the thread down a few times to get "even" distribution of the thread.  Ha, I was actually doing myself a disservice.

Bobbin on top: what I need.
Bobbin on e bottom: uneven, trouble making bobbin; a direct result of my own foolishness.

The lesson learned: I will keep my hands to myself and trust my machine to do its job.

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October Aha!--Pattern Tracing Options

I have been looking for pattern tracing materials everywhere.  Joann carries sturdy plastic tracing sheets for $2-3+ a piece.  Quite pricy, I thought.  

I went across the street to Daiso and found these Translucent Poly File Folders (12.4” x 17.2”, 3pc.) for, yap, you guessed it, $1.50.  I figured that each folder has two sides that I could use.  For 3 folders, that’s 6 sheets.  For the price that I pay for these, it’s a steal.

 I like to reuse my bag and pouch patters, so these plastic folders are just the right size.  After tracing and cutting, I punched holes on each piece of the patterns and use brats o secure pieces from the same project together. 

 The down side of these plastic folders is that the permanent ink does not stay as well as tracing papers.  So I am risking losing markings or notes on those sheets.

 Then I found this: Plastic Drop Cloth from hardware store (10' x 20' for about $3.50). 

Be careful not to be greedy cut too long of a sheet since it's 10' wide.  Otherwise, you'll end up with a mess on your cutting table before you could even start any tracing. 

Lay the drop cloth flat on your pattern, using weights to prevent movement while tracing (as you would with tissue paper pattern tracing).  Permanent markers and rulers are great tools for pattern tracing on plastic. 

 Transfer markings and pattern number, size and details on the drop cloth.  It's surprisingly easy marking on it and the ink stays well.

Storage is a breeze.  You could fold it up as small as you desire.  (this sheet has 7 pieces of pattern on it, and it could still be folded up even more than this).  The beauty of this is when you open the sheet up, no wrinkles!

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October Aha!--Pattern Weights option

I refuse to buy overpriced pattern weights at the store.

 I found these fall leaves glass gem table decorations years ago and decided to give them a try as my pattern weights.  

No complaints.  My wallet is happy, too. 

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August Aha!

I have two identical chalk holders/pens.  One for light color chalks and the other, dark color chalks.  Having two of them saves me time changing chalks.  So I can always be ready to mark on either light or dark color fabrics.  But…the only problem is that they look exactly alike!  Most of the time when I pick one up, it’s not the color chalk I need.  So I ended up spending extra time checking if I’ve got the right one.  What a pain.  My solution is to stick a small sticker on my dark color chalk holder to set the two apart.  You won’t see me pulling my hair over this one now.

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For the bags and pouches that I make, I much refer the rounded corner  than the boxy look.  To round corners, you often need a round plate, a mug or can as a guide.  My craft table is already jam packed with stuff and has no room for dishes.  So, I took a piece of card stock, cut it into two squares (roughly) and rounded each corner with different sizes plates and mugs.  Punch a hole so I could hang it on the wall.  See, there's no need for dishes in my craft room.

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I've be using fabric paint to style up the girls' plain Ts.  One of the things that annoy me is applying tiny dots.  I used a sewing pin, but was irritated that there's not much to hold on to (plus, the end is pretty sharp!)  I needed an "extension" for the pin so I stick it into the eraser end of a pencil.  Bring on the tiny dots, I could handle them now.

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July Aha!

Aha #1:  Me and my Narrow Hemmer Foot

I love words such as "clearance", "sale" and "free".  So when I learned that my sewing machine comes with additional sewing feet, I was convinced that I got a great bargain.  However, some of those free feet are tricky because I DID NOT KNOW HOW TO USE THEM!  The most challenging presser foot trophy goes to my narrow hemmer foot.

Great looking foot, isn't it?

Common sense told me that anything problem could be solved if I just read!  So I read the 2 pages of "How To Use Narrow Hammer Foot" again and again.  Tested on my poor scrap so many times that the top edge unraveled.  Still, could not feed the fabric into the curled part of the presser foot far enough to make a stitch.  As I struggled, I would look at my user's manual and go "Are you sure about this?"  (Arrrrrrr!)


I even found a tutorial online for Mastering the Narrow Hemmer here:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3947/mastering-the-narrow-hemmer-part-two
Tried and failed...

Then, I thought to myself, "Self, why don't we start stitching 2-3" down instead of  feeding that tiny corner into the curl part?"  So I put the presser foot 2" down from the top of the fabric and tried to feed the fabric into the curl part from there.  Sure enough, Aha!  It worked!  The fabric was catching.  When I started stitching, I saw this beautiful narrow hem forming.  No sweat.  I am dreaming of all the possibilities of using this presser foot right now.  And the best part is now there's no more fear. 

Aha #2: Buttonhole  Foot setting on the bag

The buttonhole foot is an odd ball.  It does not fit into my small box for the presser feet family.  I left it in the original plastic zipper bag and got my "aha".

I wrote a short summary of how to use this presser foot (and the page number of the user's manual for detail reading, just in case) on the bag.  Later, I added the setting adjustment, too.  I do not sew buttonholes that frequently, but whenever I do now, it's a breeze. 

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June Aha!

Aha #1:

I love ribbons and use them for most of the bag/pouches I sew.  But organizing them has been such a pain.  Went to Daiso and sew their wall organizer system.  Never knew what the long hook was good for and then…Tada!

To keep the ribbon tidy, I pin the ends at an angle.

Aha #2:

 Anyone out there is like me who cannot seem to remember whether to turn the knob left or right when it comes to adjusting sewing machine settings?  With the increasing number of members in the house comes the increasing among of work. And it also means using more memories in my already lacking brain storage…Oh, fine, fine, the real problem is me aging to0 quickly, alright?  Talk about embarrassment!

I hate sewing test st. on scraps and I am too lazy to always refer to the user’s manual.  So, the “aha” is to note the settings on sticky labels and stick them on my sewing machine!

This is what I have for length setting:

0- button

9- satin st.

1-4 (short-long) 

I now have 4 setting labels and a kitty sticker gifted by J.

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