Make a drawstring swimming bag from a shower curtain

Last summer I was prepared to make a drawstring swimming bag from a shower curtain for my children so they could pop it in their school bag when they did swimming lessons. Summer kind of finished before I even gave it a second thought. Lucky for a recent craft retreat I went on, I was able to catch up on all my unfinished projects. I’m now prepared for this coming summer.

As luck wouldn’t have it, I tried the thrift stores for ages looking for a fabric type shower curtain but none were available. I thought I’d ‘bite the bullet’ and try one of the dollar stores and it was my lucky day as the one I wanted was reduced to $6. I’m not sure the thrift stores would’ve sold them for much cheaper.

I picked up some vinyl lettering from the stationery store and the cord was salvaged from some venetian blinds. When I took the blinds down (they were faded from the sun and not working very well), I saved the cord as that sort of thing always comes in handy for a lot of things.

How to Make It

 

Choose how big you want it and cut 2 rectangular shaped pieces of fabric. I took advantage of the edges that already had been finished when I was cutting. It’s just straight sewing but the good part about using shower curtain fabric is that it is waterproof. Not only will it suffice for the children to take their swimming things to school, it will help when they bring them home wet.

Shower curtain fabric is very slippery so I was lucky at the craft retreat that one of the ladies had an overlocker that I could finish the raw edges otherwise it would’ve been fiddly trying to do a zigzag stitch on the seams. It frays, a lot, so it pays to do this.

This sort of fabric is also good for making peg bags, toy storage in the bath or shower and any time you need to store wet things.

50 Quick Sew Cloth Napkins

Oh the dilemmas one faces when planning their own DIY wedding. If money wasn’t an option, there wouldn’t be a dilemma. Trouble is, we’ve decided on a budget and we’re sticking to it! I was faced with a dilemma recently when it came to deciding on the napkins/serviettes for the wedding. You see, we’re having both the ceremony and the reception at our home and I’m doing the appetisers and a caterer will supply the main meal. The caterer did supply paper napkins, which is a perfectly good option but I just kept thinking how much I would prefer cloth napkins. Searching the interwebs, the cheapest I could find were about $2 each, plus postage and when you add that up I’d be looking at $100 plus just so people could wipe their faces which to me, was ridiculous. I looked at various good quality paper napkins as well and I so much preferred cloth napkins. First world problems, I know!

I did, however, pick up a brand new double bed size sheet set from the thrift store for $10 and when I saw it I knew it would be perfect for decorating our wedding reception space. I’ve used it already for so many things and I have so much leftover. It’s a light cotton material and just perfect for napkins. I didn’t want to have to fold over the edges, press them and then sew. Too much effort for me. So I decided on this quick sew method.

I cut out a template from a cardboard box in the size I wanted. This is probably about 25cm (10 inches) square.

Using my cutting matter and rotary cutter, I doubled the material (if you’re keen you could fold it over again to reduce time but I think my blade is getting blunt) and I set about cutting 50 napkins.

It didn’t take that long.

After they were all cut, I gave them a wash in the washing machine and dried them so the edges would all be frayed.

I then sewed a line in a contrasting coloured thread around the edge of the napkin (about 1cm in) and neatened the edges to achieve that frayed look.

This did become quite tedious after a while and I’m still finding threads all over the house, the kids and the dogs. I’d got through about half and I decided to finish the other half off with the pinking shears. It doesn’t matter to me at the end of the day. They’ll be folded and only used to wipe your face.

If you count interruptions for getting sick myself, having sick children, a 2 week school holiday break and the usual interruptions that come with being a Mum, these didn’t take too long after all. I’ve given them all a press, ready for the wedding.

We currently use paper napkins at home with our usual meals but these will all come in handy after the wedding and help reduce the number of paper napkins we buy. If you count all the other crafting I’ve done using this sheet set and still have heaps of fabric left, I think these 50 napkins set me back a couple of dollars. A good saving after all.

You can check out my other budget wedding ideas I’ve done here.

Easy sew gift drawstring bag

Kill ‘two birds with one stone’ with this easy sew gift drawstring bag using fabric scraps. It doubles as fancy gift wrapping for the recipient plus a useful bag for their underwear, toys, makeup, toiletries etc.

 

The kid’s birthday party season has well and truly begun with one on this coming Saturday (for both children) and again on Sunday (again, for both children). There’s another one Saturday week for the boy and here we are only in March! If it keeps up at this rate, we’ll be broke by Easter!

I always like to pick up little things when I see them at the shops. For young girls, things like toothbrushes, hair accessories, pretty brushes and combs, books, colouring pencils and pens and the list goes on. We always try to make a greeting card using card stock and stickers, glitter etc with E writing in the card. I also like to make a gift bag to put it all in. It can then be used by the child to store little toys, socks, blocks, whatever.

With a 6 year old girl and a 4 year old boy, I think birthday parties are going to be a regular event over the next few years. I’m going to try and make presents, just to keep the prices down, but really need to get my sewing machine fixed or get a new one.