Earth Day

There's only one Earth. And I'm committed to keeping it as healthy as possible for my children and all future generation. Here's what I did on Earth Day to do my small part. I made things from old t-shirts and scrap fabric. It's recycling, reducing, and reusing all at the same time, plus loads of fun!

I had stumbled across this awesome tutorial for making tote bags from t-shirts. And it was as easy as pie. Or, since I don't think pie is that easy to make, let's go with "easy as cupcakes" instead.

First, lay your old shirt flat. Then cut off the arms, making sure to leave the seams. I made the mistake the first time of laying it flat and cutting straight across through two layers--and ended up cutting the seam off on one side. My advice: cut around the arm near the seam for a flawless look! Leaving the seams in help reinforce the bag's strength.

After you've cut both arms off, place a dinner place halfway down the top over the collar, trace, and cut out.

Then, flip the shirt inside out. Pin the bottom of the shirt together, and zig-zag stitch TWO times across the bottom directly on the seam that's already there.

I then added what the tutorial called "gussets" to give the bag some depth. I'm not really sure if I did it right. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't. But whatever! I just zig-zagged an inch or so up the side of the bags at a right angle to the corner, and it seems to have worked!

I also worked on some nursing pads for when the baby comes and I start breastfeeding. They were made out of layers of fleece and soft denim (a favorite, very worn old pair of jeans). I just used my circular magnetic pin holder as the template.

And made a few bibs, too, while I was at it.

Let me just say that the aforementioned favorite old pair of jeans has been incorporated into 4 bibs, 10 nursing pads, and 3 velcro pouches for the diaper bag (you can see the "pocket pouches" made out of the back pockets in the back of the nursing pad photo). It's amazing how much I managed to get out of a single pair of jeans. Think about the possibilities for all sorts of other things!

Happy Earth Day everyone!