A Little Reflection and A Lot of Cloth

Normally I'd be posting my bi-weekly picture update. I'm holding off to post at week 15.  Mostly because we lived in Boston for 4 years. Our son was born there and we have friend an family in the area.
This week was very rough on us and I can't even imagine how it was for our friends in Watertown who were only a block from where the suspect was captured. They think he actually ran through their yard to get there at some point.

Today was the Great Cloth Diaper Change and we're hoping a new record was set. If you don't know about cloth you should find a local store and ask them about it.

Really hoping life can return to "normal" soon.

And just so I can throw some crafting in here...

These are the cloth pads I made as a giveaway for the Great Cloth Diaper Change next weekend.

I hope whoever wins them likes them.

Tea towels turned bread bags

I don't really have a ton of cute tea towels. For me they were functional for drying dishes. Now we've started baking our own crusty bread (really simple and delicious recipe) I need bread bags.
Plastic bags don't breathe and keep moisture in. Paper bags get tossed out. But linen, linen makes perfect bread bags.

So I gathered some of my tea towels and made simple drawstring bread bags.  I've saved so much cord and ribbon that I used what I had in my stash as drawstrings.

Step 1: Seam up the sides.  I used my serger for this. You can use a regular machine and sew up the sides or do french seams.

I really love my serger

Step 2: Fold the top down to make a casing for your drawstring.  Since the top of the towel already has a finished edge you don't need to have it doubled under.

Step 3: Insert string.

Step 4: Put the bread in the bag. Try not to eat it.

You may notice there is no bread in this bag. That's because we need to make more. These bags are so easy to make and great for gift giving instead of wrapping paper.

Unpaper Towels

Everyone knows I love my cloth diapers.  We use cloth wipes, cloth napkins and cloth cleaning wipes. But what the hell is an unpaper towel?
We go through more paper towels than I'd like to admit and I wanted to find a better option. I found a simple tutorial and got working.

I chose to go with a darker terry so stains wouldn't show up easily. I also managed to get flannel on clearance at Joann's for $1.50 a yard. I also used my serger to sew them together instead of stitching, turning and top stitching.
Having them snapped on the roll is really convenient since I have limited counter space.
Now I just see the commercials for paper towels and laugh.  Even Ben thinks they are great and loves using them.  He can wipe down the counter and then leave the towel for wiping up again later.

I'm trying to get enough "growl towels" to make myself a dozen Memphis Grizzlies towels.


Don't forget to enter the Name My Serger Contest/Giveaway