Well, not all of them. A bunch though.
It started when we painted the dining room. We ran out of paper towels and I was too lazy to go to the basement to get more. I thought to myself, hm…can I function without paper towels? I do love them so. But I found out that I could. I turned one of my husband’s old shirts into nineteen rags and I haven’t looked back. Now, whenI have spare fabric, I think…rags! Like from a sewing project last week:
Three girls’ tank tops and three men’s XXL t-shirts yielded three nightgowns and a stack of new rags.
I’d also been thinking about using cloth napkins instead of paper, as my kids always grab a paper napkin, don’t use it, then throw it in the trash. Kind of dumb. Switching to cloth (I found a slew at the Crate & Barrel outlet that match the new dining room colors perfectly!!) was completely painless. Go us.
Then I got to thinking about my daughter’s 5th birthday, and how we’d need to have a party and all that. One thing I absolutely cringe over is goody bags — it kills me that they’re now the norm, and they’re usually full of candy and small crappy plastic toys. I really, really wanted to find something to put in ours that wasn’t disposable.
Enter Randi and her fab tutorial…
I decided to make aprons, and put them in felt bags with butterfly cookie cutters and decorated butterfly cookies. I found the cutest butterfly fabric on clearance…it was such a good deal that I splurged on the ruffled trim. After making a prototype for the birthday girl, I decided that that much gathering would send me over the edge. I spent about 2.5 hours today sewing, and I have everything done except the bottom ruffle on 5 out of 6 aprons. Tomorrow: felt bags. I got a great book a few weeks ago that has fab instructions. If I have time I’d like to make hair clips too, but I’m not going to kill myself trying to get it all done…
So, as a parent, would you appreciate getting a non-disposable goody bag? Or would you ust think, “rats, I can’t throw this away without feeling really guilty!”
my sister's blog 