Bag Holders!

I made some bag holders today. I found the instructions in Martha Stewart Living (my grandma gets it, so hold you tongue!) and they are mighty useful. They're the bags that you shove plastic bags in and just pull them out when you use them. I once saw that you can use tissue boxes for this purpose, but these are adorable and ridiculously simple. Here's all there is to it:

What You Need:
-A brand new dish cloth.
-A strong, fabric ribbon
-elastic 1/4in.


Here's the dish cloth I used. I would cut the tags that say "machine washable, made in China" off. They look tacky.


Fold it in half hot dog style, the wrong side out.


Pin the two sides together on the opposite side of the fold [the flappy side]. Then sew down that side. I sewed three inches in, but you can do less if you want.


Now you should have a tube, so flip it right side out so the design is on the outside. Now you're going to string some elastic through the seam that is already on the dish cloth. Cut 2 slits on the seam by where the two sides met, one on each side.


You're going to string the elastic through now. I had a hard time doing this at first, then my grandma taught me a trick; pin a safety pin through the elastic and use that to sew it through the seam. Just keep pushing fabric on in, and pulling it over the elastic. I don't know how much elastic you'll need, just sew it through until you get through the other end, the leave a two inch tail on each end. Pull the ends together to squeeze the hole relativley shut, then tie the elastic together. Use the safety pin to pin up anything that is lose and ugly.


This is what it should look like after the elastic affair. Repeat on the other side.


Now, sew the straps on. You can make them as long or as short as you want. Mine is somewhere in between. It all depends on the space you're making it for.


Now you're done! So simple and so useful right? I made two of these-one or my Aunt Sarah, and the other for my apartment.

One more thing. A while back I madea bathing suit using a tutorial from ThreadBanger. It ended up beng a total fail because my butt was too big for the instructions, and it was my first time at the sewing machine in years. So it was too small and very crooked. But I love the way it turned out. I would've put hearts on the tops, but I'm seriously never going to wear this thing, so I didn't even bother. I will put hearts on the boobs of the next bathing suit I make. Here it is: