A Laundry Before and After

Try and control yourself, people.  This post will change your life.  Seriously, you may want to take a bathroom break before you have an accident. 

Dillon and I have been married for four years now. And since day 1 (ok probably day 18 since I most likely avoided laundry for awhile) the poor man has been subjected to hanging our clothes on the line next to this hot pink striped bag filled with clothespins.  You seen at one point in life,  I bought clothespins and needed a place to put them.  I looked around and BEHOLD! The perfect size bag. And that's how this beaut of a system was born.

Dillon had been embarrassed by this this for four years.  It's sat on our counter when we have had guests.  It's hung next to clothes drying on the line for ALL THE NEIGHBORS TO SEE. So now that Dillon finally got over the embarrassment, I'm changing it up. Enter the grown up clothespin holder:

Growing up my mom had a bag that appeared to be made out of a little girl's dress (sewn across the hem and hanging on a hanger) so that's a similar look that I was going for.  Except I don't have a little girls dress.  And the hanger was going to be encased inside the bag so it would never fall off.

So I poked around in my fabric stash until I found this patterned upholstery fabric.  I have no idea where it came from,  but it reminds me of my friend Josie's dining chairs after she reupholstered them.  Any thoughts on how it  came to be mine, Josie?  Well I hope you didn't want it back cuz I cut it up into this shape (it is folded at the bottom and has a layer of white cotton to be the inside lining) that lines up with a baby hanger it will hang from.  Don't be like me: iron your fabric.  I notched out a chunk to be the hole where you can reach in and grab a clothespin like this. Then sew each piece (outer fabric and lining) up the side (so you will be sewing 4 lines).

Folded in half at the bottom (the right side on the picture)

Notch.

Here's where things always stump me. I always get confused about how to layer pieces inside each other so that the lining and outer fabric line up and have the seams sandwiched inside (and therefore invisible).  So it goes: lining on the inside with the seam facing in and the patterned fabric on the outside with the seams facing out. I sewed around the "collar" leaving a 3inch gap to turn it inside out and then stuck a baby hanger in the hole. 

 

 

Sewn up each side, ready for sewing along the "collar", then turning

 I finished it quick by hand stitching the two last flaps so that the raw edges weren't exposed. If I was ambitious I would have done a cute line of gray piping around it but let's face it. Newborn.

Yup, he's the cutest baby in the world.

So there you have it. A two-nap craft that I should have done years ago.  Instead I made it with all my spare time with this baby around.  I know you've never been more thrilled.  You're practically hysterical with excitement, I know.