Last Memorial Day weekend, we entered the fifth straight week of heavy rains, flooding and tornado watches. What a wonderful opportunity to craft!
Graduation season was right around the corner. I researched popular items to give a high school graduate and jumped on the opportunity to make personalized laundry bag for my niece. The plot thickened when I looked up the university she’ll attend in the fall and discovered the school colors were navy blue and white. I just so happened to have two navy blue full-size fitted sheets simply taking up space in my closet. Perfect!
Then I researched how to make a laundry bag. Everything I saw used a pillow case, which would have been tremendously easier–just my luck. Nonetheless, I modified the instructions to suit half a full-sized fitted sheet, bought two types of ribbon to make the draw string and three letter appliqués to iron on her initials. (Here’s one point where I saved myself a lot of time and trouble. I originally wanted to use more fabric I had in my closet to spell out her first name and sew them on. I’m so glad I let that marinate!)
Since I didn’t own a sewing machine, but had a tremendous amount of time during that flooded-out Memorial Weekend, I divided the effort among all four days. Friday, I cut and meticulously pinned the sheet. Saturday, I backstitched the side and bottom of the sheet, forming a bag. Sunday, I pinned the broad, transparent ribbon three inches from the top. Then I sewed the sides of the ribbon, leaving the ends open to form a canal for the looped, narrower ribbon. Monday, I fed the narrow ribbon through the canal with the help of a safety pin and used a silver cord at both ends to help retrieve it when it would be inevitably “swallowed.” Finally, I ironed on the letters–twice. The first time I forgot to take of the backing in order to expose the adhesive.
Tuesday morning, I stuffed it with three pillows and several large pieces of cloth to test it out and take a picture. Unbelievable how much room remained for more dirty laundry. This is a college student’s dream: to delay doing laundry until no clean underwear remains!