Mini coin purses

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New Item In My Shop

Sock Monkey Make Up Remover Scrubbies

This week I will be adding a new item for my shop, chenille face scrubbies. These are not a new item for me to make I mostly sell them locally but I have a bit of a break before my next offline event and thought I would list a few in my Etsy shop.

I had actually begun to make these a few years ago when I made burp cloths and would save the small leftover chenille scraps. I would put these into scrap quilts or make the scrubbies. I happened onto a bag of these little squares early in the winter and decided to make them for local shows.

Simple in design, really just chenille on one side and cotton fabric on the other side, for the larger sized ones I interlined them with a layer of flannel, just to give a little more heft to the scrubbie.

Great way to cut down on paper waste and can be used over and over. Scrubbies are machine washable and dryer safe, the chenille and flannel when included have been pre-washed to minimize shrinking.

I will be offering 2 sizes, a make up remover size that is about 3 x 3 inches, and a larger size or like a mini washcloth that is 4 x 4 inches. I tie them up in cotton white yarn embellished with a few pony beads, so a cute gift should you need something to compliment a bath and beauty basket. Often when I sell them locally I am often told they will actually be used as coasters, so you have options with these colorful cuties.

Woodland Bloom Mini Wash Cloth Face Scrubbie

I think I have about 4-6 sets to add this week you will find them in my Miscellaneous Goodness Section, they are priced $5-7.00 per set.

Mom to Mom Shows

I do local mom to mom shows, this one I did was the largest I had done. I did this one where I did a table for children s resale and a table for handmade. This was my table display for handmade, I used grid walls and an 8 foot table to display handmade.

Mini Zip Pouches

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Mothers Day Outing Detroit Zoo

Though a little colder then I would have liked we decided on an outing to the Detroit Zoo, a common destination for us year round.

We only spent about an hour and a half today and rode the train for the first time this season and spent time at the Prairie Dogs, exhibit they are always fun and somewhat relaxing to watch. The added bonus of the kids observation tubes made this the highlight of today's visit.

The Prarie Dogs are usually quite active and today that was true as well, lots of digging and chasing and lots of food around too so they were all scurrying around eating what looked to be peanuts, though I am not sure that is what it was.

The zoo has this great kid feature where kids can go below and look through observation tubes right inside the exhitibit, it is a very tight squeeze for adults, of course some will try.

Custom order info

Urban Angel Diaper and Wipes Wristlet

Brown Bird Cosmetic Pouch

Peace Trees with lime floral lining

Visit my shop for more colorful creations: MidnightCreations.etsy.com

One for me too Mommy!

Once I showed my daughter my new apron she immediately wanted one too, so I did a quick little one for her. Basically the same concept as post below but smaller and a slight variation on the pockets.

Materials :
Duck cloth, two pieces 9 x 12 inches
Focal fabric 13 x 10 inch piece
Ties 3 inch strip in desired length, leave about 12-14 inches each side for bow.

You can see the post below for basic vendor apron instructions. I varied the pockets and made the "middle" pocket divided to hold crayons or markers.

Vendor Apron

I have been doing a few offline events, like mom to mom sales and small craft shows and decided to make an apron. I browsed a few books with some ideas and settled on a variation of a cafe apron with large pockets.

Simple to do and only took about 35 minutes, I had sort of sketched out the dimensions prior so that was some added time before actually beginning.

I used a heavier duck cloth for the base and two coordinated quilting fabrics for the pockets and the strap.

Duck cloth and two quilting fabrics

Basic shape of this is a rectangle, and I found that a dish towel or placemat made a good size to go on my body and just varied the size slightly from this measurement.

Materials needed:

1. Duck Cloth or heavy fabric like denim, bottom weight, twill
2. Focal fabric 1/4 yard of two coordinated or same fabrics
3. Walking foot
4. Basic sewing supplies, thread, scissors, rotary cutter and ruler, sewing machine

Make the body:
Cut from Duck Cloth 2 14" x 20" rectangles (or your desired size). From the pocket fabric, I used the quarter yard of fabric folded over at the middle.

Pocket sew right side to right side

Sew pocket fabric right side to right side, turn, press then sew top stitch at what will be the top edge of the pocket.


Layer the apron body as follows:
Duck cloth
Pocket (pocket should stick out around bottom and sides)
Duck cloth

Stitch around entire rectangle, leaving a 4-5" opening at the top for turning. Turning here will be easiest as there will be no bulk from the pocket fabric. I used a 1/2" seam and a walking foot to get through all the layers, though this is not necessary.

Trim away excess pocket fabric and nip the corners at an angle close to stitching, turn right side out and sew opening closed. Stitch pockets down through all layers, I made three, the two side pockets were 6 inches, the middle ended up about 6.5 inches.


Make the straps:
I made it long enough to wrap around my body two times plus more for a generous bow tied at the front, you could vary this to tie at the back if you wish. I would allow at least 20 inches per side for a tied bow.

Cut strips 3.5 inches wide by length needed, you may need to piece end to end, allow for matching if desired. Fold in half lengthwise and sew first corner at a 45 degree angle Sew one end closed and sew to about 6-8 inches from the finishing end, leave about a 3 inch gap for turning, then sew a few inches to your 45 degree end.

Sewn strap, 45 degree angle with gap for turning at one end

I use a Fast Turn tool to turn my handles, but any method you are comfortable with will work, like a bodkin or large safety pin or diaper pin. Turn right side out stitch opening close.

Attach the straps:
Find the halfway point of your straps and apron pin in place and sew down along the top, edge of body and bottom of strap.

Apron is complete, lots of ways to personalize this with embellishments, embroidery, patchwork. Easy pattern that is easily customizable.

Quick Merchandise Bags

This is probably a pretty obvious idea, but sometimes those are the ones we miss. I am still deciding on things I want and need for off line events. I needed some bags to send my goodies off to their new homes and made the simple bags.

I just took plain white lunch sacks, I got a bag of 40 at Target for about $2.00 I use these address size labels with my shop address for lots of purposes so I have these on hand.

Other ways to jazz up lunch sacks:

1. Stickers
2. Rubber stamps
3. Buttons and brads
   
4. Die cuts
5. Business cards
6. fabric scraps
7. scrapbook paper
8. Recycle greeting cards
9. Recycle gift wrap
10. Newspaper or magazine clippings

There are probably dozens of ways to use these bags at a low cost. If you sell children items have kids do some doodling or coloring with crayons, offer colors to use that match your business cards.

Feel free to share your ideas and get creative!

More Mom to Mom Finds

Catching up from last week with my mom to mom purchases.

1. Bucket of 10 puzzles $1.00
2. Sequence for Kids $3.00
3. Little Tikes 3 wheel Roller blades $3.00
4. Four person wood Mancala $2.00
5. Twister Moves $2.00
6. Go Fish Card Game .50 cents
7. Giant reversible Bible Puzzle .50 cents
8. Round Four Game .50 cents
9. Veggie Tales Puzzle card game .50 cents

Thought I would share my fave, good and dud pics from the weekend.

Favorite picks:
Giant Floor Puzzle. this puzzle has 2 beautiful kid friendly artwork pictures. the pieces are 8-10 inches each and are really thick. This puzzle is from 1991 and is in mint condition and for only 50 cents.

Mancala, I loved Mancala as a child and this was the first time I had seen it in a 4 player version. It is solid wood with multi colored glass stones and directions. Several looked at this and passed it over, the glass beads were really dusty as was the wood board. I rinsed the stones in a colander and polished the board and it is just gorgeous, love this!


Good picks:
The roller blades, these are far nicer then the roller skates I have looked at new and are not filled with characters were all plastic and barely rolled. To get actual roller blades new are at least 40.00 so 3.00 for these 3 wheeled versions was a good find.

Sequence for Kids, this was actually on my list to get I had seen it new for 14.00 so 3.00 is a great deal. Fun too!

Bucket of puzzles, 10 puzzles for $1.00 cents and the mom prior had coded them all so if they got mixed a flip over on the back makes for easier sorting.

Dud picks, well less then great:
Round Four game has 100 little chips and is in excellent condition but I am not sure how fun this game will actually be, DH and I are going to play it a few times and decide. It is also a game for older kids so it would be one to pack away.

Animal Soup, card game that is not very imaginative or really no different then games like Old Maid or Go fish which we have.

Veggie Tales puzzle game, well this was not really a dud but labor intensive. It has 80 cards with reversible puzzles, each puzzle is 4 pieces so sorting this out took some effort. I think when we play this we will limit the number we use each time.

So I am hooked on mom to mom sales and the deals I have gotten!