DIY Travel Blanket

While shopping for stuff I need for my trip to Spain I saw this travel blanket at REI and I realized that a travel blanket would be a nice thing to have. Not wanting to spend $30, I decided to make my own.

Supplies:
Grey fleece (2 yards. Cost: $8.98)
Velcro (6 inches. Cost: $1)
Black ribbon (2 yards. Cost: 1.98)








I trimmed the edges and then cut 1 foot off of one side - keeping the length at 2 yards.

Next I added a pocket at the bottom for my feet. This way if I'm using it on an airplane or wherever, I can put my feet into the warm pocket instead of having them on the cold floor. To make the pocket folded the bottom edge up 13 inches, pinned and sewed the edges.

 

After sewing the two sides, I flipped it right-side out and then sewed a straight line down the middle (you can see where I sewed in the above photo with the pins).

Using the extra material that I cut off of one side, I cut two 9 by 8 inch pieces for the pockets.

 I sewed the velcro onto the pockets...

 

...and then I sewed the pockets onto the blanket. I sewed one on each side - a foot or so from the top of the blanket. After sewing the pockets on I put on the other piece of velcro and sewed it to the blanket.

The original blanket folded up into a pocket but I decided I'd rather roll mine and tie it with the ribbon. This way I can shape it to fit in my luggage, Either I can fold it up and tie it or roll it very tightly.

Some close up shots of the finished blanket.

I put the pockets on the inside of the blanket. This way I can put anything small (A phone, keys, etc) into the pockets and not have to worry about anyone taking them. Not that that will be a problem...sometimes I can be paranoid. :-/ Since I will be using this blanket when I stay at hostels it will be nice to have the pockets to keep anything secure and with me.

What the pockets look like on the outside of the blanket.

 Another photo of the pocket.

The foot pocket:

 

The foot pockets are my favourite part of the blanket. I've been using it just to sit on the sofa in our basement because it's so comfy and my feet are nice and warm.

I'll definitely get a ton of use out of this blanket and as a bonus it was cheap and quick to make. 

I didn't get a picture of it rolled up with the ribbon tied around it but it rolls up pretty small and I don't think I'll have any problem fitting it into my carry-on bag.

More bracelets!

My sister came to visit and we made more fabric bracelets! We had a hard time finding a place to buy the bracelets but she found ID bands for beer bottles. The best part is that they're a lot smaller than regular bracelets like this so they fit our tiny wrists.

You can see the original post with tutorial here.

The original beer bands:

More bracelets!

We used random fabric scraps, an old pillow case and an old sheet.

Hamper

I saw this hamper on marthastewart.com and decided to make one.

We don't have room for a hamper anywhere in our bedroom and have been putting our dirty clothes in a hamper in the guest bedroom...which is annoying. This idea is perfect because it can hang on the back of our door and won't take up any room.

Supplies:
-Pillow case (I bought 3 at a thrift store for under $2)
-Embroidery hoop, 10'' diameter (from the thrift store - 39 cents)
-Fabric scraps

I decided to add two straps to hang my mine from since I didn't think one strap would be strong enough. We also already had two hooks on the back of our bedroom door so that worked out well.

I cut the material to make the straps. I used t-shirt material from my box of scrap material.

Then I sewed the ends together to make a loop. I overlapped the material by one inch.

I wasn't too concerned about the look but wanted the straps to be strong so I sewed three lines.

I put the loops around the embroidery hoop and put the hoop on the pillow case.

Then I hung it up!

Now we won't have our dirty clothes living in the guest room and have a nice, out of the way, hamper in our room. :-)

A sun shade

It has been unbearably hot here. Mega hot and humid. We like spending time on our deck but obviously don't enjoy spending time on the deck in 90+ weather with the sun beating down on us.

As a joint birthday present my mom bought us a sun shade so we could cover part of our deck. Unfortunately the sizing didn't work with a deck. We returned it and were inspired to make our own!

First we wanted to make sure we could even find a way to make this work before we went out and bought material. So off to Home Depot we went.

We bought two metal poles ($10 each), an assortment of hardware (around $15), pvc pipe and some pvc pieces (less than $10). The metal poles are 10 feet tall and are the kind used for chain link fences.

We have two hooks on the side of our house already for hanging a projector screen on so we can watch movies outside. We decided to use these for the sun shade and based the location of the poles off of that.

After my engineer husband figured out the details he got to work.

Here are the pvc pieces we bought. The metal pole fits inside of the tube perfectly. 

The pieces got assembled...

The cap is on the end that is going into the ground. This way no dirt will get in.

 

These photos show the top that can come on and off. This way we can put the cap on when we're not using the sun shade and the pvc pipe won't get full of dirt, rocks, etc.

 

 And then N dug a hole in the ground, put the pipe in and buried it in. He did a great job of packing in the ground/rocks around it. It is going no where.

 Here is it with the cap on.

 Next he put the brackets onto the deck.

And then put in the pole! They are easy to put in and just as easy to take out when the sun shade is not in use.

After we realized that the poles were sturdy and the spacing worked out with using the hooks we already had on the house we decided to get some fabric!

We found a great greenish and brown striped fabric (thick, in the upholstery section) and bought 9 3/4 yards of it. It cost about $70.00.

Since the fabric wasn't wide enough we measured and cut the fabric so that the seam would be in the middle. Then I got to work hemming all of the edges. 

I sewed.. and sewed...and sewed.

Then I sewed the two pieces together. Magically I was able to work is out so that the stripes continue seamlessly, even with the two pieces sewn juntos. (side note: I used upholstery thread for this part and for sewing on the straps. For the rest I used regular thread)

After sewing the two pieces together we took it outside to figure out the exact sizing. One side would be straight but the other end needed to be angled so we used some hooks and mock-hung it up to see what kind of angle we needed. We marked on each side where it lined up with the pole and then connected the lines. We cut the fabric, hemmed it and just hoped it would work out.

Next came the straps. I cut the material and hemmed the ends. 

Then the sides got folded in and sewn.

 

I got the metal rings ready to go.......

 And sewed as close as I could to each one.

The straps are done!

 

We placed them on each corner and sewed them on. This was probably the most difficult sewing part.The corners were already pretty thick and after adding the straps too them it was probably more than my sewing machine could handle...but we got through it.

Here are what the connections look like.....

.....connected to the pole. The cap that goes on the pole has a circle at the top that the s-hook links into. 

.....connected to the hooks that we already had on the side of our casa. These hooks were purchased in the gardening section of home depot. I think they're made to hang flowers from your house. We use them to hang our projector screen (which we bought cheap on craigslist) and a sun shade. :-) To attach the sun shade we just used an s-hook and something that the packaging tells me is a "quick link".

The first thing we did when we finished was go to starbucks to get two cold drinks and we relaxed under the shade. Sooo nice. 

Here is it all hung up! Complete with the blanket we've been laying on/eating our dinner on ever since we finished the shade. When I took these photos it wasn't too sunny so you can't see the difference it makes but it definitely brings our deck from unbearable to amazing. :-)

 

 Here's a closer shot so you can see the fabric.