Hold on to that Trash

Have you ever been driving and you hear a little voice from the back seat, “Here Mama”? Still watching the road and blindly waving your hand in the back seat to grasp a hold of whatever your little one is trying to hand you. For me, it’s usually trash.

Well, I found a solution to this ever growing ‘disaster waiting to happen’. Tara over at TINKERFROG had a wonderful idea. She put an adorable hand crafted fabric trash bag in her back seat. She provides an ‘easy to follow’ tutorial (tutorial here) that I immediately completed and waaalaaa. Now my 5 year old little Ladybug does not have to call on mommy to dispose of her paper in the car! A much safer road now! Of course, 3 year old Little Man still likes to try and peg Mommy in the head with his trash/toy/juice box. He'll do just about anything to make little Ladybug laugh.

I did not have oilcloth or laminate cloth on hand. I just used denim and a heavier woven fabric and added some batting to help stabilize it. I also used shorter straps and just added Velcro. Either way it’s a great craft!

Since my trash container is 100% cotton fabric I decided that I would still use a plastic bag for lining. So where should I store these little plastic bags? Well…I crafted a sweet, little matching tote to hold the plastic bags. Here’s how I did it.

Materials:

1/2" elastic (cut two 7" strips)

safety pin

2 - 4"x12" strips of cotton fabric

1- 4"x12" strip of denim fabric

1-2"x12" strip of fabric, denim or cotton for strap (I used cotton)

Instructions:

First, press the 2"x12" strap fabric in half, lengthwise, wrong sides facing. Sew about 1/4"-1/2" seam. I then went back and frayed raw edges for texture.

press both 4"x12" strips of cotton fabric in half, lengthwise

Right sides facing, match raw edges of both strips of cotton fabric to raw edges of denim fabric lengthwise. Don't forget to place the strap in between the denim and cotton layers. It doesn't really matter where. Just make sure the raw edges are matching. Sew raw edges together. I then went back and pressed and top stitched seams toward center.

Create a casing for the elastic strips. Sew a 3/4" casing stitch from the folded end of top of cotton fabric. Pin elastic to safety pin and insert in casing. Stitch closed raw edges of casing, being sure to catch the elastic. Repeat to bottom folded end.

With right sides together sew 1/4"-1/2" seam. Pull right side out and add trash bags to the top elastic hole and pull them out from the bottom elastic hole.

TADA! Larger versions of this tote are really great for the laundry room and kitchen too. I use grocery bags at our house, a good way to recycle.

Happy Sewing,

Little Mama Hen