This is similar to all the make up rolls and crayon rolls floating around out there in blog land.  But, I wanted something to organize my purse.  So, here is what I came up with…

Ok, First, choose your fabric.  I chose a dark red and a red patterned fabric for the pockets.  Decide how tall you want your roll.  Mine is quite tall, about 6 1/2 inches on the finished project,  so I can put a package of hand wipes in it.  I cut a piece of my dark red background fabric 14″ tall and 18″ wide.  Fold it in half, wrong side out, and iron the seam in.

Next, pin up your pocket fabric allowing an 1/4″ seam on the top.  My pocket is 4 1/2″ when finished.  Hem the top of the pocket fabric.  Next, place the pocket fabric in between the layers of the background fabric (remember we folded it in half, put it in the middle of the sandwich).  Line up the bottom of your pocket with the bottom of the background fabric.  Stitch the three sides together, leaving enough of a gap to turn it right side out.  Turn through the gap.  Decide how wide you want your pockets.  I laid out all the stuff I wanted to put in the pockets and marked the widths.  Sew a straight stitch from the top of the pocket to the bottom.

 Testing out the pockets…  and they are good to go.

Now, to attach your ribbon.  I had already previously sewed up the gap I turned my fabric through, but I didn’t tell you to do that yet for a reason.  If you like the look of the tabbed ribbon, then by all means, sew that gap up.  If not, make sure you sew it up with the ribbon tab in between the front and back of the roll inside the gap.  Fold your ribbon in half and stitch it to one edge of your roll.

The gap I left to turn my fabric would have been in the wrong spot to attach my ribbon inside the roll.  Take that into consideration when you stitch up the roll while it’s inside out.  I did a little personalization on my ribbon tab.  I just hand stitched, but it was a little special touch and made the tab look a little less awkward.

During the month of September, I will be doing several Autumn inspired posts.  The first of them is a fun little way to tell your significant other how much you love them!  I have learned in my marriage that the little things are important.  We are at a stressful spot in life and it is especially important for my husband and I to reconnect and remember that we do love each other and to recommit to getting through all the tough times together.  He has been traveling a lot with his job lately.  One time before he left, he wrote a love letter on the white board we have.  You better believe it stayed up the entire time he was gone.  See, and it took him all of five minutes to do it.

Here are some quick and easy, Fall inspired, note cards with the love notes already written out.  Find one that relates to you and your relationship.  Print it off and slip it in his jeans pocket when you fold and put the laundry away, or in his lunchbox, or tape it on the mirror in the bathroom.  Not a huge thing, but a good reminder in any relationship.  Happy Autumn Lovin’!

I used Digital Scrapbooking Kits from Computer Scrapbook to compile the love notes.  Papers and elements from the Cinnamon Digital Set by Jen Reed, as well as elements and papers from the Autumn Digital Set by Jeanine Baechtold  make up these cards.  If you are into digital scrapbooking or would like to be, I highly suggest checking this website out.  They have tons of FREE stuff and their prices are very reasonable. 

So, my little man has recently moved from a rear-facing to a forward-facing car seat.  He LOVES it.  But, seriously, who wouldn’t?!?  Staring at the seat back every time you go anywhere in the car… BORING!!!  Well, with his new car seat the straps look like they dig into his poor little chubby neck.  So, car seat straps to the rescue.  Now, we had one pair that we used on his infant carrier, but we invested in 2 car seats (one for our car and one for my mom’s car).  The strap covers we had before came from Wal-Mart and were a whopping $4.  Unfortunately, that was at a Wal-Mart in Idaho and I couldn’t find any here.  So, I decided to just make them.  And it meant I got to cross it off My To-Do List.  Yay!

First, I cut two identical sized pieces of fabric.  If I were to do this again, I would make them about and inch or two longer.  That’s what I get for being too lazy to measure I guess.  Then I pinned them to hem, allowing an 1/8″ seam.  Hmm, maybe my subconscious knew they were too short from the very beginning…?  If you make them longer, you can allow for a bigger seam.  Then, I hemmed all the long sides.  Iron the seams and short edges of the fabric flat.  It makes it a lot easier to put on the Velcro if the fabric will lay smoothly.

Next, fold the short edges of the fabric in 1/4″ to 1/2″.  Use a strip of Stitch Witchery to “glue” the fabric in place.  I hadn’t used Stitch Witchery in so long I forgot how awesome it is, definitely something I won’t be without in my sewing supplies ever again… but I digress.  If you’ve never used it before just follow the package instructions.  It’s pretty simple.  However, I will reiterate to place a paper towel between you fabric and your iron.  You don’t want to get glue on your iron!

Next, take a strip of Velcro, cut to size, and pin it on top of one of the raw edges that you just glued down.  I prefer Velcro with an adhesive back, it seems to help it stay in place while I’m sewing better than just pinning it.  I stitched around the edges of the Velcro, although you could just use some heat and bond if you want a no-sew solution.  And, since your raw edge is underneath the Velcro, it wont fray.  For the other side where the Velcro won’t cover the raw edge, I just did a quick seam to help hold it together before I sewed the Velcro down.  

And, Ta-Da!  You’ve made a pair of cute, simple car seat strap covers!  Easy peasy, right?  Just a side note… These are not padded.  My little boy still has a lot of his baby fat in his face and the padded set we have sometimes seemed to squash his face when it was getting close to needing to readjust his straps.  If you want a set of padded covers Serena at Nap Time Crafts has an awesome tutorial on how to do that.  She’s got a lot of other cool stuff too, so if you don’t know her blog yet I highly suggest you check it out!  Have fun!