5-minute baby overalls clothespin bag

Ahhh! Fiber School is over, everything’s back in order, and the buildout of Ron’s new tattoo shop is wrapping up. Now if the rain would just lay off for more than a day at a time and let my basement dry out, I could relax.

I haven’t knit in forever and despite my rigorous culling, I was kinda languishing under the weight of a stale stash. But my new rigid heddle loom inventory (a pleasant side effect of Rigid Heddle School) has gotten me energized about weaving, I’m looking at my old stash with new eyes.  I just made a yummy new rug, I’ve already got the loom warped again for another variation & I’m going to build up a nice inventory of them and start selling them this summer. It’s always a struggle to fine a lovely handmade thing that a million other people aren’t making.

Aside from rugs, I’m warping my little SampleIt so I can make one of these amazing bags. Shit like this is why I love Pinerest (everything else is why I hate Pinterest).

On my back-burner to-do list forever has been craft projects from all the baby duds that aren’t special enough to keep or fancy enough to sell. For the most part, that means I have bags of unsorted baby crap, but one of the few things I devised that I think is worth sharing is this baby overalls clothespin bag. Baby overalls are super cute and outgrown immediately. They’re also sturdier than your average baby duds, which make them ideal for something useful you can have in service for many years. Twyla’s still pretty small (though years too big for these), but I’m sure when she’s big, I’ll get a tickle out of thinking of her in these.

Here’s how you make them. Step one, cut off the legs and sew up the bottom.

The other steps (box the corners and screw to a wooden hanger if you don’t want to fuss with latching it over the clothesline) are optional. Shown here, it’s only a quarter full. Filled, it can hold all of my clothespins, which equals more than I need to completely fill my 70′ of clothesline, even with baby clothes.

clothespinbag

(By the way, if you’re fed up with shitty clothespins, invest in some vintage ones from ebay. New ones, even the big ones from Lehman’s, are crap. Maybe they’re fine for gentle climates, but they’re a joke in Kansas wind. Vintage ones are worlds better. Look for the 3 3/4″ size and thick wire in the picture, as  there are a lot of people selling ratty weathered new clothespins as “vintage.” The non-springy type work pretty well on lightweight items, too.)