I’m the kind of person who likes to make things herself. If I buy a handcrafted product I usually try to figure out how I can make it myself and how I can improve it. That’s actually how I got started in the cloth diaper business: I purchased some handmade cloth diapers and after inspecting them I thought “I can do this – better!” So I did.

That’s how I started to make mesh produce bags. One night at the grocery store I came to the horrifying realization that our reusable grocery bags were filled with plastic produce bags! How un-green is that? As soon as we got home I was on the internet researching reusable mesh produce bags.

There were tons and tons of mesh produce bags in different fabrics, sizes, with and without accessories. But I couldn’t bring myself to buy any; I looked at them and thought “I can do that – better!” So I did.

It took a little while. First I had to go through the painful “product development” stage where you try out different ideas and end up with a bunch of crap before you discover what works best.

Finally I came up with what I think are the perfect mesh produce bags. They have that fantastic little pleat that I love in plastic produce bags, are lightweight, are see-through, and best of all – they’re reusable!

Supplies to Make a Mesh Produce Bag

In addition to the usual sewing implements; scissors, thread, pins, etc, you’ll also need:

• Scrubby mesh – don’t use regular tulle or petticoat mesh, they won’t hold up.
• 1/4″ ribbon – I prefer grosgrain, but you can use anything you have lying around.
• Medium-sized safety pin
• Iron and ironing board
• Sewing machine (Obvious I know, but I want to be thorough)
• Serger if you have one – if not you can zig-zag or overcast with your sewing machine.

Ready? Then let’s get started!

Make a Mesh Produce Bag – Step by Step

I did my best to explain each step clearly, and hope the photos help, but if you have any questions please contact me or leave a comment below; I’ll be happy to help!

Step 1: Cut your Mesh

With the mesh folded in half, cut your rectangles so the fold is on the bottom. You can make your mesh produce bags any size you like, but keep in mind that after sewing the finished size will be about 1/2″ narrower across and 1″ shorter than you cut. Here are my cutting dimensions:

• Small: 7.5″ wide x 11″ tall (folded in half – if you unfold it the rectangle would be 7.5″ x 22″)
• Medium: 10.5″ wide x 12.5″ tall (unfolded: 10.5″ x 25″)
• Large: 13.5″ wide by 16″ tall (unfolded: 13.5″ x 32″)

I color-code my bags. Some of my rejects included cute little ribbons with snaps to wrap around rolled-up produce bags, and snap-on carrying pouches for neatly folded or rolled mesh bags. It didn’t take long before I realized that after shopping and putting away groceries I wasn’t about to sit and roll up all these mesh produce bags, or fold them neatly into a pouch. What I actually did was stuff all the produce bags into one of the large mesh produce bags and toss thems into the van with the reusable grocery bags. Color-coding make it easier to grab the right size while we’re shopping.

Step 2: Side Seams

With the fold at the bottom of the bag, serge or stitch up the sides of the bag. Stitch top-to-bottom on one side, but on the other side stop about two inches from the top. This will make the opening for the ribbon closure. If you serged the seams you’ll need to keep this end from unraveling by tying the threads together, or whatever method you use. If you stitched the seams with a sewing machine you may want to zig-zag or overcast the seam for added strength.

That was easy, wasn’t it? Now turn the bag right-side-out.

Step 3: Top Casing
Before ironing your mesh take a scrap piece and do a test to make sure it doesn’t melt your mesh. Mine was fine, but I don’t want you to end up a melted mesh mess.

If your iron and mesh pass the test, carefully press the top edge under – to the inside – about 1/4″. Then fold that edge to the inside so it just barely overlaps the side serging/stitching. Pin in place then press the edge.

Carefully stitch along the fold to create a casing for the ribbon.

Good job! I’ll bet your bag looks something like this one!

Step 4: Bottom Pleats
Most mesh produce bags on the market are simple rectangles like you’ve got now. If you want you could skip ahead to the last step and be done. Personally, I like the bottom pleats because they expand to hold more produce, they allow the bag to sit upright, and they pull the sides of the empty produce bag in so it’s smaller.

To add the pleats you first have to mark bottom fold in the middle. The easiest way to do this is to fold the bag in half side-to-side and make a mark there.

Keeping the back right-side-in, push one corner toward the middle mark, so the seam is directly under the mark. It’s a little tricky, but I know you can do it.

Pin the pleat in place.

Then repeat with the other side so both pleats are pinned in place.

On the right side of the bag, stitch across the bottom about 1/4″ from the fold, catching both pleats in the stitching. Piece of cake!

Yours looks like this, right?

You’re almost done – just one more step.

Step 5: Adding the Ribbon Closure

Measure your ribbon against the bag. You need enough to go around the whole top of the bag plus about 2-3″ on both ends for tying.

Attach the safety pin to one end of the ribbon and insert it in the opening of the casing. Carefully work the safety pin through the casing until it comes out the other opening. Be careful not to pull the other end of the ribbon into the casing. If you do it’s not the end of the world, just pull it all the way through and try again.

Hold the ends together and tie them together. You can cut the ends on the bias (slanty) so they’re less likely to unravel.

Step 6: Done!

To finish my bags I like to lay them out on the ironing board and give them a light pressing to set the pleats and make them nice and flat. You can totally skip this step if you want though.

Using your Mesh Produce Bag

Fill your mesh produce with fresh fruits or veggies and pull the ribbon tight. The grosgrain ribbon has always held well for me, but satin ribbon might slip. You can also tie the ribbon after you pull it tight: just fold it so the knot is against the bag, creating two loops on either side. Take those two loops and tie them into a knot. Pretty slick!

When my mesh produce bags get a little dirty I just swish them through the water when I’m washing dishes and air dry. If they get really nasty I wash them with my laundry on cold then air dry.

Congratulations, you just made a mesh produce bag! Go show everyone you know what a cool produce bag you made, then take a photo and send it to me so I can see too. Go green with mesh produce bags!

I’m doing a happy dance in my kitchen – looky, looky what I got in the mail today… a beautiful box of fabric from my favorite fabric store, Fabric Bliss! I can’t stop petting all these yummy fabrics; it’s an addiction. Hi, my name is Amy and I’m a fabriholic…

I don’t know where I first heard of Fabric Bliss… maybe I was doing a Google image search for a certain fabric and she had it, I just don’t remember. What made me fall in love with her store was the remnant boxes. Although her kooky descriptions and irreverent newsletter didn’t hurt! The remnant boxes are stuffed with less-than-a-yard bolt ends in a box and sold at a great price. Since I like to buy smaller pieces of fabric so I can offer more variety and avoid having a thousand diapers in the same print floating around, the remnant boxes are perfect for me. I bought my first one about a month ago and as soon as it arrived I started bugging Jen about when she’d offer them again.

While I stalked the store watching for more remnant boxes I fell in love with some let’s be honest here – a bunch of her fabrics. I made a wish list and calculated the total for a yard of each fabric. Then I sat down and put my head between my knees to recover from the sticker shock. Not that Jen has bad prices, I just had a loooooong list!

Feeling sorry for myself because I couldn’t afford all the fabric I loved, I emailed Jen to see if she ever sold amounts under a yard. I didn’t think she would – a yard is the standard minimum – but she surprised me by saying she would. Woo hoo, happy dance! Feed my addiction, Jen!

I cut my list down to the bare bones then emailed the order to Jen. At the same time remnant boxes became available again, so of course I had to get another one. Don’t tell the kids where the Dairy Queen money went… That’s the box that arrived today – Jen even combined both orders to save me money, how sweet is that?

I can’t wait to get the fabric all washed up so I can make it into adorable diapers. I wonder what’s in the washing machine right now… Sorry family, no clean clothes for you today – I have fabric to wash!

On a Sunday afternoon waaaay back in March I started making a prom dress for Princess. It was the most challenging thing I’ve ever sewn, and the one I’m most proud of. Not because it turned out perfect (it didn’t) or because it turned out beautiful (it did) but because it makes her feel felt like a princess when she puts it on. The smile on her face when she’s in that dress is worth any amount of ripping out, fixing mistakes and cussing. And now that I’ve finally downloaded the photos you can see her smile too. Enjoy!

Princess in her dress. Teacher strung the beaded straps, and the shawl came from our guest from Thailand. Her wrist corsage was gorgeous and smelled as good as it looked!

Princess and Cowboy. Princess had her hair done in a salon, and Cowboy’s sister bullied him into leaving his cowboy boots and hat at home. They both look way too grown-up to me!

Princess with her best friend Janice. Janice made her dress, shawl and matching purse all by herself! My mom made Princess’s matching wristlet – she’s gotten into making purses and bags lately. You can see the girls’ purses in the next photo.

The whole group: Cowboy, Princess, Janice, and her date Josh.

Finally, Princess and me. Teacher wanted a photo of us together since I was still dressed up from band competition. I look at Princess and marvel that I’m the mother of such a beautiful, smart, charming girl. I’m the luckiest mom in the world!

According to Wikipedia, Serendipity is “is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.” Like when I was searching in my coat pocket for a tissue and found a twenty. Yippee!

The artisans of Lily Pad Landing have adopted the idea of serendipity for our fifth Thursday stockings. Unlike our regular stockings which have previews beforehand and go live at 9pm, a Serendipity stocking is a surprise stocking. Items don’t preview, they just go live at random times throughout the day. So you could be browsing, refresh the page, and suddenly something appears that wasn’t there before. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

I know that we’re all busy and even though we may want to spend a day on the computer, our kiddos need to be fed, changed, played with and cuddled too, so I’m giving hints as to when my items will stock. Besides, I gotta reward all my loyal newsletter and blog readers, right?

All the answers to these hints can be found somewhere in my blog…
1- How many greenish stones are in my non-Valentine’s Day gift, plus 1?
2- How many of my family members have blue eyes?
3- How many white and pink boxes do I need to be Gaw-geus?

Serendipity to you,

A couple of weeks ago I warned you that I was going to be on TV, and this morning the segment finally aired. Since the day after the interview Teacher has been recording the show and fast-forwarding through it every morning to see if I was on. I had started thinking that maybe they decided not to air it at after all, but this morning there it was!

When I checked my email later I found a message from Millaine at Channel 5 telling me that the segment was going to air today. Since the email was sent at 3am and the show started at 5am there’s no chance I would have gotten the email before the show, but it was nice of her to let me know anyway.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 and over the past couple of weeks I’ve thought of a thousand things I should have said and a thousand better ways to say what I did say, but overall I can’t complain.

Anyway, here it is… Enjoy!
The Interview

Sunday morning a TV crew from Channel 5 in Green Bay is coming to interview me for Wisconsin Works, a segment of their morning show. I’m hyperventilating just writing that so it’s sure to be an interesting segment: “Stay tuned as Amy Sue stares blankly at the camera…”

Monday morning I got a phone call asking for the owner of Zany Zebra. At first I thought it was a telemarketer but was shocked to hear it was Channel 5 TV in Green Bay. They want to feature Zany Zebra in one the upcoming Wisconsin Works segments and when would be a good time for the crew to come by for an interview?

I looked around the house and calculated how long it would take to get it ready for TV – a month should do it. Unfortunately they needed sometime this week, including Sunday. It also had to be before 3:00 pm, but they could come as early in the morning as I needed to avoid daycare hours. I considered what time I’d have to wake up to be dressed, have hair and make up done, the house cleaned, and everything ready for a 6am interview. Then I chose Sunday. The kiddos were warned that Saturday was Clean the House Day because “Mom’s going to be on TV”. They thought it was cool but didn’t get really hyper, they just asked “Why” and went on with their lives – probably afraid I’m going to embarrass them.

I’ve been trying to play it cool and be calm but on the inside I’m a quivering mass of jelly. What if I look dumb? What if I sound dumb? What if the cameras add 10 pounds to my leftover baby weight and I look huge or have something in my teeth or the lights wash me out so I look dead? What if they ask me a really easy diapering question and I don’t know the answer? What if I babble incoherently or worse – blank out and say nothing? What if I get a humongous zit overnight? What am I going to wear?!

Teacher says I’ll look gorgeous and be wonderful and sound intelligent. That’s why I love him – he always believes in me. And he keeps me from totally flipping out.

I have to apologize to these customers… Lisa, Miranda, Colleen, Julie, Sarah, Kimberly, Erika. I’m sorry but I can’t ship your orders today like I’d planned. It occurred to me as I was obsessing about this interview Me obsess? I resemble that remark if I shipped your orders today I’d have no examples for the interview Sunday and how lame would that be? But I PROMISE to pack them up Sunday afternoon and get them on their way Monday. I’ll post a link when I have one so you can see your fluff on TV.

Time to start cleaning…

The first appliques I ever made were on stockings “Mrs. Claus” made for College Boy, Princess and Angel Face. I didn’t know anything about applique, but I stumbled along and managed to do a fairly decent job.

Since then I’ve ahem… “Mrs. Claus” has made stockings for Jo-Bear, Z-Man, Little Guy, and Teacher. And grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it. I think the only ones in our family who don’t have an appliqued stocking yet are Great Grandma and me – go figure!

I loved applique so much that I started making appliqued diapers… but that’s a story for another time. The point is that over the years I’ve made a LOT of appliques and learned a LOT about how to applique. Now I’d like to share that knowledge with all of you. Don’t be scared – if you can sew, you can applique! Besides, I’ll be with you every step of the way and if you run into problems you can contact me. So grab your fabric scraps and put on your creativity hat – you’ll be surprised how easy and addicting applique is!

Supplies

Obviously you’ll need basic sewing necessities like a sewing machine, scissors, thread, needles, pins, etc. In addition, you will also need:

• A regular pencil
• Plain or tracing paper
• An iron
• A water or air soluble marking pen or pencil
• Paper backed iron-on adhesive, like Heat n Bond™
• Tear away stabilizer, standard type
• Fabrics for the applique, prelaundered as the finished product will be laundered.

How to Applique – Step by Step

I did my best to explain each step thoroughly, but feel free to contact me if you’re confused about something.

1. Draw Your Applique Design
The first you need is a design to applique. A simple design with straight sides is easiest for beginners, so consider starting with a block, kite or star. If you’re an experienced seamstress you may want to try a design with curves, like a heart or balloon. I’m working on one of my elephant designs in the examples.

Either draw your design on the plain paper, or trace the design onto the tracing paper. Keep in mind that the finished applique will be a mirror image of your tracing.

2. Trace onto the Iron-On Adhesive
Place the iron-on adhesive on top of your design, paper side up, and trace your design onto the adhesive. If your design is made up of more than one element, like the elephant and heart, you will need to trace each section separately.

If there are sections next to each other, you need to decide which will go on top of the other. When tracing, extend the line of the bottom section about 1/4 inch where it touches the top one. This will allow you to layer the sections so there won’t be any gaps in between them.

3. Rough Cut the Design
After your design pieces are traced, you need to separate them from the rest of the adhesive. Cut around your tracing lines, about 1/2 to 1 inch away from the lines.

4. Choose Your Fabrics
This is one of my favorite steps – choose the fabric for each section. To make selecting easier I separate my fabrics into color families. Cotton woven fabrics are the easiest to work with, although you may want to experiment with other fabrics as you gain experience. Beware of fabrics that fray because they often shred when laundered, and thicker fabrics like corduroy or velvet may be too difficult for some machines to handle smoothly.

5. Fuse the Fabric to the Adhesive
Heat your iron according to the directions that came with the adhesive. When the iron is hot, place the preshrunk fabric right (front) side down on your ironing surface and press to remove any wrinkles. Be sure to put the side you want to use face down so you’re looking at the back of the fabric. Double and triple check before ironing – I can’t tell you how many times I wasn’t paying attention and fused the adhesive to the front of my fabric! Place the adhesive, paper side up, on the wrong (back) side of your fabric. Fuse according to the directions that came with your adhesive.

6. Cut out the Sections
Cut out each section, following the tracing lines carefully.

7. Remove the Adhesive Backing
Carefully peel the paper backing from the iron-on adhesive. If the backing is difficult to separate from the adhesive, tear the edge of the paper a little to get things started, or use a fingernail to separate the paper from the fabric.

8. Iron the Applique to Your Item
Place the applique, adhesive side down, on the item you’re going to apply it to and arrange the sections to match your pattern. If you have several pieces you may need to look at the pattern to remember how the sections fit together. When the applique looks the way you want it to, iron it down according to the directions that came with the adhesive.

9. Add Some Details
Using the water soluble pen or pencil, draw in any details you wish to add to the applique.

10. Stabilize with Interfacing
Cut a piece of tear-away interfacing large enough to cover the entire applique with a border of about 1/2 – 1 inch. Place the interfacing on the wrong side of the item you’re appliquing, under the applique. Now this part is a little tricky – holding the interfacing tightly, flip the item over and pin the interfacing on from the front. (You can see a pin in my next photo) If the item you’re appliquing is thin enough, you hold it up to a light to make sure the entire applique has interfacing behind it. If the item is too thick to see through you’ll have to check by feel.

11. Stitch Your Applique
Now comes the fun – stitching! Use a Satin stitch if your machine has it, otherwise use a Zig Zag stitch and decrease stitch length until the threads are sewn right next to each other. Most sewing machine manuals recommend loosening the top thread tension for applique work, but be sure to check your own machine’s manual for directions. Using a scrap piece of fabric, experiment with stitch width and length until you find an effect you like. You want the thread to go into the applique fabric on one side and into the background fabric on the other, so the raw (unstitched) edge of the applique is completely encased in thread. On my Viking I generally use a stitch length of .3 and a width of 3.5, but each machine is different so these numbers may not work for you. Once you find the stitch length and width you like, write them down somewhere so you don’t forget – the owner’s manual is a good place. Unless you tend to lose them like I do.

Line the applique up so the raw (unstitched) edge is in the middle of your presser foot and start stitching. Go slowly at first, until you gain some confidence. Slow down as you approach a curve or corner so you don’t overshoot the edge. There are several ways to turn corners; try different ways until you find one that works for you. The way I round a corner is by stitching to the end of the fabric until the thread is even with the bottom edge of the fabric. Then I sink the needle in the very outermost point of the corner, where the two sides meet. Raise the presser foot, leaving the needle sunk into the fabric, and pivot the fabric to the right so the raw edge is lined up in the middle of the presser foot. Lower the presser foot and continue sewing.

Curves are easier than corners, and wide curves may not require any pivoting. Stitch wide curves slowly so the stitches remain even. Sharp curves may require a pivot to keep the raw edge in the middle of the presser foot. When stitching an outer corner, like the outside of an O, stop with the needle down on the background fabric, then pivot just enough to line the raw edge up. When stitching an inner corner, like the inside of an O, stop with the needle down in the applique fabric and pivot just enough to keep the raw edge in the center of the presser foot.

Remember to stitch the details you marked earlier. I generally narrow my stitch width by one setting for inner details. Remember to backstitch whenever you begin and end stitching so your stitching doesn’t come out later. I realize this photo doesn’t show the raw edge in the center of the presser foot – I was about to pivot around the curve when I took the photo. See the pin holding the interfacing to the background fabric? Since taking this photo I’ve moved my pins to the edge of the applique so there aren’t any holes in the PUL.

12. Trim the Threads
Wen you’re all done stitching carefully trim the loose threads as close to the fabric as you can without cutting the fabric or stitching. I trim the font first because any tiny ends are usually pulled to the back when I grab those threads to trim them. Using a small, sharp scissors makes it easier to trim closely.

13. Remove the Interfacing
Remove the interfacing by tearing along the stitching. Your needle will have perforated the interfacing so it should come away fairly easily. Use a fingernail along the stitching to get things started, but do not use your scissors or anything sharp as it might poke through the applique. Don’t ask how I know this, it’s a tragic memory.

Congratulations – you’ve made your first applique! Now go show everyone what a fantastic applique you made, then send me a picture so I can see too. I hope you had as much fun doing applique work as I do!

I took my “new” serger in for an owner’s class today. It’s been “sick” and I was about to throw it out the window because I was so frustrated with it. Turns out the problems were mainly “user error” (blush). Two little finger thingies broke off the stitch plate so I need another one of those, and the blades are dull and need to be replaced. She said I was a “heavy user” and need to bring the serger in for a tune-up 2-3 times a year instead of just once a year – oops! The good news is that she figures it’ll be done by Sept 1, and all tune-ups are free for the first 2 years – no matter how many times I take it in. I can’t wait for it to be tuned up and come home!

Integrity – it’s something you either have or don’t have.

Having integrity means:

• You do the right thing, just because it’s right
• You tell the truth, no matter what
• You stand up for what you know is right
• You admit your mistakes and try to make it right

As I spend more time in the WAHM world, I’m learning that many WAHMs have integrity… and some don’t.

I can’t change how others choose to act, but I can – and always will – strive to live my life with integrity.

I’ve been thinking of making some changes in ZZD, but am not sure if the changes are a good idea or not. I’m hoping if I write them down I’ll be able to think more clearly… if anyone wants to chime in with opinions I’m open too!

First, I’m going to change my pattern a little. From what I’ve noticed with my boys and what other mamas have said, the rise is outgrown way before the waist. I want to add to the rise and trim down the wings. I’ve been testing some OV fitteds with trimmed wings on Little Guy and I really like them – they’re less bulky in front. I took photos of both the original and the trimmer wings:

Original:

Trimmer:

I’m also thinking about changing to all white snaps on the wings and studs and keeping the colored caps. The business/financial side of me says it’s a good idea – white snaps are cheaper and will save me time when I’m putting them on. The money I save can be used to buy additional colors and/or logo snaps – which would be very cool! The artist side of me mourns the loss of color – since my dipes aren’t serged the only color is the outer, the edges of the inner that peek out, and the snaps. The daughter-in-law side of me feels really guilty becaue I asked Tom’s folks for some kind of spill-proof container with compartments for Christmas. They got me several plus a wheeled tote to keep them in. So I’m in a major quandry about this possible change.

My snaps in their new homes – I love all the colors!

Finally, I need to make a change in the way I do customs. I love doing customs because the mamas are all so creative and I like to do different designs instead of the same ones all the time. But my limited sewing time means a longer turn-around time that I like and no time to do instock. No-one’s complained, but I feel really bad for making mamas wait for their orders or for their turn to order. So something has to change. I’m debating either only offering 1-2 custom diapers per order and more slots, or still allowing up to 6 diapers but only offering 1-2 slots at a time. Decisions, decisions, decisions…

PS – I want to change the look of the blog too, when I find time and decide what I want it to look like…