Car Organizers

I pride myself on not being a messy person. Like, I probably should have sought some professional help with this at some point in my past because I do think about organizing and rearranging things more than I probably should. But, it doesn’t keep me up at night and it doesn’t usually stop me from being productive (unless I have one of those rare ‘I must empty every cabinet in the kitchen to purge and rearrange’ moments), so I just embrace it.

This is the back of my van. Well, was the back of my van. Not too bad, right? Well, it drove me crazy. I felt like there was just so much stuff in the van with the big pink milk crate full of the essentials (extra clothes, towels, blanket, wipes…just stuff you need with two young kids). So, I wanted to do something about it.

I had previously made these pretty striped things to put on the seats when my kids were rear-facing in their carseats so their feet wouldn’t get the actual seats in my car covered in grossness. Since they’re now facing the front of the van, I no longer need them. So, I decided not to let them go to waste and added mesh pockets to them.

My mom was visiting when I did this and she helped me out by ripping the edging off of both of these so I could hide the edges of the mesh under them along the edges. I hate using my seam ripper, so I’m glad she was here to help me with it.

Since the third row of my van is almost never up and in use, I attached these seat organizers to the back of my second row seats. Voila! I was able to get rid of that pink milk crate and still have the things I need with us. They’re not the easiest to get to (you can’t reach them unless you get into the back of the van), but since the stuff in there is just for ‘in case of,’ it’s fine. Much better. The clutter look from before isn’t there anymore.

 

DIY Yoga Mat Bag

So I’ve started taking yoga. It’s now part of my weekend routine and I freaking love it. It started with me wanting to check out a yoga studio near my house that offers free childcare during classes, but when I went to look up class time info, I found out that the studio had closed down Anyway, it ended up with me and two of my girlfriends hitting the studio that one of them already attended.

 

My first ‘not-in-your-living-room-using-a-video’ yoga class was a Hot Flow class and now, that’s all I want to do. Something about sweating profusely during yoga is intoxicating and you become addicted almost immediately. I am not exaggerating when I say that I could literally wring out every article of clothing and my sweat towel after class was over. But it felt fan-freaking-tastic.

Insert the craftaholic’s thought process:

1. Start doing hot yoga.
2. Realize hot yoga creates a good amount of sopping wet…things.
3. Decide I need something to cart these sweaty things back and forth.

Now, the average person would say, “Hey, I’ve got a bag I can use to do this.” Done. That’s it. That’s the end of their thought process. I don’t understand that simplicity, but to each their own. No, when you’re a craftaholic, you spend an hour perusing Pinterest trying to find the *perfect* tutorial for the bag you must have for this new activity . I had to have pinned a dozen different prototypes, but finally narrowed it down to just a few:

Well, obviously, the next step was to take out my sewing machine and hit up my fabric stash so I could get started right away. (And my husband wonders how it is that I can get distracted so easily…pssshh, you really have no idea honey.) Nevermind the fact that there were 4 loads of laundry that were waiting to be done, I had to do this right away (even though I had a good couple of days before my next yoga class). I found a big panel of fabric that was perfect for the outer layer and the straps, but the inner lining was another story. Let me tell you, I did not plan on piecing together and patchworking 2 entire inner panels, but when you have no matching fabric in the large size you need, you make do. I think the inside turned out kinda cool and goes with the rainbow stripes of the exterior. I mean, I did Pin a patchwork style bag for this project inspiration.

Inside patchwork panel with 2 pockets.

I used this tutorial here and modified it just a little to suit my needs. My modifications:

1. I did not use the webbing for straps like the tutorial suggests, but used matching fabric that I made into straps.
2. I added an exterior pocket like this adaptation to the original pattern did with a Kam Snap to close it.
3. I also added an interior pocket that is divided down the center, making it into 2 pockets with Kam Snaps to close them.
4. I thought the top side seams collapsed a ton when I was wearing the bag, so I added a Kam Snap on the seams on either end of the bag to give it a little bi-fold look. It can easily be unsnapped if I need to.

And, voila! I’m done! I’m excited to use it this weekend!