Five Must Sew Leather And Canvas Bags (Tutorials)

DIY LEATHER LUNCH TOTE TUTORIAL
I am absolutely in love with this lunch bag. If you are looking for sewing patterns for that hard to gift person- look no further. This is a lunch bag no one will be embarrassed to carry. The tutorial over at Design Sponge is very easy to follow and contains lots of pictures. Beware once you make one_ everybody is going to want one.

DIY Canvas and Leather Camera Bag (Bicycle Bag?)

DIY CAMERA BAG (MANLY POPPINS BAG) TUTORIAL
This camera bag is one of the coolest I have ever spotted. At Sew Fearless the tutorial shows you how to construct the bag from beginning to end and has lots of pictures. This bag would look so attractive on a bicycle.

Filson JCrew Style Knockoff DIY

DIY REVERSIBLE LEATHER CANVAS TOTE TUTORIAL
Fall is a great time to head to your local farmers markets and shop for fresh produce. Instead of dragging those cheap and flimsy store bags try making a durable and long lasting canvas and leather tote bag. Bags similar to this from Filson, JCrew, or Lands End run upwards of $100.00. Tutorial is at FrugalNomics fabulous website.

DIY Canvas Drawstring Backpack

DIY DRAWSTRING BACKPACK TUTORIAL
With school starting in a few weeks, it it time to start getting your supplies in order. This year why not make your own backpack for you or the kids. This this tutorial will show you how to make a bag from beginning to end. Tutorial is over at trashtocoutur's website.

Diy Carradice Bicycle Bag Sewing Tutorial

DIY CARRADICE CAMPER LONGFLAP TUTORIAL
If you are not into panniers and love the classic design elements of Carradice bags check out the tutorial to make your own longflap bag at Peddling Nowhere. This bag holds a generous 23 liters compared to 24 liters in the Carradice. Make this bag with whatever color canvas you like or stick with black or olive.

Homemade Cat Litter

Have you ever thought about making your own cat litter? Well, if the answer was YES... I have stumbled across a few ideas. First off; we have a darling family of fur-babies, four to be exact. One of our lovelies Mr. Chin developed a urinary tract infection when he was two. When we got the terrible news from his vet we decided some things needed to change around our house. One of the things we changed was our cat litter. Our veterinarian is a huge fan of eco cat-litters. So we purchased a few bags of Yesterdays-News and a box of Swheat. These products were well loved by our babies, but they are very expensive. So after about a year of using Yesterdays-News we decided to try making our own litter. The first thing we tried was just shredded newspaper.....BUT THIS IS VERY MESSY... so we opted to try the wet method. This method is as followed....


NEWSPAPER LITTER
(1) Shred or chop several newspapers "for extra try going to nursing homes, hospitals or contacting your local paper for extras to recycle". 

(2) Put the shredded papers in a bucket or empty pool. Pour water over the shreds until it is workable. If your local paper does not use soy based ink add a small amount of dish detergent to the water mix.

(3) Mix the paper-water mix until you get a pulpie mix. {think homemade recycled paper}

(4) Squeeze the pulp making sure to remove as much water as you can. If you needed soap, squeeze the water out and then rinse the pulp once again. 

(5) OPTIONAL once you squeezed the water add some baking soda to the pulp this will help with odors and we all know every cat won't use a stinky box. {bobs redmill or arm and hammer}

(6) Place the pulp to dry in the sun on a screen or in a box spread out so that it can dry thoroughly. The texture is up to you fine or chunky. Simply just break it into smaller clumps. I recommend the box method if you are going for a fine litter. 

Option 2

Wheat litter:
When  you first buy Swheat or other name brand wheat litter, you are fooled into thinking this litter is special. Well, it's not. All this litter is, well, WHEAT. And you can make it at home for a fraction of a fraction of the cost at home. 

(1) Purchase bulk wheat berries at a grocer that sells bulk wheat, or hit up a grange/pet store and buy animal grade wheat. {any wheat berries will work}

(2) Grind in a blender,food processor or grain grinder until it is a coarse consistency. 

This method also works with corn and oats very effectively. However, for some reason unknown to me the wheat clumps better.

If you know why? Put a comment in the message box.

But if these ideas don't appeal to you, you can still make some snazzy "Tidy Cats" reusable bags.

Reusable Grocery Bags

Using one reusable bag for one year can easily replace 270 to 700 disposable bags.
Families brings home around 1,000 bags every year. Most of these bags end up in landfills. That really adds up, around 100 billion plastic bags are sent to landfill in the US each year, and it can take up to 1,000 years for a bag to decompose. Plastic bags don't evaporate or biodegrade they photo-degrade  and break down into tiny toxic pieces that contaminate soil, water, and harm wildlife. I thought I would share some of my favorite bags that I have run across that do a great job !! Each bag I picked has a five star rating from me, they are strong, durable and I love having them !!!





12" wide x 16" high x 6" deep -100% certified organic heavyweight unbleached cotton canvas -gusseted sides to allow it to fold flat and stand to pack like traditional paper bags -holds up to 40 lbs  machine wash cold / drip dry- grown woven and sewn in the USA (Available at Amazon)

Made from super strong rip-stop nylon (holds 25 lbs) and are only 2 oz -Machine washable, and folds up into a 5"x5" pouch small enough to tuck into your handbag or pocket - It has a big gusset in the bottom so they will sit flat when they are filled (good for eggs and milk)-Handles are the perfect length: you can hold them in your hand, on your forearm, or over your shoulder (Available at Amazon)

Hunger and malnutrition are the No. 1 risk to global health, killing more people than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. In fact, every five seconds, a child dies because he or she is hungry. The FEED bag is a product of the United Nations World Food Program, and was designed to raise awareness and funds for hungry children. Each FEED bag sold will provide a school year of meals for one child in need and give them the hope of an education and a regular meal. Whether you tote your FEED bag to school, work, play, or shopping, remember that your bag helped to feed and educate a child. This bags is great fr someone who wants to do their part environmentally and is a humanitarian .( Available at Amazon)

Washing In Cold Water

Washing Laundry In Cold Water 

I have been a good steward of the earth since I was 10 years old, thanks to my friend Woodsy The Owl. I started a Give A Hoot Don't Pollute club, and joined a club called Earth Savers, but that was then. Now as a grown up, I have noticed a few inconsistencies from my childhood earth education, first off I now wash my own clothes, and I run the hot water more than I need too. This needed to stop, so for the past month I have been able to cut down the hot water use tremendously. The loads appear to be just as clean as the hot water loads, and "gasp" the clothes even look brighter. 

Some pointers, start the water and add then add the soap. Do this as the water in running, so the soap will dissolve with the running water. Pointer 2:  Use less soap, it is not necessary to use twice as much. Those pointers you might already know, but I thought I would point them out again. I have noticed a difference, not a huge one, but still a difference in my natural gas bill. I lowered my water heater from 145 to 120 and that will save allegedly 162 pounds of carbon dioxide gases from leaching into the environment. And running cold water instead of hot, will save another 500 lbs of co2 gas from being used, plus cold water uses 75% less energy to produce. Well  I hope you will join me in my efforts to consume less.

Safe And Natural House Cleaning

For windows, I prefer to use club soda in a spray bottle and wipe with newspapers for a lint a streak free shine.


For furniture, I use a mixture of 1/4 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup olive oil. The lemon juice is a great cleaner and the oil will moisturize the wood. If you don't finish all the polish refrigerate so it does not spoil as fruit juice often do.


For a great anti bacterial cleaner use 15 drops of tea tree oil to 4 cups water, mix in a spray bottle.

Floor Cleaner 1:  Mix 1 cup non-chlorine bleach to 5 quarts hot water. It is a great anti bacterial floor cleaner especially if you have pets.

Floor Cleaner 2: Mix 1/2 cup vinegar to one gallon hot water and  if you don't care for the smell of vinegar you can add some essential oils.

Lemons are great for freshening the house as well as for  disinfecting. They also offer a great non toxic and affordable option for your families cleaning routine.

Baking soda is a fabulous at cleaning and scouring tubs and sinks.