For the past 9 years I've lived in places where I do not have curbside recycling pick-up. Luckily I've always had access to a recycling center of some sort. However many recycling centers/containers are designed for those with curbside pickup. For a long time we've made do with multiple paper bags to hold all the recyclables. It got messy and cluttered. When we used a single trash can we had to sort into bags before walking it to the recycle center.
Long story short I have settled on this solution: wire shelf on casters from Bed, Bath & Beyond (not quite the right size but at 1/3 the cost of perfect-size shelf it was close-enough), and hanging bags from s-hooks. I just had to sew the bags - I planned on using canvas but then I was walking through Ikea and saw the big blue bags and remembered how people (like Africankelli) were re-fashioning them into other bags. So I bought one big blue bag hoping it would be enough for two smaller bags. I grabbed my seam ripper and ripped out the bottom and side seam as well as the handles. I cut the side piece in half, then determined how big my bottom of each bag could be and cut two bottoms from the original bag bottom. I cut the long straps in half for two sets handles plus cut the short straps up to attach d-rings for hanging.
These two bags hold so much more than the one bin that fit on that shelf plus I'm not worried about rogue liquids weakening paper bags. The handles are also much more comfortable than when I carried a very full paper bag. Success for less than $30. The added bonus is that it holds the washcloths and hand towels I keep at the door to wipe muddy, wet Dog paws (and legs and belly and back and tail) and the top functions as a landing strip for mail and keys and such when we walk in the door.
I have a lot of fears. And they keep me from far too much too often. Okay, that sounds a little drastic, and it isn't quite that drastic. In college I used to joke that I had a high sense of self-preservation when I wouldn't jaywalk across the 5 lane road that separated my dorm from the rest of campus, of course by my junior year of crossing this street daily I had no problems crossing half-way in between the two crosswalks or waiting in the median for the other traffic direction to clear.
But I really didn't mean to go all deep with this post. I just took a little dip into one of my sewing fears - invisible zippers (and ruining lovely fabric). I've had intentions of sewing a couple pillow covers for the two extra pillows that didn't really have a home (but would look nice on the office futon if covered). I found the fabric last fall and even measured and cut it out. Pillows. Four seams. Except, being me, I had to make it difficult. I used contrasting fronts and backs and I wanted a zipper so it would be easy to remove the cover for washing. And a regular zipper would look odd along a seam and I didn't want a designated front and back so that meant using an invisible zipper.
I've been wanting to tackle invisible zippers for a while now - except I couldn't find much instruction on how to insert an invisible zipper. Tutorials abound for the regular zipper (despite the fact that every sewing reference book I've seen has instructions and instructions come with many regular zippers). I didn't have any manufacturer's instructions with my purchased invisible zips. Luckily I had one invisible zipper tutorial bookmarked and I did remember reading another set of directions somewhere. Plus I realized that I might not like the pillow covers as originally envisioned but the fabric would make a very cute doll-sized quilt if the pillow covers failed.
So I jumped in... and finished the pillow cases:
(side note: it turns out that I did this project about 3 weeks ago and it just took me that long to clear the bed to be photograph worthy)
