DIY/Craft

DIY Suitcase Laundry Bag

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.
All opinions are mine alone. #MembersMarkDetergent #CollectiveBias

Create this personalized Suitcase Laundry Bag to take on your next trip. Then wash your dirty clothes in Member’s Mark® Ultimate Clean Fresh Clean Detergent when you return home.

Member’s Mark® Ultimate Fresh Clean Detergent is promoted in the Instant Savings Booklet ($2.00 off) between 12/2717 and 1/28/18.

We love to travel. While most of our travels involve camping, we enjoy staying in hotels or renting a condo. That requires us to live out of a suitcase. I do not mind suitcase life, except for dealing with dirty laundry. It seems as if either we have a pile of dirty clothes outside our suitcase or the kids will mix their soiled clothing in with their clean clothes. This creates stress when packing up to go home or unpacking once we return home. I have come up with a solution for this problem. It is a Personalized DIY Suitcase Laundry Bag. We take them on each trip and then bring them home full of dirty clothes to be washed.

These sewn laundry bags were designed to fold inside a suitcase. Fill it this travel wash bag with dirty laundry throughout your trip and then simply carry it home. The bags themselves can be washed, even with laundry in them. It’s laundry to go!

Suitcase Laundry Bag Tutorial

Supplies

7/8 yard of cotton fabric (44/46 inch wide fabric) for each bag.
2 yards of ribbon to match
Embroidery machine with thread to match
Sewing machine

Directions

Wash your fabric with Member’s Mark Ultimate Fresh Clean Detergent.
Dry and press the fabric.
Cut your fabric to one large 44” x 31” piece. If you started with just 7/8 of a yard, you do not have to cut it at all.

Embroider a personalized message on the top right or left half of each bag. It could say something like Eric’s Dirty Laundry or just Dirty Laundry.

Serge along the top edge of the bag. No need to serge the selvage edge sides.

Fold the bag with right sides together and serge the bottom edge closed.

Reinforce the bottom seam with a straight stitch.

Stitch the side seam together leaving a one inch opening about an inch down from the top edge. This will be the opening to thread the drawstring through.
Lay the seam around the drawstring hole flat and stitch it in place.

Make the drawstring casing by turning down one inch of the top seam and stitch.

Thread the ribbon drawstring through the bag and tie off the end.

Keep Clean and Dirty Clothes Separate

The personalized suitcase laundry bag is complete. Fold it in half (for standard carry-on) and pack flat in the suitcase.

Keep your dirty laundry separate from your clean clothes with this travel laundry bag.

Once you get home, carry your filled bags to your laundry room to be washed. While you could just wash your garments in these bags, I do recommend taking your clothing out and separating darks from lights before doing laundry.

I like to use Member’s Mark Ultimate Clean Fresh Clean Detergent because it is a great value and it removes stains the first time! The formulas in Member’s Mark laundry detergent have recently been upgraded for even more stain fighting and whitening/brightening power. Look for the new packaging for all Member’s Mark detergents. Get them in the laundry aisle at Sam’s Club.

How do you deal with dirty laundry while traveling? Create a laundry bag for each of your travelers and then clean the dirty laundry with Member’s Mark Ultimate Clean Fresh Clean Detergent.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Jars

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.
All opinions are mine alone. #DonVictorHoney #HoneyForHolidays #CollectiveBias

Does your family or office host an annual Christmas Party with an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest? Reward the winners with honey jars dressed in Ugly Christmas Sweaters.

Each year our family hosts a White Elephant Christmas Party. Attendees spend all year trying to find the funniest gift to wrap. We like to dress up in Ugly Christmas Sweaters, but not all guest do.

This year we are encouraging our guests to dress by offering prizes. I created these Ugly Christmas Sweater Jars to give out. This year I am wearing my husband’s Christmas sweater along with some matching leggings that I recently got.

Last week I was at the store and saw these neat jars of honey on the shelf. Their round shape brought up nostalgic feelings. My mom used to keep buttons and other sewing notions in globe food jars like this. The shape of these jars reminds me of Christmas ornaments, so I thought it would be fun to decorate them as holiday gifts.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Jars

On my second jar, I created a cardigan by adding a V of felt to the front of the sock. I trimmed the the V with a pipe cleaner. Then I added pompoms, stickers, and a bow. Isn’t it cute?

I’ve done two jars so far, but I will be making more so each guest that shows up in an Ugly Christmas outfit gets one.

I think our guest will really love these prizes because they are made with jars of Don Victor® Honey. These affordable jars are an inexpensive “gourmet” gift to give out during the holidays. Don Victor® Honey is raw, filtered honey, not heated or processed in any other way.

My favorite thing about the product is the honeycomb inside that can be eaten. I love to cut off a small piece of the honeycomb and spread it on a hot piece of toast fresh out of the toaster. The heat softens up the honeycomb.

I will be opening a jar and serving it at our party with brie and crackers. This honey pairs well with any variety of cheese.

Find Don Victor® Honey in the Hispanic Food Aisle of your local Walmart.
How will you decorate your jars of honey or other globe shaped jars?

Yield: 1 per jar

Ugly Christmas Sweaters for Jars

Create a fun and unique gift by making Ugly Christmas Sweaters for food jars.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Difficulty easy

Estimated Cost $5

Materials

Globe Jars
Stretchy socks in Christmas colors
Christmas embellishments

Tools

Low Temp Hot Glue Gun & sticks
Scissors

Instructions

Cut off a small section of a sock to fit over your jar of honey. Mine was approximately 3” long.

Stretch the sock over the jar.

Hot glue the embellishments onto the sock to recreate the ugly sweater design.

Notes

This makes a perfect hostess gift or prize for an Ugly Christmas Sweater contest.

I'd love to see your creation. Please share it on this pin on Pinterest.

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

This Personalized Dog Bandana post is sponsored by True Chews® Dog Treats and the BlogPaws® Pet Influencer Network™.
I am being compensated to help share information about the True Chews line of all-natural dog treats,
but Diana Rambles only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers.
All statements made reflect my true opinion of the product. True Chews is not responsible for the content of this article.

Make a personalized dog bandana for your BFF: best fur friend.

We have a Cocker Spaniel named Cooper, whom we adopted him from the Humane Society.

He’s my buddy and a special member of our family. to reflect the special bond that we have, I created this cute personalized dog bandana for Cooper.

My Dog Inspires Me

Cooper has been an inspiration to me. He has not done anything heroic or amazing, but he has changed me by just being a dog.

You see, I used to be out of shape. I was not happy with my health.

Aches and pains were constant and I was not comfortable with the way my clothes fit. I have always known what I need to do about that, but I was full of excuses.

Well, do you know what having a dog that needs to walk every day does? It motivates you to get out and walk.

I have always known that exercise is important, but I did the minimum.

Especially in the winter. I am not a fan of cold weather, so I would not get out and walk.

Cooper loves going on walks. He does not care if it is pouring rain, if there is a foot of snow on the ground, or if it is 20 below zero. He wants to go on a walk.

The only time I have experienced him not wanting to walk was the one rare occasion that it was 40 below zero outside. Snow piled up to where we could not get out to our backyard. I took Cooper out front and the cold hurt is paws. He did his business then tugged me back to the house as fast as possible.

Daily walk over several years became a habit. I started feeling better and went further and further.

I now walk over 10,000 steps every single day. No days off, not even in winter.

Cooper is not able to do all those steps with me, but he still gets a 20-30 minute walk each day. He sure loves his walks!

Cooper loves to explore parks. The other day we spent a lovely afternoon in the park together.

Since he has been such a great dog, I created a personalized dog bandana for him. I also made him a DIY Dog Snuggle Blanket.

This double-sided bandana has embroidery on each side for a personal touch. The bandana slips on over Cooper’s collar.

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

The only thing that you might need to purchase for this bandana is fabric if you do not have any prints you want to use on hand.

One fat quarter works for the small bandana if you want the same print for both sides. Otherwise, you need two fat quarters or small pieces of fabric.

I picked two prints from my stash and made a medium size bandana for Cooper.

Please note: This is NOT a printable pattern. It is just a pattern guide to show you what size to cut.

See the bottom of the post for the directions.

Treat Them Well

Since the days are getting shorter, I went to the store to get some supplies for walking after dark.

In addition to a reflective vest, motion activated lights, a flashlight dog bag dispenser, and a reflective leash, I picked up some True Chews® Dog Treats for Cooper.

These wholesome treats are 100% natural. I got Chicken Pot Pie and Premium Jerky Cuts, both of which contain USA-Sourced Chicken. All True Chew Products are Made in the USA.
True Chews Dog Treats are made with natural ingredients. There are no artificial flavors, preservatives, or meat by-products.

Just 100% natural ingredients with premium cuts of meat that are always listed first on the ingredients list. Premium ingredients show how much you care.
Cooper loves them and your dog will too! Find True Chews at a local pet specialty store near you or online.

I love how Cooper’s new personalized dog bandana turned out, and I am proud of how I look and feel.

Who will you be making a bandana for?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of True Chews. The opinions and text are all mine.

Yield: 1

DIY Personalized Dog Bandana

Create a personalized bandana that fits over a collar for your dog.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Materials

fabric - 2 fat quarters work
stabilizer

Tools

sewing machine
optional: embroidery machine

Instructions

Prewash and iron the fabric.

Cut out rectangles of fabric to match the outside measurements of the bandana. I marked the diagonal cutting lines for embroidery placement.

Add stabilizer and hoop the fabric.

Embroider your design on each side of the bandana.

Iron the fabric again.

Finish cutting out the bandana pieces.

Put right sides of the fabrics together and stitch a ¼” seam across the top.

Open up the seam and iron it flat.

Stitch down ½” along each side and then press.

Lay right sides together and sew along each diagonal.

Turn the bandana right sides out and press.

Top stitch along each diagonal and across the top.

Stitch a line parallel to the top right above where the diagonals start.

Slide the personalized dog bandana over the dog collar. Isn't that cute?

Notes

See the pattern guide image further up in the post for sizes.

Please share your create photo on this pin on Pinterest.

DIY Instagram Dog Bed

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and The J.M. Smucker Company, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #miloskitchen http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Our dog, Cooper, is a special member of the family. He is a buff colored Cocker Spaniel. We adopted him from the humane society back in 2009. He is very sweet and always happy.

Cooper loves to eat. He will eat just about anything. I’ve had put a wire fence around my garden to keep him from eating the produce. He is clever and won’t eat anything until it’s ripe. His favorite is tomatoes. I would not label him as hunger aggressive, but if you leave anything close to the edge of the table he will grab it. We are very careful what we feed him and try to keep him from eating our food. Since Cooper likes human food, I was excited to find Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats that look like real food. From meatballs to jerky, they make all sorts of treats that your dog will love.

These home-style dog snack not only look like jerky, sausage slices, and meatballs but they are actually 100% real jerky, sausage slices, and meatballs. Milo’s home-style dog treats are free of artificial flavors or colors and are made in the USA from domestically sourced ingredients. I picked up Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats at Meijer. Take advantage of this mPerks offer of 30% off Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats now through 10/7 (while supplies last) before you head into Meijer today!

Cooper’s old dog bed has worn out. Since he is so adorable and is great about being photographed, I decided to put him on Instagram. An Instagram dog bed that is! I created this classic Instagram logo cover to go over a foam cushion which makes up the dog bed.

DIY Instagram Dog Bed

Supplies

22″ x 22″ x 2″ foam cushion
3/4 yard of beige or tan fleece
22″ x 25″ scrap or 5/8 yard of brown fleece or felt
19″ x 12″ scrap or 3/8 yard of black fleece or felt
scraps of red, yellow, green and blue fleece or felt
measuring tape
scissors
sewing machine with black thread

Directions

Cut the fabric to get the following:

25″ x 25″ square of beige/tan
(2) 25″ x 16″ of beige/tan
25″ x 8.5″ strip of brown
13.5″ circle of brown
12.5″ circle of black
6″ x 6″ square of black
6.25″ x 2″ strip of black
(4) 9″ x 1.5″ strips of each color

Sew the top of the cover first.
Place the brown strip across the top of the beige square and zigzag stitch into place.
Center the black circle on top of the brown circle to create the lens and zigzag in place.Center the lens on the cover with the top edge touching the brown strip and zigzag in place.
Place the black square on the right side of the brown strip and zigzag in place.Lay the colored strips out on the left side of the brown strip and zigzag into place.
Place the black strip across the bottom of the colors and zigzag into place.

The top of the cover is complete.
Lay the cover out with the design up and lay the beige strips on top, matching the side edges and overlapping the edges in the middle.
Straight stitch around the edge to attach the layers. I used a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Turn the cover inside out.
Insert the foam cushion to complete the dog bed.

Look how cute the Instagram logo turned out. My daughter wants me to make a smaller one for a throw pillow in her room. It would be very easy to scale the directions down for a smaller cover.

Treat Your Dog Well!

Cooper does a great job of posing for photos, so we treated him with Duck Jerky and Steak Grillers from Milo’s Kitchen home-style dog treats. The savory Duck Jerky is slow-cooked to bring out the natural flavors. The Steak Grillers are tender strips of real Angus. Nothing says “I love you” more than something made with love and care, which is this Instagram Dog Bed and dog snacks for Cooper.

Who is your special member of the family? Do you post pictures of them on Instagram?

DIY Waterproof Back Seat Covers

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser.
All opinions are mine alone. #RoadTripOil #CollectiveBias

Protect your backseat from all the wet and dirt that a road trip has to throw at it this summer with these DIY Seat Covers.

It’s summer, which means road trip time. You probably know that we love to camp, which means lots of weekends away with the kids and dog. We have two long Midwest road trips planned this summer. Last month we camped along the Upper Mississippi River and we are leaving next week to circle Lake Michigan. Camping is an outdoor lifestyle, so we have to deal with rain and dirt and everything that results from them. I decided to make waterproof removable seat covers to protect the leather seats in our car.

DIY Waterproof Seat Covers Sewing Tutorial

Supplies

measuring tape
beach towels
fleece fabric
vinyl table cover
grosgrain ribbon
double fold bias tape
scissors
serger and sewing machine

Directions

Measure the seat. I just laid the beach towel I picked for this project across the seat and saw that it was wide enough, so I used that as my guide.
Prewash the towels and fleece.
Pin the right sides of the towels together along one long edge.
Stitch the towels together along that line.
Using a large table or the floor, lay out the table cover with the plastic side down.
Lay the fleece out on top of the table cover.
Lay the towels on top of the fleece with the right side facing up.
Pin the layers together.
Cut the fleece and vinyl to match the size of your towel.

Serge the outside edges of your fabric sandwich, making sure to catch all layers.
Lay the cover over the backseat.
Mark the placement of the ribbons to tie around the headrests.
Cut two pieces of ribbon for each headrest and stitch them in place along the top of the cover. I cut each ribbon about 15″ long.
Tie the seat cover in place around the headrests and mark holes for the seat belts.
If you have a middle shoulder belt you need to make a verticle slit for it to go through that reaches the hole where the seat belts clip in. I serged the edges of my slit.
Cut the holes for the seat belts.
Finish off the edges of the seat belt holes with double bias tape.
Create a closure for the middle shoulder belt slit by sewing 12″ strips of ribbon on each side to tie together. I added 4 ties.
Put in seat cover in place.
The cover is machine washable but please line dry.

I love how the seat covers turned out. I made this with the same tie-dye beach towels that I used for the front seat cover tutorial. The bright colors really pop against the black interior.

Dog Seat Covers

These seat covers will protect the seats from wet bathing suits or dirty pets. Perfect for a day at the pool, beach, or a long road trip.

While you are preparing for your trip make sure your routine maintenance is up to date. Check the age and wear of your tires, wiper blades, and engine belts. Check the levels of all the engine fluids. Get your oil changed. Now through August 9th, Pennzoil® High Mileage Vehicle® Oil Changes are on Rollback $4 off ($39.88 to $35.88) at Walmart (ACC) Automotive Care Center stores. Walmart makes it easy to get your car maintenance while you shop for food and supplies for your summer road trip.

We took both our cars into the Walmart ACC to get their oil changed. Since our older vehicle has over 75,000 miles, we opted for the High Mileage Vehicle which helps clean out the sludge lesser oils leave behind, while helping to reduce leaks and oil consumption in worn or higher mileage engines. Our newer vehicle got a Pennzoil Platinum®: Full Synthetic Motor Oil with PurePlus™™ Technology Oil Change.

Let the experts at Walmart’s Automotive Care Center take care of your vehicle while you take care of your shopping list. Click here to find our more about the oil change roll back and use the store finder to locate an Automotive Care Center near you.
Are you taking a road trip this summer? Where are you going?