Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Traveling Toiletries


I've been busy.  And tired.  Mostly tired.  Most days I wonder if there will ever come a time when I won't be tired.  I'm tired from the time I'm woken up every morning, until about 9:00 p.m.  From around 9:00 - midnight, I have tons of energy and am wide awake.  (Truthfully, my energy could easily go until about 2:00 a.m., but I force myself to go to bed by midnight most nights) That's how I've always been.  I'm a night owl.  And I pay for it every day.  The good thing about having energy at night is that everyone is sleeping and I can get stuff done.  Stuff that I absolutely cannot get done during the day.  Like crafting.

I'm leaving for a very long trip next week.  Like, six weeks long.  To summarize, my brother-in-law is getting married and we are all in the wedding.  In Ohio.  So, instead of going back and forth for the various festivities, with the boys in tow, we decided it would be better to just go and stay the whole time.   We will also be visiting family in Connecticut while we are there.  (I realize Connecticut and Ohio are no where near each other, but they are closer than Connecticut and Colorado, so....)  And, as if I weren't gone long enough, Eric and I will be going to Mexico for a week after the wedding.  We don't often get the opportunity to go anywhere without the kids, so we are taking advantage of us being in the same state as grandparents.

If you hadn't heard, I'm kind of a control freak.  So the thought of being away from my own space for that long, with a three year old and nine month old, makes me neurotic a little uneasy.  So, I'm coping the best way I know how.  By organizing and preparing.  And of course crafting things to help keep me organized and prepared!  Thank goodness we are driving.  There is NO WAY I could take everything we need for 6 weeks (6 weeks in various places, with varying weather) if I were limited to one checked bag and one carry on per person.  I'm going to do my best to limit what we bring though.  And keep things organized.  Including my toiletries.  It all started with this bag:
I got it on clearance for $6 at Michael's.  It's a craft bag, but when I saw it, I saw a toiletry bag.  Which was, of course, followed by going on Pinterest and finding tutorials for cosmetic bags to put in it.  (Bags inside bags.  I know....I can't help it.)

I won't give you a tutorial for every one of these, just the links I used and any little tips I have.  
 
This was the first one I did.  It's cute, but be warned, it's very small.  I'll probably put my random medicine and stuff in here.  I made three different sizes of these, and I used two different tutorials to help me.  Here and here.  It's not that complicated, but I thought neither of the tutorials seemed to explain it in a way that was abundantly clear to me.  I was able to figure it out by reading both of them.  
  
This is the medium sized version
And the large version.  

I didn't use vinyl on the insides.  It looked like a pain to sew in, and I figure if it gets dirty, I'll just wash it.  Also, in that first tutorial, she says to just pinch the corners, pin and sew them to get the box shape.  That's fine with the small one, but if you don't measure like she explains in the second tutorial, on the bigger bags, you'll end up with a wonky bag.  I almost threw this one away it was so bad, then I cut all of the corners and started again.  It's very tall, but at least I didn't have to throw it away. 

I made this gathered clutch using this tutorial.  I thought the tutorial was very clear and easy to follow.  It's a little smaller than the directions say, because that was the only size zipper I had on hand.  I wish it were a little bigger, actually.  But it does fit all of my make up in it. 
This makeup brush holder is my favorite thing I made!  It was probably one of the easier ones too!  I got the tutorial here, and I actually used the same fabric as her, but I swear I didn't realize it was the same until I started to sew it!
All rolled up!
I love this little detail at the bottom.  I've never used those decorative stitches on my machine before this project, and now I want to use it on everything!

The last thing I made was this jewelry roll up.  I didn't really use a tutorial on this one.  I just used what I already learned from making the other cases. 
Three zippers, with the tie on top.  I was thinking I could also use that tie on top to tie it to a doorknob or towel rack to hang up.
It's kind of hard to see, but I sewed the fabric to divide it into smaller sections to put smaller jewelry in, so it wouldn't tangle. 

Full disclosure, I was trying to make this all green fabric but I didn't have enough, so I used what I had.  It's not all bad, but I wish I would have been able to do only green. 

Also, I don't have a zipper foot, like all of the tutorials suggest you use.  I thought it was easy enough to just use the zipper as a guide, so don't think you have to go out and buy one (if you have an ancient machine like I do).  It's totally doable with a regular foot.

This was a fun project that only took about two night owl sessions for everything and will hopefully keep me from constantly digging around to find what I need on my long trip!


I may or may not have time to write while I'm away, but I'll be sure to let you all know how everything goes!

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