Sewing: A Clothespin Bag

This week I installed my long-overdue retractable clothesline in our garage. I had bought this clothes line back in 2007, and then we moved here, where my handyman couldn't find time to install it where I needed it. So, after a summer of 100F and hotter days, where my garage could have been happily drying my clothes for free, I, in  a fit of rage, installed it myself. Beautiful! My clothes were so happy!!! But, I longed for a bag to hold my clothespins. 

I found this cool tutorial/pattern here.

I used a red canvas left over from hemming a friend's curtains a couple years ago. Nothing better than free fabric!

I wanted to put an applique on it, so I chose these from my scrap bin. On appliqued items that likely won't be washed much, I don't bother with a fusible web. I just glue them down with a glue stick.  For the binding, I used this woven hem tape my sister had given me a while back.

I cut my fabric to fit a smaller child-sized clothes hanger. I've used the clothespins bags made with adult hangers and they're a bit unwieldy if you have more than one line of clothing...they get caught on stuff.
So, this fabric is 31-ish long and a hanger wide, no matter what size hanger you're using.

Here is where I traced the angle of the hanger. The fabric is folded in quarters here, and I just cut off the wedge from the top.

And the template I printed out from the tutorial. Here the fabric is folded in half, vertically, and the template is on the fold. The template makes the opening for the hanger and the front pocket opening thing.

Around this time, Aldous wandered downstairs from a ridiculously short nap.

I cut out the space from the template and drew it on my fabric with my sharpie, then cut it out.

I then opened it up, and folded it in half horizontally. This fabric doesn't contrast well, but if you click on the pic and enlarge it, you can see the opening well enough.

Then, I cut out the shapes I wanted to applique on. Nothing has been ironed at this point, obviously.

Here's a rough sketch of how I want the applique to go.

So, then, Aldous finds a stretchy head band to model.

I sewed on my binding, ironed it all, then appliqued the stuff on. After that, I serged up the sides and tops, pressed again, inserted the hanger,  and VIOLA! All done. You can tell this action shot is in the garage because of the camping gear in the background, ha ha!

This was super easy to make, even though my boys were awake when I sewed it! Amazing, the power of the Little Einsteins. Now, I need more clothespins before Friday. I didn't have quite enough on Friday, but the clothes dried quickly enough for me to take some down for the next load to go up. I'll be ready!