DIY Laundry Sorter

Dark, lights, colours, delicates, underwear, that red sweater aunt Marta gave you that sheds on everything. Laundry deserves an organization system too!

I tried to solve my laundry sorting problems by purchasing a laundry sorter. As soon as I got it home I realized it took up too much space, and besides, it looked like I had three burlap sacks hanging out in the corner of my room.
 

 
Finally I came up with a simple solution, I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.


I used my old laundry hamper (he lost his handles sometimes around move number three), a couple of wooden dowels, some large pins and a couple of worn pillow cases.









I picked these pins up at Walmart for pretty cheap. They're actually nail-on furniture glides, so they're very durable.  Push a pin through each side of the hamper where you would like to place a divider.

I left space between my dividers for another small bag of delicates or anything else that needs to be separated from darks and lights.

I bought one dowel and cut it to fit my hamper.
Push a pin into your dowel. The easy way to do this is to make a small indentation in the dowel with the pin then place the pin (head down) on the floor and hammer your dowel onto it.






Cut square holes on the inside of your pillow cases near the top. One hole should be near the seam and the other should be far enough away to cover your dowel. It's best to cut one hole and then size up your hamper before you cut the other hole - you'll want to have enough to fold over the sides of your hamper.


Once you've made the second hole you can put the dowel through the pillowcase and push the pins into each side.

Pull the rest of the pillow case over the sides of your hamper.

Repeat for the other pillowcase.

I like to secure my pillowcases with a binder clip just to keep everything neat and tidy.

 The pillow cases can easily be removed by slipping them off from one side

(makes a great laundry bag).

There you go! 

Darks on the right and lights on the left and space in the middle for delicates.

DIY Rag Rug

This is a great way to upcycle your old bedsheets. 

This is a pretty easy project. All you need are some old bed sheets and a needle and thread.

Begin by cutting your old bed sheets into 2 inch strips.  If I had my time back I would have used three colours so that the braided pattern would be more obvious. Maybe next time.

When you've cut all your sheets into strips you should have a pretty big pile. Now it's time to start braiding. 

Pin three of your strips together and anchor them to your sewing machine...or perhaps something facing your television. As you braid be sure to keep your material flat, you don't want it twisting around.

Of course, you'll want to add more strips as you go.

This part is a little bit complicated to explain but once you've done it, it's really quite simple. 

When you come to the end of a strip, make a slit in the old strip and the new strip.

Feed your new piece of material (navy) up through the first strip (white).

Next, pull the end of the new strip through the slip in the top.

When you pull them tight you should have something like this.

Continue braiding, adding strips as you go.
Eventually you'll have a long, long braid. 
It's best to roll this into a ball.
 

Now you're reading to start sewing!
I sewed mine by hand and it was rather time consuming. Next time I'll be using the machine. Other bloggers have suggested using a zigzag stitch with a medium stitch length.



 


 
Here are my stitches on the back of the rug. Sewing by hand does ensure that there are no stitches seen on the front of the rug.


 


If you want a round rug you can begin by forming a small circle and adding to it. If you prefer an oval rug it's best to lay a long line of braid and go around it (clockwise is best).
Keep sewing around keeping your rug on a flat surface to keep it from forming an odd shape.

 

 After that you just repeat! 

I pinned before sewing just to keep everything together.

 


When you've used up all of your braided material you can just sew the ends together, tuck them into your braided rug. 

The finished product!