Car storage bags

Those of you who know me in real life, and have driven in my car, know that I tend to use my car as an extra closet. Anything I think I might need at some point in the near or far future, tends to get stored in my car. Also, I am not great at removing things like cups and bags from my car. In high school, my friend Maya once commented that she wasn't worried if we broke down on the highway, since she could eat an entire meal out of my car. This has been a lifelong aggravation to my longsuffering husband.

As you can imagine, with two boys things have only gotten worse. Now the car contains all my stuff, plus books and toys to keep the boys busy, plus Aaron's growing collection of rocks and sticks (a boy after my own heart), plus all the accumulated sand and dirt and crumbs that come with small boys. Add to this the fact that we are planning to fit a third car seat into the back of our station wagon, at least for the winter, and you can understand that we have a problem.

Fortunately, I follow the terribly inspiring Jacquie's blog over at Tallgrass Prarie Studios. She was making a baby gift, and to the quilt she added this car storage bag (scroll down to see the bag). I thought this was just what I needed! Although she used the kidlet wall pocket tutorial, (which is a fantastic), I was feeling lazy. So I did this instead:

This bag is very loosely based on angry chicken 's tote pattern in Bend the Rules Sewing. Its not as pretty: no lining, and the seams are not finished more than they have to be, and it only has one strap. But it gave me a great chance to try out my new pinking shears, which made me happy, and it does contain all the guys and books and markers and cups that were drifting around in the back of my car.


Now I just need to make some of the mesh treasure bags from this (new) book:

to alleviate some of the rock and stick dirt and clutter, and we'll be in business. And, um, I guess I need to take all of my stuff out of the front seat when I'm done with it, too.