Back to School is Almost Here!

Can you believe the beginning of school is right around the corner?!  Luckily, we don't start back until the end of August but we know some of you will be gearing up for that first day of school in a couple of weeks.  My oldest will beginning kindergarten this year!  While I can't believe that she is old enough to go to school, I am super excited for her to start her new adventure.  I know she will love it and enjoy almost every minute of it.  Being that it's our first official year of school, we headed to the store this week to buy all of her school supplies.  It was really fun helping her pick out all of her notebooks and fun looking pencils.  Of course, there are a few things we still have left to buy but we have a few more weeks to fit that in.

How are you and your family doing with all of the back to school madness?  Do you have everything done and shopped for?  School clothes all ready?  Or what about that back to school gift for their teacher?  While we can't go shopping for your kiddos, we can help ease the burden of last minute gifts for their teachers.  They work so hard year round for our kids that a little gift goes along way.  We have all kinds of things in the shop for your teachers.  Handmade zipper bags or even custom made pencil bags are a hit!

 Some teachers have sinks in their classrooms so why not a few hanging towels?

Or a super cute apron for your favorite art teacher!

We even have fun baby items for those expecting teacher mommies to be!

Whatever the occasion may be for your new/favorite teacher, always be sure to get them something useful that they can use over and over and over again (and be sure to buy it from us....hahah....j/k...but seriously....we do ship).

Thank you all for supporting our little shop.  We love watching it grow and we love more than anything, being able to fill a need for others.
~Shellie

P.S. And as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram @thegaragingmavens or Facbook.com/thegaragingmavens for the most up to date selection and pricing!  We love to do custom orders as well so send us a message!

Zipper or No Zipper

So I have a TON of zippers! I'm not sure where all of them came from but somehow they all made their way to my house.  I have sewn a zipper into a costume a few years ago but let's just say it didn't go that well.  So in prepping for the shop I thought that my first sewing project should be cute zipper bags! Right! 

So fun and easy! 

Wrong! Oh. My. Gosh! I swear they hated me! I even did a practice bag and it turned out great, but the ones to follow all laughed in my face.

I did three different sizes and planned to make them all in a triangular shape. I carefully picked out fabric and the different colored zippers to match.  This part is always so fun to me!  Plus I am a fabric hoarder so I didn't even have to buy any fabric!  

 I used this tutorial from Noodle Head to help me out. I even learned what a zipper foot looks like and how to use it. The one thing that the tutorial doesn't tell you is don't get too close to the zipper when sewing. When you finish the bag and do the finishing stitch around the top you quickly learn that if your original stitch is too close to the zipper it's really hard to sew it in such a way that the fabric won't get caught in the zipper.  Oopsies.  I can't even tell you how many times I had to rip a seen out and start over (or how many times a bag was flung across the room).  Or I forgot to sew in a label or I finished a bag and realized one of the teeth on the zipper broke so now I can't sell it! Ahh!

However, after all was said and done they turned out pretty cute...and flat because in the midst of frustration I forgot to make the bottoms square.  The medium and large bags have pockets inside which I am quite happy with.  I am sad to say that I officially broke up with zippers and have refused to look at them since.