Something Up My Sleeve

Well, not technically up my sleeve yet because it’s still 100 degrees every afternoon and wearing long enough sleeves of that would be absolutely insane.

This idea came about when I was preparing for my Paris trip and trying to come up with a way to carry my wallet contents without actually having to deal with a wallet in such a tourist area. Because everyone knows pickpockets gather in tourist areas. Which is why I wear pants with buttoning pockets to Universal. Well, that and so I don’t lose my phone on a roller-coaster.

Anyway, back to the wallet. I didn’t actually get it finished in time for Paris because I got stuck on the closure. I had originally planned for snaps so it could be reversible. That didn’t work out so well because I kind of forgot how to put the snaps in, plus snapping it seemed like it might be a little difficult to put on one-handed.

I finally went with buttons and loops. Much easier to put on. I just made a long bias strip out of the remaining piece of the top fabric and cut 4 – 1-and-a-half-inch strips.

I made an opening with a zipper to keep everything safe inside. I took the zipper pull off and sewed the edge to each side first. Then I put the zipper pull back. Pretty easy to put it together this way.

The fabrics I used for the outside and the lining are the same pattern in two different color ways. Both are from Anthology Fabrics from a couple of years ago.

Outside:

Inside:

I like how this came together, but I think I am also going to make another one. Just to have a couple of options, especially so I can wash one and have another on hand. I think I will do the second one on the bias and just make it slip over my hand rather than using a closure. If it works out, I may just write that pattern up and share it.

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers

We’ve all seen that one cart that seems to have lost its herd. Worse yet are those times when the whole herd seems to have lost its way back to the pen.

The problem isn’t even limited to those giant megastores with miles long parking lots, either. Be it a tiny craft store, local grocer, or the ever-present town megamart, those meandering carts will find their way into the parking spaces.

Placing the cart stalls closer together may seem the most obvious, easy solution, but the length of the walk from the car to the cart return doesn’t matter. Inevitably there will be that one person who parks next to the return stall and leaves the cart in the space on the opposite side of the car.

There is only one real solution to the problem: self-returning carts. If all the shops would install a “New New York” (you’ve all seen Futurama, right?) style interwoven system of tubes below the parking lot, the carts would just have to be placed into holes in the ground and it would take care of the rest.

Then again, giant gaping holes might be a glaring safety hazard ripe for lawsuits. And of course there would be that one jerk who pushes the cart right to the edge of the hole and leaves it.

Maybe the carts need to fly instead…

What slight daily annoyances would you want changed? Anyone have a better idea for how to take care of the rogue shopping carts?