Ta-dah! Clothespin holder

I've heard many other new mothers suffer from anxiety over things they have little to no control over. My issues are global warming, toxic plastics (like those containing bisphenol-A and PVC) and other environmental toxins from things like mattress flame-retardants and cleaning products.

On a few occasions when Elliot was really little I had this feeling like the house was caving in on me as I realized that it was not possible to eliminate all potentially deadly factors from my baby's environment in one day. It did not help that I spent every nap reading Healthy Child articles (a website I had found, ironically, in the eco-issue of Elle last year. WARNING: If you are pregnant or a new mother do NOT look at that site until you are absolutely sure your hormones will not cause you do something rash like throw everything in your house into the dumpster. I cannot be held responsible for ensuing mayhem).

I still care alot about these things, but it does help a ton that my hormone levels are pretty much back to normal. You have no idea how serious I am about that. It also helps (really) to tackle things one step at a time. So one thing I did was put up a solar clothes dryer (a.k.a. retractable clothesline) to help cut down on our energy use. I heard somewhere that running a dryer for one cycle costs about $1, and when you use it during the day, you're more likely to be purchasing energy from backup power plants which are older and give off more pollution and carbon dioxide (can anyone confirm this?). So I at least feel like I'm helping with the whole global warming thing a little bit. And now that I've got this handy-dandy clothespin holder, I can stop rummaging around in the ground-cover for dropped clothespins. Man I can't believe I waited so long to make one of these. Night and day we're talking here, people.

Fabric: Michael Miller cotton laminate (you may remember previous projects from other prints), which is waterproof on one side.

Pattern: I just cut out a couple of pieces of fabric and then found a round cup to trace for the hole and corners. The hanger pieces are rectangles which I put snaps on with my snap press.

Finishing: Lime green double fold bias tape, which is about 1/4" wide and can be found at just about any JoAnn's.