Busy Bag Swap Day 4: (MSM Clothesline)

Today Jennifer is up with MSM's Clothesline.  (When we saw this bag we just knew we had to include it in our swap. She did a great job with this and I'm so thankful for all the articles of clothing that she included! I know it was a LOT of cutting!) Charlie and I first met Jennifer and her husband, Scott, when they were in a pre-marital class called Countdown.  Our friends, Rusty and Jenn, who have taught this class for many engaged couples over the years, asked Charlie and I  to be the "newlywed mentor couple" for this class.  (We wished we'd had this type of preparation going into marriage.  If you're a newly engaged couple in College Station, you've got to take this class!  They teach it every semester.)  Jennifer and (especially Scott) share our passion for game nights.  I'm pretty sure they owe us a rematch from a fierce, latenight competion that ended badly for the Apel's.



I was so excited when Kirby put together a Busy Bag Swap and I was able to participate! My name is Jennifer and I have a two year old daughter, Hannah, and a six month old little boy, Nathan. We share a little bit of our journey over at our blog, Hubley Happenings.

How do you spend your free time? I’m a stay-at-home mom, so when I’m not with my babies (during nap-time) I enjoy reading and sewing.

When you were a child, what was one of your favorite ways to spend your day? I loved playing outside with my cousins. We would build forts and ride bikes all day!

Fondest memory with your mom as a child?  I remember my mom reading to me as a child. I loved listening to her read Happy Birthday Moon and Runaway Bunny at bedtime.

What does special time with your children look like? Special time is when we get to do things as a family. We love walks in the evenings when Daddy gets home and storytime at night.

Favorite outdoor activity with your kids?Swinging on the back porch and swimming!

Favorite blog for children's activities/crafts/parenting? I Can Teach My Child and Homemade by Jill

A favorite tradition that you want to pass down with your children? Celebrating Advent!

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Now on to the busy bag! I was blessed to be assigned the Clothesline Busy Bag that MoneySavingMom created. So although there was not much variation….there was a lot of cutting!



For 26 bags, I started out by cutting 416 pieces of felt clothing (16 for each bag). Since I was cutting so many pieces, I used my cutting board and a rotary cutter. This allowed me to cut out four at a time. I used these patterns to create a shirt, shorts, pants, and a dress. I used five different colors of felt: green, purple, orange, red and blue. There were a total of 16 clothing pieces in each bag (four of each kind of clothing). I also included about 3 1/2 feet of clothesline and 18 clothespins in each bag in addition to these instructions from MoneySavingMom.

Here is a breakdown of the materials I used to create 26 bags:

1. About five yards of felt (one yard of each color). This is an estimate because I initially bought way too much fabric! (I purchased the felt at Joann’s using a 40% off coupon for each yard of fabric. It totaled $15)

2. 500 clothespins (5 packs of 100 for $1.88 each at Walmart)

3. 100 ft of clothesline (2 packs of 50 ft for $1.50 each at Walmart)

4. Direction and Variation sheet via MoneySavingMom.

I spent around $27 total (and I had some felt left over).



So how does it work? Well, in it’s simplest form, just tie up the clothesline between two chairs and let your little one go to town hanging them up with the clothespins!

MoneySavingMom also gives two fun variations on her instruction sheet which include an Outdoor Laundromat and Clothing Patterns.

Since Hannah is two, she is not quite able to manipulate the clothespins, so I have to help her out a little. But it has been a great tool in helping her with color recognition and counting! I have her sort all the clothes into different piles of colors and then we count them together as she hangs them up.



She has literally played with this game for hours!!



I hope your little ones enjoy it just as much!

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Go check out Grow for the Busy Bag that Chelsea's featuring today!