Years ago Farmer John asked me to make him an apron to wear while processing chickens. I made him 3. I’m sure he loves me for that.

I chose to use feed sacks for the material for a few reasons. One reason being that I love the idea of repurposing material. Number two, they didn’t need to be fancy aprons – the chickens, nor Farmer John care. Number three: they are super simple to rinse off. And, four, the price was right.

Whenever I use feed sacks I find my biggest dilemma is how to get the slippery material to not slip while sewing. If you can figure that out, then this project will be a cinch.

The aprons require very few materials and basic sewing skills.

Required Items

• 2 feed sacks (same design)
• 2 30″ pieces of webbing
• 1 26″ piece of webbing
• thread & sewing machine
• scissors and/or rotary cutter

Preparing the Feed Sack

Rinse the feed sacks and let dry.

Cut off the bottom edge of one sack. You can discard that piece, you won’t need it. Then, cut up the middle of the back. The sack now opens to one flat piece of fabric to use for your apron.

Creating the Apron Shape

Find the middle of the front of your sack and fold the sack in half. Trim off about an inch from the side. Pin the sack together.

With a pen, make a mark at 7″ in from the side. Make another mark 10″ down from the top. To make the arm hole shape, I made a straight line a few inches long from the top. I also made a straight line a couple inches in from the side. Then free formed a curve, connecting the straight lines. Using a rotary cutter or scissors, cut along the pen line. Since the sack is folded in half, you should be cutting through both sides.

Open the sack and see the lovely apron shape.

Sewing the Top Section

Cut a few small slits along the curved section of the arm holes.

Fold over the arm hole edges 1/4″ – 1/2″.

Fold over the top edge 1/2″, then fold it over again.

Tuck both ends of your neck strap under the folded top edge. Then flip the strap up and pin in place.

Starting at the side of one arm hole, sew around the arm hole, along the top edge, and down around the other arm hole.

Making a Big Pocket

From the second feed sack, cut off the bottom and cut up the middle back just like the first sack.

I don’t have exact measurements on where to cut the sack for the pocket. It varies a bit depending on the design on the sack. But, it will typically be about 1/3 to 1/2 up from the bottom of the sack. I just pick an area that looks pleasing – like not through text or animal faces. Once you find your optimal pocket top, cut 3/4″ above it. You will now have a rectangular piece of fabric.

Fold over 3/4″ along the top edge of your pocket. Straight (or zig zag) stitch along the top edge.

Pin your rectangle pocket piece to the main apron.

Sewing the Bottom Section

Lay the rectangle pocket piece on top of the main apron. They are now acting as one fabric piece.

Fold over the remaining unsewn edges 1/2″, making sure the pocket edges are folded too. Fold the edges over again.

The bottom corners get quite thick due to the number of layers folded. I trim off a bit.

Fold the corners so they come together nicely and pin in place.

Tuck each side tie under the folded side edge. Then flip the side tie out and pin in place.

Starting at the top of a side, sew down the side, along the bottom, and up the other side.

And, Done!

The apron is now ready for all those sloppy chores.

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At my request, Farmer John brought home a truck bed & trailer full of pallets & crates! I had been oogling over all the fabulous ideas crafty people had been creating out of recycled wood. I even made a pinterest board dedicated to pallet projects.

DISASSEMBLING THE PALLETS

CREATIONS

SIGNS
My favorite way to use the pallet wood is painting signs.

POTATO &ONION STORAGE BINS
John built a couple bins to hold potatoes & onions from our garden.

KIDS PLAY HOUSE
The bottom of our play structure is open, so we are going to enclose it to create a play house area. One out of 4 walls is complete so far. It’s not much of a play house, yet. But, the one wall makes a great backdrop for photos.

MORE SIGNAGE
A couple other signs I’ve made are a sign to take with me when I go to chicken swaps & shows, and also garden bed labels. They are actually made from repurposed bender board. But, they could just as easily be made from pallet wood.

Except for the pieces saved for the play house, we have used up nearly all of the wood. One day I would like to get another load of pallets to make more signs & also build an outdoor kitchen.

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To add a little character to our farm, I painted signs using collected pallet wood.

PREPARATION

After collecting the wood, we had to disassemble it, taking out nails & staples. I will admit, that was not my favorite part of the project.

Next was the fun part, though, getting creative & figuring out the types of signs I wanted to make.

Using my computer, I designed the sign text & printed it. I traced right over the printed text, which left a slight mark on the pallet wood. It wasn’t perfect. In some places I had to wing it & hope for the best.

PAINTING THE SIGNS

I painted the signs using DecoArt Patio Paint & Behr Indoor/Outdoor Primer & Paint. Then, each sign got a coat or two of Thompson’s Waterseal. I don’t know how long the signs will last. But, I’ve had many of them outside for almost exactly one year & they still look great.
Update: The signs are going on their second year & look just fine. I should probably wash them, though, and apply a new coat of waterseal.

SOME OF OUR SIGNS

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When I decided to be a vendor at a poultry swap for the first time I knew I had to put together a couple things for the booth. Most importantly was figuring out the cages for the chickens. Next on my list of importance was creating signage that easily stated what we were selling as customers walked by. I came up with an upcycled project using only materials we had at home.

MAKING THE SIGN

For the individual pieces stating the items we have for sale, I used bender board. I originally installed the bender board when I designed our bird village with the hopes of it separating the garden dirt from the gravel path. It kind of worked for awhile. Then the boards split and/or came out of the ground. Maybe I didn’t install it correctly. Whatever the reason, the boards don’t work & are more of a hazard than a help. So, I pulled most of them out & used what I could to make my vendor sign. They work perfectly, primarily because they are lightweight.

The first thing I did was measure each board. Then, I used my computer to print out words that would fit on the board. I chose a font that was simple & easy to read.

The bender board is so soft that I simply traced the letters with a pencil & the pressure made an indent in the board. I used those indentations as guides to paint the words.

Using outdoor acrylic paints, I painted inside the indent first with my main color, then went around the outside in white. I also used Behr’s indoor/outdoor primer & paint. It was all paint I had on hand, and I’m sure regular acrylic paint would work, too.

THE STAND

Farmer John built me this stand as a place to attach the bender board painted signs. It is quite sturdy & doesn’t require any weight to keep from falling over. The only downfall is that it doesn’t come apart & is awkward to fit in my car. But, it does fit.

Farmer John predrilled holes in the bender board signs so they wouldn’t split when screwing them to the stand.

USING THE SIGN

I bring a cordless drill & screws with me to the swaps & attach the individual signs to the stand once I get there. It is simple & takes no more than 5 minutes to set up.

I love this sign for a few reasons:
1. Perfection was not necessary. It’s meant to be fun & slightly wonky.
2. Super simple to make
3. It’s large & legible, yet easy to haul & set up
4. No out of pocket expenses

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If you have livestock, you have lots of feed bags. We use the empty bags in various ways, but when I saw a tote made from one, I knew I had to try to make one.

The first one was easy enough to make, but took me a bit to figure out everything – especially the boxed corners. The corners were really easy to make once I figured it out. I made the next bags fairly quickly. I used directions from both Fresh Eggs Daily & Community Chickens.

SIZING THE BAG

I didn’t use exact measurements to cut the feed sack. I cut off the top & bottom of the sack where I thought the tote bag would look best.

The way I cut the feed bag gave me one side with a nice design.

The back isn’t as cute. On the plus side, if you ever need to know the benefits or directions of the feed you will always have it with you.

BOXED CORNERS

I love the boxed corners & flat bottom. I’ve made bags before, but never with a flat bottom. It’s so much nicer for groceries.

I’m good with photos, not so good with written directions. But, I will attempt to explain the boxed corner:

Top Left: Fold the bottom of the bag to get a corner. Measure from the pointy corner up both sides the same distance – about 1″ – 2″. Mark the two spots & draw a line connecting the dots.
Top Right: Sew along the line. I came in a little and sewed a 2nd line.
Bottom Left: Trim off the excess
Bottom Right: Complete the steps again for the opposite corner. Then, turn the bag so the white side is facing in.

HANDLES

A few of my bags have handles made from cotton webbing. I love the way Fresh Eggs Daily attached the handles by tucking the handles under the fold at the top. I had never added handles using that method. I’m glad I tried it. The handles seem nice & secure and an actual part of the bag as opposed to feeling like the handle could pull off.

I didn’t have enough webbing to finish the last two bags, so I used scraps from the cut feed bags to make handles using directions from Community Chickens. I like carrying the bags with the webbing handles better than the feed bag scrap handles. But, I like the matchy-matchy look of the feed bag handles.

MAKING IT PRETTY

It’s an extra step, but I prefer the look of sewing lace or ribbon to the top edge.

I love this project. It was exactly what I like – easy, quick & no need to be perfect.

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