How to Turn a Skirt Into a Tissue Holder for your Car

One of my pet peeves is the fact that my car doesn't have a good place to store a box of tissues. Most of the time, I leave the box in the floor, on the passenger side, where it slides back and forth while we zig zag through our curvy, rural roads.

Of course, the box is usually out of my reach every time one of us needs a tissue, so I went in search of a solution that would work for us. 

A little searching, and I found this. I have been in a sewing mood lately (as you can see in my last two posts), so before I bought one, I thought I'd try to make something similar myself.

My fabric scrap bag contains quite a few odds and ends. I'd even forgotten that I used to wear miniskirts, much less kept one, but I found this in my fabric scraps.

I thought it wouldn't be too hard to turn into a tissue box holder for our car. It even has a zipper in the back, which should make changing the boxes easier.

What You'll Need:
-Miniskirt with zipper in the back (this one was a size 7, for what it's worth)
-Webbing or heavy ribbon
-(Optional) Sew-on snap or velcro
-Tissue box

First, I sized it up by slipping the tissue box through the bottom, then doing a box fold along both sides, leaving a slit for the tissues at the top.

I pinned the four edges where the fabric is folded, then removed the tissue box.

I did four simple straight stitches (I used my sewing machine, but you could easily do it by hand) where I'd pinned.

Next, I put the tissue box back into the skirt and turned it upside down.

I folded the skirt down similar to how I'd wrap a gift in paper, then pinned along the center to hold it. I again removed the tissue box (this time from the top, by unzipping the zipper and slipping it out), then sewed a straight stitch where I'd pinned.

I placed the tissue box back into the skirt, and decided where to place the ribbon. I wanted the skirt's zipper to be on the bottom (out of sight), so I tucked the edges of the ribbon into the two folds on the top.

I removed the tissue box one more time, sewed the ribbon into place, then took it out to the car to see how it looks.

There you have it! Now I'll always be able to grab a tissue when it's needed, and the zipper makes changing boxes a cinch. I placed mine over my gear shift, but if you wanted to place it over your headrest, you could cut the ribbon in half and use either a snap or velcro to easily remove it.

A Pretty Trash Bag for our Car

I drive an old car (1996, to be exact), but it's reliable and I hope it lasts at least a few more years. I try to keep it clean, but that has been quite a challenge with the little one in the back seat. I've been searching for a way to keep the trash out of the floorboard and came across this cute solution. I have a huge bag of fabric remnants, so I used them to make similar solution for our car.

The only differences for my bag were that I used a large sew-on snap, rather than velcro, and I also added a vinyl flower embellishment that is attached with a similar sew-on snap (I glued one piece to the back of the flower). That way, I can remove the flower when I wash the bag.

I love it! How nice it'll be not to have to worry about picking up trash out of the floor every time we get home.