Little Garbage Can Bag Holder Upper Tutorial

Good Morning Friends.
I hope that you are enjoying your summer!  Yesterday my grandma and grandpa took me, my kids and two of my cousins to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  It was fun.  I'm so blessed that my kids can still do things with their GREAT grandparents.  How rare that is.

Yesterday morning I was emptying the trash cans around the house.  I got to the one in my powder room and thought, "wow this thing is gross".  I bought a metal trash can a couple of years ago and it now has rust spots on it.  I now put garbage bags in it, but it looks kind of ugly.  Honestly, it looks really ugly.  I thought of a way to make it look a titch cuter ;)  A garbage can bag holder upper for your little garbage cans.  Now, I know that usually, little garbage cans don't need help in this area.  The sides of the bag hang so low outside there is no danger of the bag falling in and you needing to reach in through snotty kleenex, q-tips and heavens know what else the kids may toss in.  This is more cosmetic.  Do I have better things to do than dress up my garbage cans?   Am I concerned that when my kids grow up they will bring up the summer mom spent making crazy crafts?  Eh.  Not really.

So, here you go.
A tutorial to beautify your little cans.  Garbage cans, that is.
First, what you'll need:

*Elastic.
Measure around the top of your garbage can and subtract an inch or two.  That's how much elastic you'll need.  I used 3/4 inch wide.
*Fabric.
3 inches wide by double the length of the elastic.  In my case 45 inches or so.
*Thread, safety pin


 Step one... Take your fabric cut 3 inches by whatever length is double your elastic and fold it in half so that the right sides are together.  Iron it.
Step two... Sew the long raw edge with 1/4" seam allowance.  Be sure to double stitch each end a couple of times.

Step three (or the annoying step as I like to call it)...  Turn the fabric right side out.  Using the wrong end of a knitting needle to help feed the fabric through helps me.  It will take 5 minutes at least.

Step four...  Pin the end of the elastic.  Feed it through the fabric "tube" making sure you hold one end so that it doesn't get lost in the middle.

Step five... Sew the end without the pin to the fabric with a 1/2 inch (or so) of elastic sticking out.
Sew the the other side of the elastic to the end you just finished.  Triple stitch.

Step six...  Do your best to fold the end of the fabric tube under and sew it over the raw elastic.

Step seven... You are DONE.  Strap it to your can.  I put a  fabric flower on mine to make it even more fabulous.

Here's the garbage I made it for.  As you can see it needed a little help.

It even matches the decor on my cute little powder room shelf ;)

The best part is you can wear it on your head when it's not on the garbage can.  Just kidding.

I wanted to show off the dslr my friend Rachel over at Divine Image Photography  let me borrow.  I'm so so so excited to learn how to use it.  I took pics of the kids yesterday.  I'll show them to you tomorrow perhaps ;)
In the meantime.  Have fun dressing up your trash cans.


Linked up at House of Hepworths, Chic on a Shoestring Budget, Tidy Mom, Shabby Nest,