Remember “Home Ec” class?  If yours was anything like mine, maybe we shouldn’t even dredge those dreary memories up.  Fast forward to 2009 and I bet you’ll be impressed with some of the ideas that are swirling around the “Family and Consumer Science” (no kidding!) classroom these days.

Son # 2 came home the other day with a mission: He had to make something useful out of garbage.  He was so excited!  Not that I’ve sold the dear boy on  “Waste Product Re-engineering”, but he does enjoy a creative challenge.  Check out what he came up with as a present for his knitting-obsessed mom:

Does that sweet, beastly face look familiar to you?  If you spend much time cruising the Pet Food aisles, it might.  Check out the back of the dpn bag:

Yep, it’s made from a large size dog food bag.  Turns out those suckers are made with some pretty tough, reinforced stuff.  By the way, that’s an old Dale of Norway zipper you see there at the top.  You might also consider recycling an old zipper from a unwearable pair of jeans.

#2’s process was pretty simple: Outline a rectangle on the bag, around the dog’s face, that’s about the same width as the zipper.  Cut it out.  Find another interesting portion of the bag; cover it with your first rectangle; trace around your first rectangle and cut the 2nd rectangle out.  Wash and dry both rectangles.  Fold about a half inch seam allowance down along both top edges of the rectangles and pin those edges on either side of your zipper, with the right sides of everything facing up. Sew those top edges in place over the zipper.  (#2 used a sewing machine with a zipper presser foot.) Fold the bag in half, with the right sides together, zipper at the top,  and sew around the 3 loose sides, using a similar seam allowance.  Trim the corners close to the stitching.  Turn it inside out.  Voila!  A dpn bag with a pedigree!