Creating Things Day Six - A Yoga Mat Carrier

Every time my mother and I go to yoga class, she struggles with her mat.

Seriously, it seems as if it's some extra burden on her life to roll up the mat and carry it both into and out of the yoga classroom.

They have mat carriers available for purchase. But most of them are super expensive.

Well, not super expensive, but more than I want to pay for something made out of cloth that will get dirty and need to be replaced in a few months.

But I didn't really know what I would use to make it. My first stop was to my closet.

The back of this closet is filled with remnants from my youth and things my mother put up with no real intention to ever use again.

I came across this.

I've always hated this for-use-on-Easter-only bag, so I didn't mind dismembering it.

The next thing to do was to find fabric to actually make the holder of the yoga mat.

I had to find something that was durable. I didn't just want to use regular fabric because it would still need to be replaced in a few months.

Then I saw this bag that got sent to our house from Nielsen Media Research people. It was the perfect durable material.

I had to cut the bag in half so it wasn't so much material.

Then I headed to my ancient sewing machine to stitch down the cut side.

Once it was stitched, I used a kabob skewer to string through the black twine. I needed it on both sides to make the drawstring useful on both ends.

I cleaned up the cut edge.

Then I had to attach the handles. That was a fun adventure to figure out which way to pin them down.

I finally figured out the best way to make that happen.

Then I decided it would be better to hand-stitch them. The needle on my sewing machine is a tiny little thing and I don't have a replacement needle.

It took forever to hand-stitch them (I admit I was multi-tasking), but I finally finished.

I retrieved the yoga mat to see if my imagination could produce real workable results.

I put the rolled up mat into the holder, pulled the drawstrings, and tied them underneath the mat to hold them closed.

It worked perfectly! It was just wide enough to keep the mat balanced, but small enough to not add any more weight to the mat for my poor encumbered mother.

I can't wait to show her when she gets home from work.

And in case she hates it, I'll be more than happy to use it for my own mat.

What? I don't have another weaved purse lying around that I hate, so it'd be pretty hard to just make another holder.