Project F.A.R.M. Giveaway: Clothespin Queen

WINNER SELECTED, 2/22/16
And our winner is … Brenda Wheeler (see winner’s post here).

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Who doesn’t love to hang laundry on the line? Crisp, white linens softly swaying in the breeze, capturing the smell of a summer’s day. Merely a daydream on a day like today: mid-winter, temperature gauge barely above freezing, a frozen clothesline covered in snow. Spring is still down the road a ways, but you’ll be ready to hang your cares out to dry if you’re the lucky winner of this beautiful cotton clothespin bag.

Give a big farmgirl welcome to Jeannie Jessup (The Clothespin Queen), another new Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made) business member. From the heart of Texas, Jeannie stitches up unique, durable, and wonderfully utilitarian clothespin bags just like the one your grandmother used. To win this beautiful, bejeweled, rose-patterned bag, simply tell me your favorite old-fashioned laundry tip in the comments below. We’ll put your name in a hat and draw a lucky winner soon. Stay tuned!

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See more of Jeannie’s clothespin bags on her Etsy site.

Project-Farm

  1. Debbie lawrence says:

    OH MY goodness…I haven’t seen these in years. My grammar had one or two of these hanging on her lines in NH where I was born.She used these all the time. I would love to have one of these so much. She really has beautiful ones. I would cherish it forever .Big hugs. Debbie L

  2. Cathy Callicoat says:

    My tip would be to let your laundry was a little longer in your wringer washer and those good of paddles will beat that dirt right out. It help to add your borax to your detergent too! It’ll give your soap a boost!

  3. Daizy says:

    Hay there,

    What a cute clothespin bag!!! I have been looking for one just like it. It brings back memories of helping my momma and grandmomma do the laundry. We always had a line and always used it…..even when it was winter. Now I hang out all of my laundry also.
    My best tip would be to make your own detergent! I use Arm and Hammer Washing Soap and mix that with Borax and Fels Naptha soap. If I need a brightener I use peroxide. It works grate.

    I buy old quilts and linens and sometimes they are musty and soiled but because they are often thread bare and thin I just swish them in the tub with my homemade detergent and they come out great.

    Hugs and prayers,
    Daizy #1093

  4. Joan H. says:

    Judging by what I hear from friends and some younger folk I guess I’m old fashioned but I still believe in sorting the laundry into lights and darks, hot water and cold water. The color thing is big for me because I don’t want my light colored clothing looking dingey due to the dyes from the dark colors bleeding out. My tip is to sort the lights from the darks!

  5. Grace says:

    Baking soda and a few hours on a sunny clothesline does wonders to whiten clothes.

  6. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I love this darling clothespin bag! Such a practical style too the way it slides along the line. It’s old fashioned design and fabric just makes it Farmgirl chic! My favorite laundry tip is hang lightweight sweaters or heavy tops on good hangers to line dry. I use heavy wooden winter coat hangers or men’s suit hangers. This helps them to retain their shape and dry with fewer wrinkles.

  7. Deb says:

    I love clothes pin bags, so country! My tip is, I always hang may laundry in the early morning so they have all day to be kissed by our Colorado Sun, especially nice for my cotton sheets! Nothing like it in the world!

  8. Brenda White says:

    I love to hang my sheets out for that fresh outdoor scent. It makes climbing into bed after a long day relaxing and a reminder of a nice summer day🌞

  9. manda says:

    I don’t have a tip but I love laundry from the line.

  10. Karlyne says:

    Beautiful clothes pin bag – much prettier than a plastic grocery bag. And my tip is to wait until it stops snowing before hanging out any laundry!

  11. I am so enamored of this bag. I use borax along with my all natural clothes detergent, really helps. Also after the tub has filled with the deterg and borax in the water , I let the clothes sit for at least half an hour or more to soak, really helps, especially with the stinky clothes.

  12. Chrissy says:

    I have been on the homemade laundry detergent bandwagon for a while. I’ve upped it another notch by using straight white vinegar as fabric softener with or without lavender scent. For two years, I hung clothes out because my dryer wasn’t working and enjoyed it. The only reason I use my dryer now is because it’s the best way to collect the dog hair and restore my stretched out t-shirts.
    The clothespin bag is adorable.

  13. cheryl seals says:

    I bet all us farm girls an farm girls to be love hanging out their laundry as I do .. My fondest memories are when you knew mother had put the line dry’d sheets straight to your bed from the line , to get in those an smell the fresh outdoors is heavenly..Mother even had a line under the patio an a hole that Dad drilled into the garage floor to bring in the umbrella clothesline when weather was bad ! When I got married I couldnt wait to have a clothesline outside, my hubby of 38 yrs suprized me on afternoon by coming home with lumber to build me one ! As the yrs. went by an our daughter turned about 8 yrs.old one day she said to me you don’t just hang them out cause it saves money you like to do this ! My reply to my sweet girl was yes this is Mama’s free time as I learned early on nobody but me would hang them out so I can reflect on the day in peace an enjoy the sounds ! Snicky mother I am..

  14. Bonnie says:

    My Grammy had one very similar to this and I remember helping her with her wringer washer and hanging the clothes out to dry. My tip from Grammy is to turn your darks and colored clothes inside out before hanging them so the sun does not fade them.

  15. Shannon Hudson says:

    So lovely! Thank you for the opportunity to win one of these adorable clothespin bags! My tip is one I learned from my Grandmother… always make sure any stain you have on clothing is facing south or west, depending on how your line is set up. This allows the sun to hit the stain in the hottest part of the day, with the hopes of bleaching it out. It has always worked for us…. especially on cloth diapers 🙂

  16. CJ Armstrong says:

    What a beautiful clothespin bag! I love to hang my laundry out, even in winter. Had to shovel a new trail to the clothesline yesterday, we’ve had SOOOOO MUCH snow!

    I stopped using fabric softener years ago, after I was cleaning the layers of liquid softener residue off of the dispenser attachment that goes on top of the center of the washer. The residue on my hands made me question . . . “is this what is going on my clothes?” So, I use white vinegar instead, just pour it into the dispenser for bleach and it works just fine.
    CJ

  17. Melanie Wyman says:

    This is so pretty! Tip: put line dried clothes in the dryer for 5 to 10 minutes to soften them….you can even add icecubes for a steam effect!

  18. Pat Brubaker says:

    I turn my colors inside out before throwing them in the washer. Repeated washes tend to fade fabric, so I prefer fading the inside the no one sees first. I also use borax from time to time.
    To clean my machine, I put white vinegar and baking soda in empty machine and run it through a quick wash cycle.

  19. Denise says:

    My favorite old time laundry tip would be to wash those with a little blind added and hang them in the sun to dry. Grandma always said the sun bleaching helped whiten the whites. This bag is so pretty and feminine!

  20. Joan Armstrong says:

    Awesome idea. My favorite laundry trick is lemon juice, night air and sunshine to get out tough stains.

  21. Krista says:

    This is such an adorable bag with really pretty fabric. What a great giveaway. I am not sure if I really have any good tips. I like to make sure I separate my lights, mediums, and darks to prevent color bleeding. I also turn them inside out and wash them on cold. Most of my clothes are hung up to dry to prevent shrinking.

  22. Sherri Myronenko says:

    I love this clothespin bag. Cute cute. I gave up fabric softener as its hard on clothes. I use 1/2 cup of vinegar with 5 drops of orange easential oil to make clothes not staticky and they smell and feel so nice off the line.

  23. Sandy Rees says:

    I hang laundry year round now since my husband put a clothesline up for me in our storage room downstairs.

  24. drMolly says:

    My tip is this: add white vinegar (you could use cider as long as you were not doing whites) to your final rinse. It helps reduce the build up of “grunge” in places that have HARD water like we do here. It makes clothes softer too, believe it or not. I also rinse my clothes an extra time as we have very sensitive skin in our family that does not like the residue that soaps may leave.
    The pin bag is absolutely lovely. I made myself one from an old pair of baby’s OshKosh Bygosh jeans, but it is not near as cute as these are!

  25. Lee Anne says:

    I use good ol’ vinegar. Extra clothes pin are good to keep the chip bag closed.

  26. Bonnie Ellis says:

    That laundry bag is just beautiful! Lovely roses. I can almost smell the roses (almost) considering our weather has been 20 below zero. I love to hang out laundry. There is nothing like the smell of clothes and sheets that have been line dried.

  27. Rhonda Bowdy says:

    I make all my own laundry items such as laundry soap,fabric softener, dryer sheets, spray-n-wah and Clorox 2. Hanging laundry out is great for whites. Bedding hung out smells great.

  28. Alice says:

    The bag is wonderful. I don’t remember mama ever having one. She had an apron with big pockets that she used to hold her pins on washday. Grandma would fill the old black wash pot full of water and build a fire under it; When mama got home from work the water would be ready and they would start doing the laundry.
    We used to use lemon juice and the sun to remove stains, now I use baby wipes for many stains. Works great.

  29. Nancy says:

    What fun!! I don’t have any original ideas..just the usual…always separate lights from darks…hang blankets, bedspreads & quilts in the sun to freshen them up. I do run my pillows through a sanitize cycle of my dryer about once a month and wash about 2 times or so a year. I always refresh them after a guest has used them. And, finally…vinegar is a wonderful thing to use instead of bleach! 😉

  30. Sandy T. says:

    My laundry tip? Use the clothesline as much as possible! Nothing smells as good as line dried laundry or feels as good as a crisp, line dried towel. Is it spring yet??

  31. Marion says:

    I like Fels Naptha for rubbing on stains. It seems to get everything out.

  32. Jenn A says:

    White vinegar and baking soda with hot water will refresh sour smelling towels.

  33. Sharon says:

    Love the bag! I like using vinegar to rid odors

  34. Carol Birch says:

    Nothing better than air dried sheets! Love bringing them in from the clothesline with such a fresh smell!

  35. Allison says:

    My mom has a handmad bag similar to this and I’ve always wanted one! My grandma always used a toothbrush to scrub stains out when she was pre-treating.

  36. Amanda Munford says:

    My favorite laundry tip is to use vinegar instead of fabric softener. It keeps my laundry in really great condition. I used to struggle with clothing being coated. Not anymore! I love hanging my laundry out to dry. It seems extra fresh and clean!

  37. Toni says:

    Love the vintage looking clothespin bag! Have read many good tips for laundry, a simple tip would be to always shake out your dry clothes before bringing them into the house, I don’t know how many bees, wasps, spiders etc. I have brought in. Thanks for a great website!

  38. Leisa Joan says:

    I don’t have any tips other than just hanging out laundry on a line, or inside on a rack to make clothes last longer. I have some shirts that are 15 years or older & still look pretty good, since they’ve never seen the inside of a dryer.

  39. Idamarie Settlemyer says:

    Growing up we did not have a dryer, so everything went out on the line. Just had to
    be careful to hang the colored clothes between the whites so the sun didn’t fade them.
    three or four lines the length of the lawn in back yard. walking between, enjoying the
    freshness!

  40. Mary Lou Bender says:

    My “old fashioned laundry tip” is one I learned last year from an Oklahoma wildcrafter: she used soap berries from China soap berry trees(not sure I have the tree name right). I harvested a supply and have used them since in the laundry(6 berries in a little bag and I reuse them several times) Seems to work fine.

  41. Tanya Donahue says:

    Don’t let the stains dry on your clothes. Most of the time if I wash the stained clothes immediately I don’t even need stain remover, which is a benefit for sensitive skin. In my busy house, the wash can’t always be washed right away, I’ll then treat the stain with a generous amount of spray then fold the article and toss it in the basket.

  42. rose ann wong says:

    Vinegar is great to add in , it helps with preventing colors from running and it freshens clothes too. The sun does its own magic on the whites, brightening them nicely.

  43. Deborah McKissic says:

    This is such a beautiful clothespin bag! I love the fabric! I hang laundry year round….inside or out…depending on the weather…my laundry tip is to use borax for extra cleaning power added to your detergent….but, also, fels naptha soap is great for stains…wet the bar and rub some into the stain..I also use this soap after gardening…as it removes any oils on your skin from poison ivy, etc. that you might have rubbed up against…

  44. Becky Williamson says:

    Love the bag….my old one(bought in amish country PA) is worn from all the use these past few years. Love to hang my clothes on my Solar Dryer!! My husband put up a wooden clothes line over 30 years ago and I use it faithfully today.

  45. Brenda Wheeler says:

    That bag is as cute as can be! A little trick I learned to keep blue jeans from fading so fast is to hang them wrong side out. Also, I to undo the button and zipper. It doesn’t take so long for the placket around the zipper to dry and it also lets air around the pockets. Another thing I do is to only put the clothespin on socks from the top and through only one layer of fabric. I have found that thick work socks dry faster and it doesn’t seem to stretch the tops. I have been hanging my clothes out for at least 43 years now. Love the smell and they last so much longer. Thanks for all the previous tips ladies.

  46. Cindy Stoll says:

    The clothes line at my house is used when the weather permits. I am careful not to hang any light colored items out when it is summer fly season. Living on a cattle farm you just don’t want to end up with fly specks on your clean laundry. Another tip is adding ammonia to detergent and Borox to soak the greasy farm clothes from repair work.

  47. Jonquil says:

    Still hang all my clothes on the line year round—don’t even own a drier!
    My tip would be add a half cup of vinegar to whites to freshen them!
    LOVE this bag, so sweet!

  48. Kyla H says:

    My husband has a dusty job as a woodworker and vinegar was a tip that my grandmother told me to help aid the detergent.

  49. Joni says:

    My only “tips would be to use a homemade laundry detergent – mine is a simple combination of zote, laundry soda, baking soda, and borax. Then hang laundry in the sunshine and enjoy! 🙂

  50. Corine Runnion says:

    Always liked to do laundry on a windy day clothes would be so soft. I used to have a bag lije yhat years ago was so handy, I miss it.

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