Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Library Bag

This was a really cute polyster blend shirt that my daughter didn't find comfortable.  Apparently I was supposed to know that by her throwing it back in the laundry after I had already washed it that I was supposed to put it in the donation bag.  So after getting snapped at for re-washing it and putting it back in her laundry pile I decided I was going to play a little trick on her. 

I loved the print and the two little pockets near the hem and thought it would make a cute grocery bag.  I pinked off the sleeves and was going to sew it up into the bag and put it back in her laundry pile, then when she snapped at me I was going to reveal that it was now a bag.  The plan failed, however, when she walked in as I was sewing it up.  Kids.  They tend to do that to you.

Once I had it in the bag rotation I realized I really prefer my grocery bags to be cotton and this is not.  It is a great bag, though!  It is my favorite bag for library books and mail and is so often found on the passenger seat of my car filled with goodies coming from or going to the Post Office and Library. 

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Cotton Baby Ball

I made this ball on a small round wood loom with two strands of Sugar 'n Cream yarn that had been in my stash for a few years.  The ball is filled with waste from my stuffing bag such as serger trimmings. Since the tiny bits would slip out of the open loom knit stitching I loaded it up into the foot of a no longer wearable pair of tights.  The end was tied off and I put a few stitches in the knot to be extra sure it won't open when some little sweetie chews on it.  It is fully washable and I'm proud to say it kept scraps and a bit of microfiber tights out of the waste stream.

This is a donation for Online-Angels.

Sew, Mama, Sew! May Giveaway Day

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 58 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

 

Congratulations, nicmowat!  Check your email when you can, please. 

The Sew, Mama, Sew May Giveaway Day is here! Thanks for clicking through from there to drop in on me. I won a couple of cute things last year and was eager to participate as a giver this year.

Here is what you can win:

You'll receive two of my recycled grocery totes. I make them from all sorts of materials that might otherwise have wound up in the trash - stained tablecloths, curtains that no longer suit our decor, vintage sheets, fabric remnants, even no longer used clothing.

What I think is much nicer about my bags than the ones you buy at the store are that mine are fully washable. Just toss them in the laundry (I drop them in my towel load) and you've got clean bags for every shopping trip. They're especially great for use at the farm - the ones made from tablecloth are a nice heavy cotton that keep the moisture in leafy greens.  At our CSA I bag them and they go straight into the refrigerator in the same bag.  So convenient.

* To enter, please follow my blog and leave me a message letting me know how you're following- in a reader or directly through Blogger.

* I love tutorials, especially ones that help keep something from ending up in the trash and create soemthing useful. For an entry please leave me a link to your favorite tutorial.

* I have been thinking about maybe selling these on Etsy. Do you think $3 each would be a fair price? Tell me in a separate comment.

So you can enter this drawing up to three times, once for following, once for a tute link and once for your opinion.

I will ship internationally.

Please leave your comments by 11:59PM Eastern, Wednesday, May 25th. I will select a winner on Thursday using Random.org and contact them immediately for shipping information.

If your email address isn't available by clicking through your comment, please include your email address or I will have no way to contact you and will have to draw a new winner.

Enjoy!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: UnPaper Towels

I haven't bought a roll of paper towels in years. Now don't let me give you the wrong impression - I can't seem to prevent my spouse from buying them for use in his car, but I have not brought a roll of paper towels into the house in probably five years, maybe more.

But instead of buying fabric to make UnPaper Towels with, I like to take the recycling approach. Surprise, surprise, huh? The sweet fall leaves fabric you see here used to be a pair of pajama pants. Yes, it's true, all our old pajamas become UnPaper Towels. It is hard to see in the photo, but the pile on the left is the reclaimed fabric after I cut out all the seams and ironed it flat. The pile on the right is the finished product, serged all around with wooly nylon. I use the serging process to make built in loops at each corner. I use those loops to secure the towels to the paper towel holder over my sink. The towels are in the same place everyone is used to them being. They work for all the same things, only they're much prettier and don't create waste. In fact, for quite some time they are keeping themselves out of the waste stream.

When they become too soiled they get put in the rag bag. Once there they can still be used many more times, until they do eventually get tossed in the trash. But even then I feel good about how much work I've done with them as UnPaper Towels and as rags.

Do you use UnPaper Towels? Do you make them or purchase them?

Send me a Tote and a Note #3

I swap with Swap-bot!

OK, OK, before you ask why I would send a tote that has Crime Scene Cleanup on it to a perfectly nice lady, let me say that her profile listed quite a few crime shows as her favorites. So in addition to two of my recycled curtain totes I included that one. I hope she gets kick out of it.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Legwarmers From a Felted Sweater

I got hurt at work and the doctor's orders are to stay at home with the wound open to the air. But we keep the house a comfortable temperature for walking around in flannel pajamas or sweats. How can I keep my knees exposed and not have my legs cold? I needed some nice wool legwarmers. So off to Goodwill I went on the way home from the doctor. Hey - he said I could stop for my prescription, what was one more stop? It was something I needed to convalesce.

This is a nice, heavy Ralph Lauren wool sweater. I washed and dried it when I got home to be sure it was felted all the way down. It had clearly been donated because the previous owner had begun the felting process. ;)



In this first photo you can see where I've begun to pick the sleeves off stitch by stitch.




The second photo shows the sleeves-cum-legwarmers, a small pile of wool bits which went into my stuffing bag, and the leftover body of the sweater. Anyone have a suggestion for what that should become? I'm thinking of trying either mittens or slippers. What do you think?

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Shoe Bags From Pant Legs

These were the legs of my daughter's old capri pants. The rest had been made into a purse long ago.

First, I cut them to a size suitable for my many pairs of work shoes.

I am on my feet all day long and change my shoes during the day - it's good for my feet to do so. That means I have three pairs of shoes on hand at work plus whatever sneakers or boots I wore while commuting.

I don't want them getting beat up so I'd been meaning to make some bags for a while. When I was going through my stash for bag fabrics I came across these and knew they would not only work but look cute hanging on a hook as well.

The scraps I cut to make them the right length became booties you can see in last Thursday's post. So for one cut and two seams I've got the two pairs of shoes not on my feet set up with pretty little bags to protect them.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Grocery Bags

These were my Christmas gifts. I started with a goal of forty. Twenty were to go to our family holiday gathering and twenty to the folks in my daughter's office who have graciously cared for our animals during various emergencies this year. Then I got a little more ambitious and decided sixty would be better so folks might have more than one each. I went at it like a beast, cutting up clothing, sheets, curtains and remnants from my stash, assembling them in various stages without counting. The third photo shows an old guinea pig cage cover I'd sewn for our pets. We'd used it for a couple of years before switching to a different cage. I'd always wanted another project for this very pretty fabric to go to - this was definitely the one!

I wanted each to have a tag tied to it that identified what it came from - remnant, pajamas, curtain, etc. and since my daughter is the scrapbooker that was her contribution to the project. Well, that and tying and cutting all the threads which was one heck of a job! Her poor fingers.

When I finally finished sewing she had tagged and counted over 80!

I'm told they were enjoyed at her office for which I am glad. I wish I'd had more of an opportunity to sit down with folks who were going through them at our family Christmas. When one pink bag was described as being curtains from one of my parents' old places in Hollywood my brother, a big guy you wouldn't imagine wanting a pink bag, immediately spoke up for it. That was exactly what I had hoped for - to bring a little bit of fond memory to someone's day as they drop a loaf of bread into their bag...and to do some recycling and destashing.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: More Pillows

Another project from the old pillows I pulled out of storage. I loved the shirt, but it was a 3X and no matter how I could picture modifying it to fit me now there was no option that would cut away the stain that was right on the front. Making a pillow cover did the trick. And of course there are the obligatory guinea pig pillows made from the sleeves and stuffed with scraps from other projects.


These took all of twenty minutes to put together. And for all my 'get rid of it now if you can't use it' I'm kind of glad I found this stashed in the attic. The colors are pretty and it makes me smile to look at the shirt. Finding a good use for it will let me smile at it some more.

Halloween Costume Accessories From Too Big Linen Outfit

I love dressing like a Pirate Wench whenever the opportunity arises. I've been trying to stick to period when I make new pieces and had been wanting to replace the stretch velvet accessories I had with some linen ones. While going through the attic I found an old Lord & Taylor linen outfit in size 26. I thought I might refashion it into a smaller size of the same outfit, but then the elastic let go when I picked it up and I decided to just rip into it and scavenge the fabric. Here it is before:


From that nice amount of fabric I made a head wrap, a belt that wraps around me three times generously with leftover still hanging to my knees, a pouch from the linen side of the pockets and the jacket drawstring, some long strips to secure my fake weapons and scope to my belt with, and a nice, long strip to wrap around my antiqued 'rum' bottle. Here they are folded up on my ironing board:



And here they are in action:


I had a great time wearing this, especially at work!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Pillows

I had some stuffing I cut out of a couple pillows that had lost their shape. Here it is with some fabric remnants from my stash:




Put them together, and well, here's the obvious:




Some cute little kid sized pillows that are now headed for my charity.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Curtain to Grocery Bags

More from the ultra-soft 80's curtains Mom gave me. I used the bulk of them for pillowcases, put some parts not large enough for me to work with but large enough to be quilted with in the box where I collect fabric to send to the wonderful Karen who makes tons of quilts for OA and have made some grocery totes from the leftovers large enough to work for that purpose. One for Mom, one for me. Extras will be split between OA and Christmas giving.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Bathmat Edition

As you can see from this photo, our bathmat had quite a large area that had turned to nothing more than strings. The towel next to it was fine, with the exception that the sides were unraveling. I can't remember where I saw the idea of a bathmat woven from towels but I knew these two items were destined to become one.

If anyone reading knows where I found my inspiration please comment, I want to credit the person whose idea it was originally.

Once I had all the strips cut I stitched them in place across one end horizontally and one vertically then wove them into each other, then began anchoring each strip down between the weaves. The first couple of rows I sewed without pinning. I started to get frustrated at the weave slipping out when I worked it in and out of my machine so I took to pinning it.

Then I got tired of pinning and repinning every time something shifted, so I went back to no pins. I felt like it was a lot of work for something so simple, but what it came down to was it was quite a task for my little quarter century old Kenmore. I love my machine dearly, it has been quite the workhorse but two or three thicknesses of fluffy towel and a thick bath mat are just too much to ask of it. I really need to learn more about heavy duty machines because I should eventually add one to my lineup.

As you can see from the photo, it is not quite perfect but it sure is nice. Thick, soft and will keep the tootsies warm this winter.

Two favorite things about this project:

How soft and pretty this turned out.

Hearing the following conversation going on in the living room:

(Phone Rings)

Kid: Hi Dad

(Pause)

Kid: She's in the office. (My sewing room is also the home office & library.)

(Pause)

Kid: Sewing a new bath rug out of the old bath rug and a towel.


Now, you probably have to love crafting as much as I do to be so pleased by this, or at least know how matter of factly she made the last statement as though her father should know if I was in there SOMETHING was being remade into something else.

I Made It to Wardrobe Refashion!

On my 3rd try I finally made the cut! You can see my first post here!

The Pledge

I, Crunchysews, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed, Crunchysews.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Four

One of the fun advantages to repurposing sewn goods is the shortcuts you can glean by reusing features of the original item. A few years ago my mom gave me some decorator curtains she was no longer using in her house. I've used bits and pieces for different projects, but still had four large panels, plus tiebacks and a couple of valances.

They were very soft lined curtains. The fabric seemed just right for the pillowcases I've been working on and the bonus was that I reused the original deep hem for the pillowcase hem, saving me several steps in the construction.

I plan to use the liner - original hem intact - to make myself a muslin of a blouse. If the muslin works I'll likely dye it and wear that as well as the projects it is a test for. Now to figure out what to do with the gorgeous pin-tucked tiebacks. Any ideas?

Photo 1: Curtain hem now pillowcase hem.
Photo 2: Tied up with a ribbon scrap.
Photo 3: Boxed and ready for donating along with others made from stash fabric.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday Two: Handle Cover

I recently cut up a pair of my hubby's retired Carhartts. This particular pair was denim, a rarity for him. Loving to repurpose jeans as much as I do, I thought I might make myself a skirt from the parts that weren't too stained. That notion was dashed, however, when I discovered these were from before he gained a few and I lost a few putting us both in the same waist measurement range. I may still make a half-apron out of the top, I'm not sure. In the meantime I created this little beauty.

What is it, you ask? I've prepared some slides with which to better illustrate. (Ten sci-fi nerd points to any person who identifies the reference.)





Once my hubby's tool pocket, this is now a handle cover for my beloved cast-iron cookware.

Unfortunately for me the serger I have, while quite the little workhorse, is not manufactured for heavy-duty use. This meant that while I could serge four layers of denim together, I could not serge over the grommet or top seam. While I would have liked to make the width a bit slimmer, the serger was going to have none of it. Knowing that trying to coax the desired seam out of it would only result in a costly repair bill at the Viking shop I instead serged together the strip you see in the photo. Slip it right inside the tool pocket and slip the pocket over the handle. It is plenty insulated for me.

Another feature I added was to leave a little spare fabric at the top so that it folds down in front of my fingers. No worries about reaching for the pot a little too far up the handle and burning my finger against the bowl of the pan.

Plus it is nice to have a reminder of hubby there while I'm cooking.