Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Reusable Lavender Dryer Sachets

I occasionally indulge and purchase the Lavender Dryer Sachets from Trader Joe's.  They're quite pricey in my opinion, around $4 for a plastic packet of four.  I dislike the idea of tossing that plastic in the trash and the bags degrade so they're not infinitely reusable, despite the fact that the scent seems very long lasting.  I've also had one pop open in the dryer and found my lint trap overrun with the contents.  Luckily nothing overheated as a result of that incident. 

Recently I found myself wondering what I could do to prolong the life of the two sachets I had in my laundry area and decided I would try emptying the contents into some fabric scraps and seeing how long the scent lasts.  I can tell you that these two little sachets have been going for months now and still have a light, pleasant scent.  I find the lighter scent more pleasing, I don't want heavily scented clothing, it will give me a headache, but I like having a dryer sheet substitute, since I'd never put one of those in with my laundry.  Between my wonderful wool dryer balls and these sachets, we've got it all covered.

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.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Eye Mask

Due to the hours I work, I find a sleep mask absolutely essential to getting all the rest I need. We have lots of them around the house as everyone has odd schedules here. This one was a freebie. The elastic slipped out of the seam in one spot, leaving me with only one band of elastic to keep it in place and a long, stringy tail to get tangled in my hair.



Why bother to repair a freebie when I have others? Because #1 it was free and #2 there is no reason for it to be in the landfill when a few hand stitches will make it good as new. Knowing hand sewing isn't easy for me (it makes my wrists hurt) you can see how important I think it is to keep your things in good repair and avoid adding to all the discarded trash on our planet.

Nap time!

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Delicious Yarn From a Thrifted Sweater

I picked up this gorgeous alpaca/wool, name brand sweater at Salvation Army for $2.25. The moment I saw it I turned it inside out in order to gauge the possibility of unraveling it and was thrilled to find the right kind of seams. Yay!



The seams came apart like a dream! They'd been joined with a yarn of a slightly different color which meant it was simple to snip them free without concerning myself I would accidentally snip something I shouldn't.

As you can see, the added design element was 'sewn' on. I snipped off the knot shown in the photo above and easily pulled it out.



I thought the rest of the unraveling would go just as smoothly. Boy was I wrong. Not being a knitter I simply had no clue of the intricacies of putting together a patterned sweater. As you see above, the front panel is made up of three parts woven together. So it was frog one side, untwist from center yarn, frog center yarn, untwist from other side of yarn, frog second side, repeat. I won't lie, I thought that was tedious. Then I got to the arms/back, none of which had any design, but that didn't mean the parts were knit in a single panel either.

It took almost an entire morning and afternoon to unravel this sweater.




Here you can see the results. With the sweater being a men's large I sure did get a nice quantity of yarn. I'm hoping to get a double layer hat plus a single layer hat out of it. Just two days before I found this sweater to unravel hubby ruined his nice, heavy, double layer alpaca hat so he definitely needs a new one. I think I'll get started on this project today. Despite the frogging being so much work, the yarn is just gorgeous and I think it was worth all the effort.

Two Hats for Thursday

As always, for Online Angels.

These hats are in honor of my Angel friend Tracy and her beautiful Mom, who passed this week.

Betty worked long after most folks have retired, was a strong and loving lady. She certainly raised a wonderful woman, Tracy, who herself is a strong and loving mom.

The black yarn is soft, like a mom's loving touch, and is recycled from a hat I made my own mom. The body of the hat is very thick and warm, protecting a little one's head from being cold or bumped, just like Betty - strong and present.

The variegated is a favorite yarn of mine. It makes me smile when I see it, just as Tracy brings joy and light to those around her.

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.