Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Citrus Peel Air Freshener

I am a huge fan of citrus fruit.  I eat two or more a day.  So I have lots of peels.  Want a nice scent in your home?  Toss one of those peels into a pot and turn it on to simmer. 

For me, rather than burning the propane to keep the stove going for this air freshener I simmer it on my heater.  Let me explain - I live in a house that tends to be very dry in the winter from a forced hot air heater in the living room.  To combat this, we keep an old stainless steel saucepan filled with tap water on top of the vent.  As the heat blows out the water evaporates into the air.  Back when I was growing up in a house with radiators I can remember my parents having a container that hung over the radiator for the same purpose.  I drop a citrus peel into this pot and we get a nice scent throughout the house any time the heater is running.  It doesn't cost anything to heat the water this way (we have to heat the house anyway) and the peel from the yummy orange I ate for breakfast gets used a little before it is discarded.

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: 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.

Crafting Between Household Chores

Having been away for five days last week my house is an even bigger disaster than usual, since I was the only one away for the bulk of that time. That means I'm spending my days off cleaning up after them and will have to put off for another week the tweaking I need to do to my Halloween costume and the hacking up of some sweaters that need to become shrugs to fill a gap in my wardrobe.

So here are three quick projects, knocked out in a few minutes each during breaks I needed to take in order to keep my sanity.




First up, a little bag for my clothespins. I, unfortunately, don't use an outdoor clothesline due to allergies but I do use clothespins with my drying rack and to close things like chip bags. So we don't have a large collection and with the bag not being stored outside pretty could take precedence to durable. You may recognize this remnant from the jeans to skirt refashion a little while back. This used up the last of the fabric, with the exception of a few small scraps that go into the box I send off to OA's quilter every so often.

This little bag is now hanging on the rod over my washer and is quite an improvement over the plastic bag you see next to it.




Next up a bouncy skirt from leftover giftwrap tulle and a bit of stash elastic. This will go into the box for my Christmas child. I look forward to giving a box of gifts to a child through OA each Christmas. I'm thinking I'm going to include some dress-up items this year and thought this would be a fun start.






Last up, a guinea pig pillow from a recently unearthed dishtowel that belonged to my mother-in-law. It is stuffed with the rest of the towel and scraps from my scrap bag.






Each little project was fun to make and a nice diversion from how cranky I am over lack of housekeeping cooperation.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: My First Reverse Applique

I'm very excited about this adventure! So excited that as you can see there are two posts today and I took quite a few photos of this project. I wasn't able to decide which to use so you've got a Photobucket slideshow.

The white, short sleeve shirt was such a favorite of mine that around here it is known by name - Midvale School for the Gifted. It was saved in a drawer for (mumble, mumble) six years (mumble, mumble) because I loved it so much I knew I could eventually find a way to wear it again. Midvale had two major problems - it was a 2X, and praise God I am no longer a 2X, in addition to it having quite a few stains on it. The neckband was discolored from age. Funny enough, in the process of remaking these shirts I found that the back of the print is stained too but luckily it does not show through to the front. You can see that stain in the slideshow.

The second shirt is a Large and while I'm a large in Ladies' garments, I am apparently not a Large in Men's long sleeve t-shirts. So it is a little wide around the middle and the shoulders are too big. Being a plain, not well fitted shirt, it wasn't getting much wear. I wanted to resize the shoulders, but the sleeves, despite how large the shirt is, come just to my wrists. Because I am often very cold in the winter I need the length of the sleeves so until I have the patience to lengthen them while taking in the shirt overall, I'm going to leave it as it is. Due to said coldness I generally dress in quite a few layers so the extra space is good for the wintertime layering. When it starts to annoy me I'll adjust it some more.

There were two graphics on the shirt, the large main one on the chest, and a smaller one near the hem, front left. I like the look of shirts with a little graphic at top center back so I placed the smaller graphic there on the project shirt. The large graphic went back to the same place on the new shirt as it was on the original.

The color of the shirt to be appliqued said Frankenstein to me so I wanted to make a Frankensteiny stitch for the project. Good thing - because at first I forgot to change to a ball point needle. It was definitely looking Frankenstein-like by the time I figured it out. But I did eventually catch my error. Since I was going for Frankie anyway, I didn't pick too much of it out. The stitch is my machine's smallest straight stitch, layered next with the smallest zig zag and topped with the largest zig zag. On the front it is flawless. The back has remnants of my experimentation. If it begins to annoy me I'll pick more of the non-ball point needle stitch out.

In the true spirit of Waste Not Want Not, I made pillows for our guinea pigs out of the short sleeves from the white shirt and the panel I cut out from the green one in order to expose the applique. They're stuffed with the other leftover bits of the white shirt.

I love how it turned out and know I will wear it quite a bit now that chilly season has set in.

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.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesday: Torn Loom Knitted Hat

I made this hat from some yarn I despise working with because my Mom asked me to. It was a battle to loom and Mom only got a few wears out of it before my lack of coordination with the yarn while constructing it caught up with her, snapping a stitch which obviously caused a big tear in the hat. I love Mom but there's no way I can battle this yarn sufficiently to make it a hat again.
As you can see I've frogged the hat, wound the bits into balls and have some left over that will go in my 'stuffing bag' which itself is a post for another day.

I plan to use the recycled yarn for the brim of a new hat for Mom, the bulk of which will be made with much friendlier to work with wool, as opposed to this synthetic chenille.

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 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.

Waste Not, Want Not Wednesday One

I've got an alliterated theme day!

Years ago when I worked in a retail store warehouse I needed jeans to wear. Being an 80's throwback used to wearing leggings I purchased some skin-tight, stretchy, pull-on jeans which I wore with longer shirts. Well, needless to say, I haven't worn these in years, both because I don't own many long shirts anymore and because I generally wear skirts, even in the snowy days of winter. (You just wear longer skirts with sweater tights under them then.)

I've got at least five pairs of these just waiting for something to be done with them. Today I finally got around to the first pair. I was lazy, since this was supposed to be an experimental project and didn't rethread the serger with black thread, but other than that I will deem this a successful project. It also marks my first use of iron-on hem tape in place of pins. I think I will be using that approach for a while as I have a bunch of it I got with Ikea curtains and never used.

The insert fabric was a piece I had on hand from one of the many remnant bin raidings I have been on over the years. So many little bits of fun fabric come from there!

It was very easy to do, just cut off the legs, sew in the fabric, try on, mark the hem, serge it to the length I wanted, turn under, press in place and sew. My one frustration was that the fabric, as mentioned, is stretchy...ugh...not fun to sew with a regular machine but I did manage.

I'm planning some more of these!

Upside Down Tomato Plants Anyone?

Those little green plastic bags you see advertised in magazines and on TV had caught my spouse's eye. There was no way I was forking over ten bucks for another piece of plastic junk that was going to end up in a landfill at the end of the season...or maybe two if it was durable enough to last through the first use.

I studied a package of these 'marvels' at the store, then did a little reading up to see if my idea had merit. Sure enough it seemed to. In fact there were folks who had successfully grown tomato plants before in what I was thinking - jeans legs.

With my supplies cut and at hand, I took to assembling them with the help of my sewing machine. I sewed the long strips all through the inside of the bag, for extra support. I certainly could have finished the edges better but remember, this is a tester so I'm not putting too much work into it. Next year's model - likely for Father's Day gifting - will be neat and pretty.



Once I had the bottom sewn up into an opening big enough to put my already sprouted plant roots through (Mom & Dad had given me some of those 'tomato tree' plants they got from another one of those ads) but small enough to keep the soil inside, I was off to the porch to do my planting.



And here is the first one. What do you think? We're having fun watching the plant turn up toward the sun. We're also hoping to bring these in when the first freeze is predicted in order to extend the growing season.

Wish us luck!






Tomorrow at CrunchySews: Loom Knit Selvage Bag.

Coats for Cubs

I just learned of this program and hope folks who have an old fur they'd rather not have now know where they can donate it without worry that someone else will be promoting cruelty by wearing the fur they donated.

Coats for Cubs is a program of the Humane Society of the United States. Fur items donated are used by rehabilitators to comfort orphaned wildlife. Those who own or inherited furs can't turn back the clock and prevent the item from being made in the first place, but they certainly can do good with them now.

Send Grammy's old stole to HSUS. She nurtured you, now the stole you won't wear can carry on her nurturing and love with a wee one who needs comfort and warmth to grow.