upcycle

Reuse, recycle…

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I am determined not to add to my fabric stash so am using up bits and pieces in small projects.

Scraps of fabric have been waxed to provide clingfilm alternative waxed wraps, these live on the fridge ready for use. I used beeswax pellets as solid bees wax needs messy grating before it is ironed on the fabric.

Then when reducing the size of a king size duvet cover to fit a double bed I ended up with surplus strips of fabric.

As the overlock machine was out I decided to fold the strips in four and overlock them into squares for use as reusable cotton face wipes. Enough extra bundles were made to go in the present drawer with suggested ‘recipes’ for diy facial cleanser.

Aunty Jenny’s necklace

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When sorting through my late Aunt’s jewellry I broke a necklace. Although it was probably on its way to the charity shop, I felt guilty so decided to craft it into a new life.

I set the beads in uv resin to make three pendant baubles. These can be hung on a window latch, car rear view mirror or Christmas tree (with the right string) but here I have used some toning ribbon from my stash so I can finish the project off without buying.

Don’t feel so guilty now.

Tag Tuesday

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Use it up or throw it out! That’s the 2023 mantra for the craft room. The button bowl is overflowing, so a few have been used on tags plus some wandering Christmas cards were chopped and/or die cut as well.

I even used up a few stars from the Christmas embellishments bag before it got packed away.

Isolation crafting

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Yes, there has been card making but much, much more. A daily dose of crafting keeps the isolation blues at bay. All being forced to use what is to hand.

Over the last 2 weeks I have made: trimmed pillowcases from recycled sheeting, doorstops and gift bags from the stash. I have harvested, dried and frozen herbs and made potions and gifts with them. Each day I have sorted, de cluttered and organised making more crafty mess every day!

And yes, a little Christmas crafting in case post isolation life is too busy to craft ( no chance).

Vinyl records upcycle

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What to do with a windfall of old records?

Unplayable, unloved and now upcycled into a fruit bowl.

Pre-heat the oven to medium hot then balance the record over an upturned bowl and bake it for about 4 minutes until it has draped itself over the bowl creating the folds and contours you see here.

As you take it out of the oven you have a few seconds to manipulate the hot vinyl a bit before it cools.

Ok, not food safe and there is a hole at the bottom but it is FUN and I used the album cover to make a presentation box. Yes, some lucky person is getting this for Christmas.

Snap bags

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‘Snap’ was a local word for packed lunch in Nottingham/ Derbyshire when I was living there many, many years ago. So these lunch bags fastened with Kam snaps had an obvious snappy name.

I used remnants of vinyl from an Amazon job lot which meant cutting front and back panels to use the fabric best. If you have a plasticised tablecloth or even a heavy duty shower curtain to upcycle that would work well.

Because the remnants weren’t squared, one of the sunflower bags has an angled flap which needs three snaps to keep it closed well. But because the colour of the snaps is a positive (there were about 20 sachets of different colour snaps in the beginner set I bought) it makes the end result better in a quirky way.

While the snaps were out I made a small lined bag (angled flap and 3 snaps again) and turned the cuff end of a shirt sleeve (left over from last week’s laundry bag make) into a phone holder to avoid scratches when it is in my bag.

to make: cut vinyl into required shape (back bigger so the flap folds over)

with right sides facing sew round the sides and bottom – use a long stitch length to make as few puncture holes in the vinyl as possible and don’t do too many back stitches at beginning and end or the vinyl will be too holey and might tear when in use.

trim seam allowance and clip the seam really close to the stitches at the corners before turning right sides out – the clipping helps neaten the corners as vinyl is quite bulky.

fold the edges of the flap over and seam these in place, on one of the bags I used zig zag for this to hide a blooper I had made.

position the snaps or you could use Velcro to finish the bag…

Upcycle shirt into laundry bag

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Thanks to Edward for finally clearing out his aging shirts. The less lovely patterns will be used to line projects but this shirt is worth using on the outside

I decided to keep the placket (learnt that word from Sewing Bee) so just chopped off the collar and sleeves leaving equal rectangles. (I unpicked a dart on the back but this really wasn’t necessary).

I then cut two matching rectangles from lining material (I am finally making headway into the old duvet cover that is flattering up my fabric stash/jumble).

To make a drawstring tube, I cut two strips of fabric from the remnant about 10 inches by 4, hemmed the short ends and ironed under about an inch on the long sides before stitching the long ends a couple of inches down from the top of the outside of front and then back of the shirt

With right sides facing I hemmed the sides and bottom of both shirt and lining (leaving a gap for turning in the bottom of the lining. I boxed the corners with a 2 inch box cut out but this isn’t necessary.

I then turned the lining right sides out and sat it inside the shirt bag. I pinned the tops of the bags together, matching the seams and smoothing out any wrinkly bits before hemming all the way round.

I pulled the shirt through the gap in the lining, stitched the gap shut and then pushed the lining back inside the bag.  I ironed and top stitched around the top hem before threading cord loops through the drawstring.

This is an easy project as the shirt front does all the style work needed. I didn’t even stitch the two sides of the front together, just left them buttoned up. This means the user could tuck things between front and lining if desired. And that’s in addition to the original shirt pocket on the front. I did put fabric tabs over the cord ends to use up some of the little remnants but it’s really not required.

Perhaps this is too good for a laundry bag!

On another version I tried using the sleeves to shape the bag by cutting just inside the shoulder seam. It made the bag slightly wider but a bit more fiddly and saggy when finished.

 

 

Washi Wednesday … part 3

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We had a diy beauty products day and filled lots of pots and jars with creations, then decided to prettify the containers – with washi tape, of course.

My favourite is the hobbycraft bunting tape, the white background is translucent and ‘disappeared’ on the plastic pots.

We sealed the surfaces with mod podge to try and keep the washi in place until the next refill.