Sewing Chick: Repurposing

Showing posts with label Repurposing. Show all posts

Monday, December 29, 2008

In the Nesting Phase

Well I think the morning sickness has passed, and I am back to sewing, and hopefully, blogging about sewing. I think I'm in now what they call the "nesting" phase. I am sewing things up for baby like crazy. I made several pairs of pants for little Joel (yes, he's a boy, and his name will be Joel!). Photos will follow. I also made a little drawstring bag so he can tote around his toys with him when we hit the road, a dust ruffle for the crib and a matching baby quilt that should fit his toddler bed when he gets to that point (and a baby quilt for my brand new nephew), some iron-on transfers to some plain onesies, some fitted cradle mattress covers, and most recently am working on some felt and foam baby blocks.

The cradle we're using is an antique passed down for many generations in my family. My great-grandpa rocked in it, and my grandma thinks his dad may have rocked in it as well, so this dates back to late 1800s. Needless to say, the mattress that came with it was old and didn't meet today's standards. The mattress may have been new when my grandma was a baby, but that means the mattress is about 75 years old! I used it 30 years ago when I was born, however Joel needed something new. I had some foam that Jason had used as a boxspring before we were married (and how can I throw out good foam so of course I kept it!), so I was able to create a mattress from that. Then I sewed up four covers for it, for those times when little Joel needs his sheets changed in the middle of the night.

Here are the blocks close to being completed. All I have to do is sew the pieces of felt to each other, and they'll be done.

Here's a piece of the foam I used. Pay no mind to the cheezits in the background! (Hey, I'm pregnant!)

These are the cutest little pants I made. I made them from an old shirt of mine.

Check out the butt of those OSU pants- made from an iron-on transfer

Here are several pairs of pants that aren't done yet because I ran out of elastic. I figure I can wait until Joel is ready to wear these to put in the elastic and hem the bottoms so I can get the best fit possible. The best part is that I got these materials from our shed! I went outside and dug through the boxes of stuff we tried to sell two summers ago at a garage sale, and dragged it all back into the house to cut up and repurpose. The orange pants were an old sweater of mine that could not be felted, the plaid ones were short-sleeved shirts of mine, and the black pants were from a shirt of Jason's. The denim was from my great-grandma's stash of fabric. There was a ton of it to start with; I already re-slipcovered some cushions in the basement with it, and I still have lots left over.

Here's a tiny pair of dress pants made from the cut-off bottoms of a pair of men's slacks. They're so cute! Not perfect, but cute anyway :)

This is the drawstring bag I made. You can see the liner fabric around the little ducky's head. I used this tutorial from happythings' blog; it was really helpful and easy to follow!

Here's the exterior of the bag

Here's my old computer desk turned baby changing table, complete with handmade skirt to hide diaper storage.

Here's some pieces of decor for Joel's room. I bought a little bunny book at a thrift store very inexpensively so that I could cut it up and use the rabbit pictures. The mirror on the right was originally red and in the dining room; I painted it a soft green and decoupaged on the rabbit pictures.

Here's the toddler bed quilt for Joel... see the cute Thumper fabric in the corner

Another shot of the quilt.

Here are some onesies that I got as gifts. They were originally plain white, so I spruced them up. The first one is with a patch my friend gave me. The rest are all decorated with iron-on transfers.

More onesies with iron-on-transfers

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Cloth Diapers, Diaper Covers, and a Sleep Sack

Woohoo! I'm pregnant! After seven months of trying, we finally got pregnant :) I have about eight months until the little one arrives, and so I am getting busy creating all the eco-friendly things baby will need once she (or he) arrives.

My husband and I both agree that cloth diapers are the way to go. His mom actually used cloth diapers with him, though it was because he was allergic to the disposable kind. She used a diaper service, however I am going to try to do without one and do it myself the old fashioned way. Well with the washer and dryer that is. Not quite so old fashioned I guess.

Before we get to the pics, here are some links that will help you (I know they sure have helped me!)
Sewing Wool Soakers at http://wheelerclothbaby.blogspot.com/

Another way to sew a wool diaper cover

DIY Prefold Diaper Tutorial

Sewing Prefolds http://fernandfaerie.com/

http://clothbaby.blogspot.com/

Tons of free patterns, including one on how to make a diaper from a t-shirt

How to sew a fitted cloth diaper for cheap

Katrina's Sew Quick Diaper Soaker Pattern at http://katrinassqs.blogspot.com/

Washing Cloth Diapers

A sleep sack tutorial

Another sleep sack tutorial

Here is my first wool soaker, made with two of my old sweaters that I felted.

Here's a not-quite-finished wool sleep sack, which can double as a wool soaker overnight. It isn't done yet because I haven't finished up the bottom. I can't decide how I want to finish it... velcro perhaps? I've seen some with snaps, some drawstring, some sewed shut, some zippered... decisions, decisions!

Some 100% cotton drapery panels that will soon be flat fold diapers

Some linen that will be good for something. How could I pass up good linen?

These are the cutest fabrics. (especially the bunnies!) I'm pretty sure the plain green one is snappi-able, but I don't know about the others. I ordered a snappi so I can test the fabrics out as I go.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Making an eco-friendly trivet

So this is a weird one. I had this yellow, very sturdy plastic, um, thingamabob, and I wondered to myself, "What can I do with this?" (I think it was straps holding a box together for something that came in the mail). The wheels started turning and I came up with this: I am in the process of curling the straps and holding it with a clamp. I haven't glued it down yet, however while it's in the clamp, I will apply glue so that hopefully when I remove the clamp, the coil remains tight. Then I will coil a second strap around the first, and continue until the desired size is reached. I have four straps, so hopefully that will be enough. This surely won't be all that attractive, but it will be functional!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

More transformations

The lady who made this is the bomb. She is my hero, seriously. You should totally check out her blog. This is the inspiration for me to do something with this, if I could just bring myself to cut it up:

Here we have a small piece of wood, painted a lovely shade of green, to which I screwed in three vintage hooks. While I was still with my ex, his apartment building was being torn down to make way for a new university parking lot (that totally pissed me off but that's neither here nor there). Since it was being torn down, we took the hooks that had been hanging in the closet all those years. It was the least I could do save a small piece of history.

Here's my husband's not-so-attractive TV stand. We were getting rid of furniture when our two households merged, but I saw some potential in this one. I knew we would need more TV stands, since together we had six TVs. I knew just the corner where this one would work. Here it is mid-way to being done.

And here it is after it's paint job and new skirt (attached with velcro)

What the heck is this thing?

What in tarnation is it? Awhile back, I bought it at a flea market for next to nothing. For the longest time, I proudly displayed four pillowcases (one hung in each hole), however I have decided to put the pillowcases back in the closet. Sometimes I sling a purse over the top, and I'm sure it would be good in a bathroom to hold a handtowel, but what else could it be?

I suppose you could glue round pieces of cork into the circles and have a very interesting cork board.

You could somehow place lace around the circles (perhaps with hot glue), and use it as a place to store earrings, but I don't really wear earrings.

If the circles moved, you could position them so you could put flower pots in it, but they won't budge. Who else has some cool ideas? Speak up, people! Let me know what you think.

My Chair Fetish

According to good buddy Merriam-Webster, a fetish is:

1a- an object (as a small stone carving of an animal) believed to have magical power to protect or aid its owner; broadly : a material object regarded with superstitious or extravagant trust or reverence
b- an object of irrational reverence or obsessive devotion

Yes, that's me. "Obsessive devotion." Why, oh why, do I love chairs so much? Big chairs, little chairs, wooden chairs, plastic chairs, metal chairs, upholstered chairs, chairs that match, and chairs that lack a partner. I love them all the same. Perhaps Dr. Seuss should have spun a little tale about chairs rather than his infamous "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." Don't you think, "One chair, two chairs, Red Chairs, Blue Chairs" just has a better ring to it?

Yes, I do have too much time on my hands.

My husband is very good about my garage saling habit, however he now expressly prohibits me from bringing home anything that remotely resembles a chair. Well, he isn't exactly that harsh, but you know what I mean. A few weekends ago I came really close to bringing home a chair. My friend and I were garage saling at a huge community yard sale, and the sales were wrapping up for the weekend. This one homeowner had already gone inside and called it a day. And there it was. It was wooden with a broken cane seat. It matched almost perfectly the chair that my grandma gave me to few years ago, right down to the broken cane seat. And best of all, it was free. At least, I figured it was free. It was just sitting out by the curb like trash. But I didn't take it, and now it's probably taking up space somewhere in some landfill. I'm pissed off just thinking about it. Hopefully someone nabbed it, even if that someone wasn't me. Here's mine holding some vintage tablecloths since people can't sit on its broken cane seat:

I don't own a pair of these chairs, however the idea behind them are so cool I wanted to add them to the list. Click on the chairs, and you can visit their website. They recycle video game consoles and somehow make chairs out of them!

This one was sold to me back in college by a friend. At the time, it was covered in ugly black vinyl, so I covered it with green velvety fabric that I bought back when I worked at Joanns (loved that employee discount!) The pillows and blanket were second-hand finds.

This chair is temporarily holding this Sheriff's hat that I got for Jason. Suffice it to say, as a child, Jason used to collect little police badges, and I thought this would make a nice addition to his collection! (Fifty cents at a garage sale, and this hat was mine!)

I bought these little charmers at three separate garage sales/flea markets. I can't believe I was lucky enough to find three of the same type of chair! Inconspicuously printed on the chair is "Made in Mexico" ... my guess is they were hand-painted.

This rocker was a college hand-me-down from a roommate. She didn't want it anymore and gave it to me when we graduated. I recovered it and paired it with this pillow I made.

These plastic chairs were originally green and red when I was given them by a college roommate's mother. I painted them white, distressed them, gave them leaf motif stamps, and then placed a seat cusion on them (where is the other seat cushion?!)

This chair is being put to good use to hold kindling for this summer's bonfires.

I got this little beauty at an antique store for ten bucks. It's tiny and cute. I wouldn't spend ten dollars for a chair anymore, but this was one of my first finds.

This little darling came from a garage sale for a buck or so. My children will make good use of it some day, but in the meantime I set stuffed animals on it.

These shabby chic chairs came from a thrift store years ago and cost ten bucks for the pair. When covered with the cushions I made to go with them, they are really comfy.

Here's a another garage sale find

This bentwood chair has a mate downstairs in the kitchen. Both came from garage sales.

Some don't care for these chairs, but at 1.50 for the pair at a garage sale back in college, I couldn't pass them up. I recovered them and painted them white and now they look like totally different chairs. My dentist's office has these same exact chairs.

You might think that's all I have *cackles with laughter*, but honey, this is just a mere drop in the bucket!

I Hate Gardening

That's right. Someone who's as frugal and eco-friendly as me, well you would think that I enjoy gardening. Growing your own foods so you don't have to rely on pre-packaged veges at the grocery store, that sounds like a "reducing" from the 3Rs if you ask me. Well the only thing I am growing is clover in the yard so I can feed it to my rabbit. And even that is a weed.

Notice the thistle weed on the right side of the picture and the baby redbud tree sapling on the left. That darn tree is always dropping its babies everywhere. I've never seen such an invasive tree before. It such a pain to go dig them up all the time. Oh well; at least it is pretty in the spring. I guess that makes it all worth it.

My husband is in charge of mowing, and I am supposed to be in charge of weeding the flower beds. It's a running joke around here that I am systematically eliminating the flower beds by turning them back into grass. The side of the house has a flower bed that used to be full of perrenials (which I do love the look of) but lately it's just been home to thistle weeds. I plowed it under, planted grass seed, and it is no longer my problem. Next job to tackles is the ginormous flower beds in the back yard that go around two sides of the sunroom. I always thought it would be nice to plant veges there, however it never happened. The only thing that grows there these days are weeds. That's right folks, I am a horrible gardener. I don't like the heat nor do I like the sun, and so being outside to pull weeds is utter torture.

This is about as close to gardening as I care to be-- sitting in the living room looking at pretty pictures from my favorite decorating magazines.

I do a little container gardening. I had an aloe plant, which I mistakenly thought might like to live in the sunroom. Oops. It's almost dead now. I also have a plant on the kitchen windowsill that's in pretty sad shape. I guess I lack the gene that causes the condition known as "green thumb." My aunt got all those genes.

I do like the look of terra cotta pots. I saw once in a magazine where they took the itty bitty ones and wired them together to form a wreath, which they hung on their gate. It was the most adorable thing I ever saw, not to mention a good way to repurpose something! I grab the little clay pots at garage sales whenever I see them, however so far I have not collected too many, so I can't make my wreath just yet.

In the meantime, here are two ladies who have made a version of the terra cotta wreath. I especially like the first one because it's a little bit fuller with more pots on it.

When you visit her site, you'll see that this woman is really into gardening. She has such fun, funky, and recycle-minded ideas!

This site isn't oriented toward gardening, but instead on Trash to Treasure. This is one of my favorite past times-- taking what someone else thinks is junk and revamping it into something beautiful and/or useful!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Starting Fires

Waste not, want not... that's the motto I live by. Here are two good examples of just how to do that. Everyone knows that newspaper is good for starting fires, whether it be a summer evening bonfire, or lighting the fireplace on a chilly winter day. What you may not know is that there are ways to make your newspaper go farther. There are products on the market that will turn your newspaper into logs or bricks. As the Lehman's website states, "Tightly wrapped newspaper burns slowly and provides extended periods of heat." I don't own one personally, but I would highly recommend buying one from Lehman's if you plan on buying one, because Lehman's is based out of Amish country in Ohio. Check out these two websites for two different kinds of log rollers:

You can also roll a newspaper log without those fancy contraptions. I have tried it, with some success, however I found that you get a lot of ash from burning newspaper logs rather than wooden logs, and it works best if you use a combination of both real wood and newspaper logs. Here's how: Thoroughly wet each section of newspaper. Begin tightly rolling each section together; when half-rolled, place a new newspaper section onto the half-rolled sheet and continue rolling. Continue until the log reaches desired thickness. Tie with twine when done. Use only when completely dry (this will take awhile).

A second way to "waste not, want not" when it comes starting fires is to make wax-dipped pinecones. First, amass a pile of large pine cones (we collected some in Hilton Head Island and some I purchased at garage sales or post-Christmas clearance sales).

In an empty coffee can, melt down pieces of wax from left-over candles. My friends now give me their candles that are too small to burn anymore. Carefully dip each pinecone in the melted wax and let cool and harden on wax paper. I found that this step works best when the wax isn't super-hot and instead is nearing a gel-like state and almost cool enough to harden. Otherwise the wax just drips right off and it won't stick to the pinecone. When finished, you have a very stylish, good-scented way to start a fire. Just toss it in with the wood and newspaper and light it.

I've also heard of taking dryer lint and place it into a paper egg carton. Top with melted wax and let cool. Cut apart each egg section and use just like you would use a pinecone. I'm sure this works equally well though I have not tried this idea yet.

Check out this website for more frugal fire-starting tips!

Sewing Chick