Sewing Business Blog » recycle

Paint Smocks For School Or Play

Sarah J. Doyle — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:45:30 +0000

With school starting right around the corner, and “pre school” and day care all year long, I found a perfect tutorial for making painting smocks. You might even be able to recycle an old vinyl table cloth (I have two of them here that desperately need recycling and 3 1/2 year old quadruplet grandbabies that need the smocks!), or pick up an inexpensive one at a dollar store. Tweedle-Thumbs blogspot has the perfect Craft Smock Tutorial – very easy instructions and a great idea for covering up the clothes while working on painting and other messy projects.

For those of you with children or grandchildren getting ready for school, this would be a quick and easy project to whip up just in time for school!

If you’re looking for other items to reuse your old clothing garments to remake into children’s outfits (help cut down on clothing expenses for school), check out Make A Child’s Wardrobe From Your Old Clothes website and book and see how quickly you can make a bunch of new children’s clothes.

Book Review: Junky Styling, Wardrobe Surgery

S. Denise Hoyle — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:06:04 +0000

Deconstructing, re-styling, and completely transforming old clothes is all the rage right now and this 160-page book, Junky Styling: Wardrobe Surgery is a beautifully designed and illustrated softcover publication that will inspire all who read it to take a new look at their discarded fashions.

The authors, Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager, launched a successful fashion label called Junky Styling in 1997 where they bought clothes from secondhand shops, like old men’s suits, and refashioned them into creations that were worn in London’s clubbing scene in the 90′s. Their work has since been featured at London and Paris Fashion Weeks, and their clients include celebrities like Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss, Russell Brand, and Sienna Miller.

Published by A & C Black Publishers Ltd (July 30, 2009), the book is listed for $32.87 at Amazon. Check out the tutorial excerpt to make this funky blouse from an old pair of men’s slacks and then read the book for more inspiration on revamping your wardrobe!

Cut The Cost By Making Your Own “Frills”

Sarah J. Doyle — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:10:00 +0000

I LOVE to run across ways to do fancy trims and decorations on garments — especially where the “purchased” ones of similar type cost a bundle of money.

At the Enchantresses3 blogspot, there is a super tutorial on how to make a corsage decoration on a regular tee. They say the “real deal” costs $29.95 from J. Crew and they’ve made theirs for around $6 to $8 bucks. WOW! This is GREAT!

Just look at the corsage appearance at the shoulder / neck. Their tutorial is very easy and gives every step of the process! Thanks ladies for this super idea!

While you’re in the store you might also want to buy a pack of men’s t-shirts and do some other decorating — go to the tutorials on PatternsThatFitYou to and you’ll be able to make a closet full of tee’s at very minimal cost.

And, while you’re at PatternsThatFitYou, check out the information on making scarves — they could also help extend your wardrobe!

There are a ton of free “tutorials” at PatternsThatFitYou, in addition to the ones just mentioned — run on by and see what all you can make.

8 Ways to Reuse Tissue Patterns

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:50:00 +0000

There’s a great post at Crafting A Green World that I wanted to share with a bunch of neat ideas on how to reuse your old tissue paper patterns. Their ideas include gorgeous paper roses with button accents, wrapping paper and matching gift tags, decoupage letters and sewing boxes, and my favorite drink coasters and buttons as shown here.

Check out all the terrific ideas and pictures at Crafting A Green World. I’m thinking that some of these will be great diversion projects for the kids this summer, maybe I can keep them busy making some coasters while I spend some time in the sewing room

Recycle The Shoes Off Your Feet

S. Denise Hoyle — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:08:00 +0000

I simply had to post about these shoes when I saw the tutorial – what a great idea! I have horrible, hard to fit feet and it never fails, as soon as I get a pair broken in to where they’re finally comfortable – I’ve got them all scuffed up and they no longer look like they should.

Well Perri Lewis in the UK took an old pair of pumps and turned them into this brand new customized pair for just a few bucks! She made them using decoupage techniques and her design is made from stamps and glossy magazine pages. You could also use wrapping paper or thin tissue paper, but I was thinking of all the wonderful fabric scraps that I keep for the perfect occasion.

Better yet, how about taking a favorite old pre-loved pair of dress shoes and recycling them to match your latest outfit creation with the leftover scraps! You could save some major bucks and look like a million all at the same time! Get the full tutorial with step by step instructions in the UK’s Guardian News.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Sarah J. Doyle — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Today is Earth Day, and what better way to celebrate than to figure out ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle — not just in our businesses, but in our homes as well.

If we all determined to do a little more recycling of things we’d normally toss into the trash can, we could literally “save the earth”! Recycle those plastic drink bottles — or even better, refill (reuse) them by using your own water, especially if you have some sort of water purification system. Ask for paper bags at the grocery store instead of plastic. However if you don’t have the choice, make up your mind to keep a “bag of bags” and either take the bag of plastic bags to a recycle location or to a grocery store that has a place for you to dispose of the used plastic bags.

For those of us in the sewing / crafting / alteration businesses, there are so many ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle that it would make your head spin!!!

For starters, keep every button and zipper you take off worn out clothing garments. Sort them and put all like buttons together with a strand of thread so you can find them later.

Keep every scrap of fabric from your alterations or sewing / craft projects. These scraps can be used for additional craft items or for making small children’s clothing items.

In the past we’ve given specific things you can do with your scraps and worn out clothing items, such as making fabric flowers, making jeans purses and making a clown bean bag, among other things. There are so many things to do with scraps, the list would be endless.

Look back at our post about organizing your fabric stash and see what you can do to add to the list of things to keep your fabric and notions stash in order so everything you have can be used.

Give us your thoughts about reusing and recycling in your business. Are there ways you’ve been able to extend the life of your sewing equipment, or new ideas for crafts from leftover items lying around in your sewing room? We’d love to hear from you.

Remaking Old Garments Into New

Sarah J. Doyle — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:40:00 +0000

We here at SewingBusiness.com are all about reuse and recycle, and have posted many articles telling about using old leftover scraps and turning them into gift items, flea market items, etc.

I love to see tutorials about turning old “tossed aside” garments into new garments, or into craft items – just reuse and recycle!

Recently I ran across an awesome little dress that was made out of a man’s shirt that was picked up at Good Will. I was so pleased with it that I want to pass it along to those of you who are also into the recycling mode.

The first picture is the shirt that came from Good Will, and the second picture is the completed sun dress — isn’t this just the cutest little dress!!!

The tutorial is provided by Livvyloo at Craftster. We always appreciate the neat tutorials that are passed along at Craftster.

Not long ago we did a tutorial about changing men’s t-shirts into cool women’s tops -

There are so many ways that no-longer-worn clothing garments can be re-made into useful garments for children or craft items. And, as we’ve pointed out before, if you’re ever at a yard sale where there are tons of women’s / men’s clothing for sale, be sure to check the fabric in the garments. The dress, blouse or shirt may not be something you’d like to wear, but perhaps the fabric could be used for something special.

Have you made items from old clothes or sheets that you could put together a short tutorial? We’d love to pass along ideas for reuse and recycle.

How To Do Spool Weaving

Sarah J. Doyle — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:29:00 +0000

If you do a lot of sewing, quilting or alterations you already know how quickly the thread spools can run out of thread. So, what do you do with the empty ones? I’ve always put mine in a bag to save for children’s projects or other types of projects that would call for the spools. Well, I think I’ve hit the jackpot because I’ve found a little project using the spools to make little chip holders or popcorn holders, or whatever you’d like to fill them with.

The project we’ll work on takes 15 thread spools, all the same size
Miniature foil meat loaf pan, 5 11/16″ x 3 1/4″ x 2″ (available in houseware department baking supplies)

Peel off original labels from the spool ends and trace each spool onto colored poster paper. Cut the circles out and glue a circle to one end of each spool. These will be the tops of the spools.

Arrange the spools on non-corrugated cardboard, such as that from a tablet (Figure 1), fitting them around the container. Use an uneven number of spools for single strand weaving, ours being 15. Draw around the spools to outline the base, being careful not to push the spools out of line as you draw. Remove the container and spools and cut out the base. Glue the bottoms of the spools to the base, matching the curves of the spools to the scallops of the base.

For the weaving, use fairly heavy cord such as parcel post wrapping twine, macrame cord or yarn. Jute parcel post cord and black macrame cord of the same weight were used for the holder pictured. Glue the end of the cord to the inside of any spool at the bottom of its barrel. Bring the cord between the spool to which it is glued and the next spool to the right. Weave around front of the second spool, between it and the next spool to the right, behind the third spool and so on around for the first row.

On the second row, the cord will pass around the front of the beginning spool, behind the second, in front of the third and so on (Figure 2). The third row will be the same as the first, the fourth the same as the second.

There should be sufficient “give” between the flanges of the spool tops to slip the cord between them for weaving around the barrels. As the weaving progresses, don’t pull the cord too tight or it will be difficult to slip between the flanges and may twist the farme out of line. Push each row of weaving down to fit against the row before it, using a little glue on the spools to keep the cords in place.

When you wish to change colors, stop the weaving behind the first spool. Cut off and glue the end of the cord to the center back of the starting spool. Butt the beginning end of the second color of weaving cord against the stopping point of the first color, glue to the spool and continue weaving. Change colors as desired and weave until the barrels are covered to the top. End the weaving behind the first spool, gluing the end of the cord to the barrel to complete the weaving. Add the container and your project is done.

Recycle CapriSun Containers

Sarah J. Doyle — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:02:00 +0000

A couple of years ago my granddaughter, then a senior in high school, made CapriSun purses. Small purses, just what all the girls wanted, and she sold TONS of them! She sold them for $15 each, and had a waiting list for them. Now if I’d been smart, I would have watched her make them, written some instructions to pass along, or at least would have been able to make them myself! She is now in Italy with her Air Force husband and baby, so can’t “run down the street” to get the information.

HOWEVER, I did find a super tutorial on making kids pencil bags out of the CapriSun containers at SkipToMyLou.org, and I think this is an awesome idea. Here’s the tutorial for you to try.

I made this juice bag pencil pouch for my son’s first day of school. He really wanted the Kool-Aid Sport juice bags (because they look Cool) but the store was out and this is what we had.

You need 4 juice bags and an 8 inch zipper for this little pencil case. If you need a larger pencil bag try 3 bags lined up vertically.

Cut a slit in the bottom of each empty juice bag and rinse. Allow bags to dry.

Lay two bags end to end, one on top of the other. They should measure 9 1/2 inches in total length. Stitch through the bags at the bottom of the top bag. I found a heavy duty needle (like for denim) helpful. I was also using a heavy duty thread. Repeat for other size.

Stitch one side of the zipper to the top of the bags —right sides together.

Notice carefully where to stop stitching. Do not stitch to edge.

Stitch the other side of bag to the zipper, again right sides together.

Lay zipper and bags flat and top stitch down each side of zipper.

Bring bags together wrong sides together. Fold zipper ends down on each side.

Starting at top side stitch down the side, across the bottom and up the other side.

I trimmed off just a little on each side to make it even.

There you go, a recycled pencil bag!