The have been working like MAD on their Eco-Quilts. They are still being worked on and you can flip through all the photos on . Our Quilt Show will be up in June, if you are a local yokel – please come for a visit!
Archive for the 'green' Category
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I realized it’s been a while since I’ve shared any of my sewing projects, so I thought I’d give you a little update.
I have been sewing quite a bit. A few birthday presents for kids that left before I could snap a shot. A little twirly skirt and a zippered pouch meant to hold tiny horses.
I finally finished the Doll Quilt for Iz. I started it a while ago, and finally finished sewing on the binding. I love her reaction when I make her things. So thrilled and she just loves everything I make, and you know that makes it so much easier to keep making her things.
Remember this hat I made for Iz last year. Well I’ve been noodling with the pattern and have already made this one, then I made this one:
I am really in love this with hat. The brim is nice and big to keep the sun away. I am even thinking of making a few out of felted sweaters for our nice cold spring, or next winter. (the lovely pics are from my HomeSchool LuckyStitchers – thanks guys! you ROCK!
I made a spring coat (), and I am so not in love with it. It’s HUGE! I made it two sizes smaller than what the pattern suggests, and it is still too big. The fabric is wonderful, I love the bright green lining and I am thinking big black bakelight buttons. I haven’t hemmed it yet, I think that I just need to make it the right length and it will be flattering. I’m bummed. I still need a spring coat.
I am almost finished with a lovely wrap dress. I’ll post pictures of it when I’m done (soon, soon, soon)
I am super excited about my next big project. The girls have been wanting to make quilts, and that’s what we are doing this month at LuckyStitches. I’ve also been trying to get everyone to think about their resources and using what they have, so I’ve asked them all to bring a bag of old clothes, bed linens and fabric scraps to share. These items up for swap go in the center of the table and the girls can grab and trade as they cut 3″ strips.
Or tear 3″ strips. Everyone got a bit of practice doing one of my favorite things, tearing fabric. With a little snip at 3″, then a good strong pull on either side and sheets and big pieces can rip beautifully. I love their faces when they make a little magic too.
Here’s the start of mine. From left to right – tweed pants, angora sweater, wool flannel pants. I’m not an earthtone kind of girl, but I am falling in love with these textures and colors. I have a bit more cutting to do as next week we’ll start sewing our scrap strips together.
I’m asking everyone to save all of their scraps from their cutting of the strips and we are going to try to use everything. I’m looking for scrap projects, so if you know of any, please share!
Happy Sewing!
I’ve always been fascinated with quilts. Not only do I love the patterns, textures, pieces, colors but I love that they are meant to be cozy and keep you warm and even tell a story. I’m fascinated by the master quilters who can slice and dice fabric and stitch it into amazing shapes with color placement that makes me swoon, literally.
I think you know that at I offer classes to HomeSchoolers. Well, I’ve declared April to be Quilt month, and we are going to be making quilts! Let me tell you that I am no master quilter, by any means. I can’t stand cutting (but my rotary blade has certainly helped with that). I have made a quilt before, and I loved it! I still love it. Iz loves it too. They make for wonderful keepsakes. They also tell stories. I’ll be sharing resources with the kids so they can understand the history, passion and art in quilts too.
For this class, however, we won’t be going to the fabric store to make our quilt tops, we are going to be looking in the closet. Using clothes, linens, towels, blankets, anything made of fabric or fabric scraps. We’ll be making the ultimate in scrap quilts, turning something that doesn’t’ seem to have a use anymore (pants that don’t fit) into something eternally useful (a quilt!). For years I’ve used old sheets, blankets, towels and clothes and made them into something new, preventing the “old” item from going to waste or ending up in a landfill (did you know that the dyes used in coloring fabric are mostly toxic? You can read more or ). Hopefully, by making these quilts, we can also raise awareness of our use of textiles, how they are made, thrown away or even better – re-used.
Here’s our tentative schedule if you want to participate or follow along:
Week 1 – Cutting. We’ll be cutting our found items into 3″ strips. We’re going to be holding on to all our scraps and perhaps use them along the way or figure out something new to do with them.
Week 2 and 3 – Sewing. We’ll be sewing our strips together. End to end then strip to strip. We’re just going to keep sewing until we have enough for a quilt that’s about 50×50 ish.
Week 4 – Quilting. We’ll be safety pin basting our quilts together, using batting if necessary and attaching a back. Then we’ll quilt it all together either machine quilting or tying.
Week 5 – Binding. Maybe using scraps or linings or something left over, we’ll stitch together strips for a binding and sew it on.
I’ll be posting inspiration, photos and stories along the way.
**Remember, I can sew, but I’m not a super duper quilter. I’ll be showing the kids some super basic techniques. Hopefully, this will give them the foundation they need to go and either take another quilt class or start on another quilt or even make their own pattern. Whatever the outcome, they will have made something that is eco conscious as well as get more practice sewing, and have it for the rest of their lives (as long as mom doesn’t clean up their rooms and throw everything out that’s on the floor…not that these will end up in a pile somewhere…).
I hope you’ll follow along. Even better if there are kids in your life who can follow along too! And if you do decide to participate, please let me know.
I read this really wonderful article about DIYers and the difference they are making in the world. They aren’t screaming from their soap boxes, they are just doing. Quietly, they are changing the world, one project at a time using found items, re-purposed items and making things new again (I can’t seem to find the article, if you know which one I’m talking about – let me know so I can link to it).
I think if I try to change everything in my life at the same time, I would go crazy, so I try to change at least one thing a week. Once it was switching to phosphate free laundry detergent, then fabric softner, then not using the dryer. I’m using Happy-Sacks instead of plastic bags. I bring my own bags to shop with, even to stores that aren’t selling groceries. I use old clothing and bed linens for sewing projects. And I read blogs and learn about other ideas.
My favorite today, and OH-SO-OBVIOUS!!! On – there’s a . Of course, why are we buying plastic? I’ll never buy another plastic shower curtain. Bad.
So – another small step today. And this has another thing brewing in my mind…
Is anyone in the Western Ma area interested in participating in a ? I’m going to see if we can get one started here. I’m looking for interested folks who can volunteer to help sort, lead workshops and organize. Email me – zannestar(at)luckystitches(dot)com if you are interested in learning more or want to help out.
I noticed these little almost a year ago, but put off buying them as I still had my bulk purchase (from Costco) of re-sealable plastic bags. But now my bag stash is out, and well, you should by now know of my love for recycling and re-using, so I’ve started buying these wonderful, lovely, fabulous Happy-Sacks. I use them for snacks and sandwiches. They are lined with a heavy nylon making them easy to clean. They come in (aka eye candy). And what I love even more, they come from a . Cool moms doing cool things. I love that.
, originally uploaded by .
Wool is good. Felt is good. Blankets are good. Lists are good. This is going on my project list. I found this picture of a felted wool blanket in progress by . I can’t tell you how much I LOVE it.
I love it for many reasons. Using found materials is high on my list and finding things at thrift stores is not only fun, it’s good for our environment.
I love that wool is such an amazing medium. I learn more and more about wool all the time. Needle felting is something that’s on my list of things to learn this year.
And I love blankets. Maybe it’s the drafty and sometimes chilly house we live in, or maybe it’s the comfort of being wrapped in a warm blanket.
It could be a big project. But nice and warm. Maybe I’ll start with a small one, one for Iz to keep in the car.
Years ago, I started making my own Christmas cards (I can’t believe I don’t have any pictures!!! argh). It started out of necessity really, I was a college student, completely broke, but wanting all my family and friends to know that I have been thinking of them throughout the year. Being in , I had tons of supplies, and my beau at the time (now my husband) was handy with the paint and paper, and he helped me make the cards. I think we made 30 that year. So every year since (barring the year I was pregnant, and the past 2 years), we’ve made our cards.
We’ve always used things from our stash, but sometimes complemented them with tin and velvet and beads and cellophane. I would start thinking about cards after every new year, try to get started during the summer, but never really start until mid-December. For the few years while this has been on hiatus (due in large part to becoming a mom and figuring life out again), I so wanted to make cards. I think about family and friends all the time, but I’m not as fabulous at keeping in touch, and I always feel like these cards are my way of saying, “I’ve been thinking about you all year long…”
It’s been on my little to start again this year. So, now that it is after Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a good time to start. It’s a family affair. We’re making cards, working on them after dinner. The list has grown to well over 100. Tonight we started prepping, cutting and painting cardboard stars. Everything is from around the house. The only thing we’re buying this year are the stamps.
It was a lot of fun. I think Iz is about the age where memories stick around. I love that we can do things like this as a family. Family traditions are so important and can be loads of fun. I get pretty giddy thinking about the memories we are making as a family and wonder what Iz will remember and cherish. I love the holiday season. I love taking the time to make things that will let our family and friends know that we are thinking of them. I can’t wait to do more tomorrow night.
Well, not yet actually. (The above photo was taken at , where we took Grandma Whitty one day during her visit. It snows there every 4 minutes, even in the summer. Santa even walked by on his way to lunch!)
It was a joy and a thrill to have Grammie and Grandma Whitty here for some time each. Now that we have Iz, we realize how wonderful it would be if we all lived closer and didn’t have to drive for a day, or fly for hours to spend quality time with our families. Grandparents played an important role in each of our lives, and we want that for Izzy too, and it will happen, it will just be different from what we remember. We’ll spend time writing emails, letters, making presents, sending things in the mail, taking pictures and maybe we’ll even make a memory box of our family. Tangible things Izzy can hold on to, so when she wants to think of her family, they are right there with her.
We did put in 2 vegetable gardens via the and even though I planted late, the beans are up, the lettuce, the zucchini and peas! My tomato plants are blooming, and last night we had our very first pesto of the year from the basil we planted. Iz is a big help as a weed puller. We are still working on not yanking plants, it will come!
These are the zucchinis. I really need to thin them out, but I’m not sure how to do it…(any ideas? do I just pull them out? snip the leaves?), and I kind of feel guilty. I feel so lucky that they are growing! My little blackish-green thumb is a little nervous…
Some family pics:
, originally uploaded by .
On a recent thrifting adventure, I found a lovely sheet. Great for a skirt or something fun for summer.
Then – the perfect project came up…NAPKINS. How cute would this be for napkins? And even better – BIAS TAPE binding for the napkins. I have a duvet cover that is at least 15 years old, and after it’s last wash – it fell apart. But it’s sooooo soft, I couldn’t bear to toss it. So – it will be part of my napkin project.
I have only used 1/3 of the sheet and have made 24 yards of bias tape.
I’m glad I’m making napkins. I ran out of paper napkins the other day and really don’t want to buy more paper napkins. SAVE A TREE – Make some fabric napkins. Stay tuned for the finished set of napkins….or come take the napkin class at and SAVE A TREE and make your own napkins.
, originally uploaded by .
This Saturday, I’ll be sewing bags for The Old Creamery Grocery in Cummington. It’s part of their Sustainability Initiative. Last year, they purchased 47,000 paper bags. HOLY MOLY! This year, with the help of volunteer sewers and donated fabric, The Creamery hopes it’s volunteer sewers will produce 500 bags, and reduce the paper/plastic bag waste. These will be community bags that will reside in a basket in the store. So, if you forget your reusable bag, you can borrow one from the basket to take your groceries home. When you come back, just remember to bring the bag back to the basket for the next person.
It’s an awesome idea. I know a lot of people are already on board with the concept. and I were just talking about all the paper and plastic bags we get from shopping, and it’s kind of ridiculous. So to prepare for the Saturday Sewing Bag Marathon…I made up this little bag.
The deal with these bags is that nothing new should be purchased to make the bag. Items should come from your scrap pile, your old clothes, or thrifted. I found this skirt almost a year ago:
It’s a great print! It’s a cotton canvas. Nice and sturdy. I was thinking that I would make something for Iz out of it, but this bag was just calling it’s name! (no worries- there is plenty of fabric left, Iz will get a very cute skirt…)
I measured the brown bag from Trader Joe’s and cut out my pattern pieces:
If the fabric was big enough, I would have cut a 42″x19 1/2″ piece for the bag, but the skirt wouldn’t allow that. Instead I cut two squares: 21″ x 19 1/2″. I cut the binding off the skirt, knowing that it was long enough for my handles.
To sum it up here are the basics:
1 piece – 42″x 19 1/2″ OR
2 pieces 21″ x 19 1/2″
handles – 56″ (long enough to wear over your shoulder)
Since I would need to sew the handles on the bag first, I needed to finish the top edge of the bag. So I pressed under 1/2″ then, folded another 1/2 pressed it and stitched it in place.
One thing that kind of made this a bit of a challenge, much of the skirt was on bias, so the pieces I cut were on bias. And once you cut a bias piece, it will stretch a bit more or relieve the tension on the grain. Surprisingly, it effected how I would place the handles and made it more difficult. So I folded the pieces in half and placed the handles in 2 1/2″ from the center and pinned in place.
Once in place, starting at the bottom, I stitched along one side. Once I reached the top of the bag, I turned to stitch across the handle, backstitching a few times for reinforcement. Then, I turned again, and stitched down along the other side of the strip to the bottom of the bag. I repeated that 3 more times, for each leg of the straps.
Once the handles were done, with wrong sides together, I stitched the bottom of the bag together. I did a second row along that for reinforcement. I placed the straps of the handles so that they would be next to each other at the bottom, to help eliminate bulk.
I wanted my bag to have a flat bottom (just like the brown bags…). So I decided to tuck up the bottom and catch it in the sides, so that once right side out, the bottom corners would be squared for a flat bottom. After measuring my brown bag, I turned up either side and pressed 3 1/2″ from the bottom.
Once I was done pressing, I turned right sides together, tucking up the bottom, so it would be caught in the sides.
After stitching along the side (twice for reinforcement), I turned right sides out and voila! a bag.
To test it out, I stuffed it full of things….I holds a lot!
You can see how the bottom tucks into the sides, and helps to give it a flat bottom.
I love my new bag! I do wish the handles were a little thicker for comfort. It seems really sturdy, and the next time I run to The Old Creamery Grocery (or Trader Joes), I’ll be sure to put it to the test!
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