Plastic bag dress

Earth day.  (Okay so I'm a little behind on this blog.)  Each year HOPE Society is plagued with the concept of what to do to celebrate Earth Day.  Last year we took pictures of environmentally friendly products sold in stores all over town.  The year before we had an upcycling contest to try to encourage people to come up with creative ways to reuse things. This year, I wanted to make a statement.

Not sure how much of a statement we actually made.  My original thought was to make a big pyramid of the amount of disposable cups Houston goes through every year.  But of course that would mean using a lot of disposable cups. 

So I tried to come up with something that could be made of waste that's already been used.  Plastic bags seemed to be a good option.  They are typically still clean after use and it's easy to collect a lot of them in a short period of time.  Plus they are a big environmental issue.  

At first I wanted to make a big flag out of the bags.  There was an issue of where one could fly such a flag. And if it tore, there would be litter issues. So Cindy and I came up with the idea of making a plastic bag dress! I was very excited about it.  We asked her daughter to be the model and  immediately made a duct tape mannequin.  (http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/1200x/3a/88/c3/3a88c34f7568f5dfcc0e335ac389bb2e.jpg)

I worked on the dress at every opportunity over the next few days as I was running out of time to make a display for Earth Day.  But I got it done and was fairly happy with the results.  

Unfortunately, Cindy was having trouble coming up with good information on plastic bag waste to put up as part of the display with the dress.  Not that she couldn't find info.  It's just that the more she dug, the more she found that there wasn't much persuasive evidence against them.  Apparently, it take approximately 132 uses of a reusable bag to compensate for the extra pollution and energy use to make them compared to a disposable bag. You would need a pretty durable bag to get through that many shopping trips.  If you use them once a week, that's over two and a half years.  And even biodegradable paper bags are more environmentally damaging because they take so much more to produce them than disposable plastic. 

We opted to set up a previously used display consisting of the reduce, reuse, recycle concept (with emphasis on the reduce and reuse part) in an effort to reduce more waste by reusing a display rather than making a whole new one.  It wasn't really my initial vision, but it did attract attention. Kids especially thought it was cool because the dress was made for their schoolmate.  

Moving to Nanaimo

As you may or may not be aware, I am moving to Nanaimo next month.  The entire process has felt delayed for me.  I feel like if I can just pack a little bit here and there, there won't be so much to do right at the end.  But of course it's hard to pack your life up for a couple months.

DVDs, sure. Toiletries, nope.  Gotta keep those out.  Kitchen, that's gotta stay. Camping gear, guess I can pack that.  Well it's basically already packed.  Craft supplies, hell no! Those will be out until I absolutely have to pack that room up.

Dan figures we can just wait until we get there to find a place.  I'm definitely not that optimistic.  I've been looking.  Not crazy-hunting mind you.  But I've browsed kijiji. And I've contacted a few people.  One guy was ready to give me a call in a few hours to talk about it and then suddenly just stopped replying to my emails altogether! *le sigh*

Socializing has probably been the biggest time consumer lately.  We want to be able to see everyone at least one more time before we go. And vice versa.  My weekends are all already planned before we go.  Girls night out, dinners, geocaching getaway, visitors from out of town, board game nights.  I'm booked up.  

Plus I've been helping Dan out with his online gaming community podcasts.  Not that I mind.  I'm actually really enjoying it. But you don't just get extra time in a week to do these things.  It has to squeeze something else out.  I've been having a hard time getting any crafting in.  Rental research has replaced my computer time for uploading items onto Etsy or checking my emails.

So, alas, crafting time has become minimal.  And I imagine it will stay that way until we are settled in the new place in Nanaimo.

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T-Shirt Quilt

I posted on Facebook asking for quilt ideas.  A friend of mine asked if I could make a quilt out of all of her old t-shirts.  She had just gathered them to take them to the thrift store, but thought that this would be a much better idea.  She wouldn't have to get rid of all her favourite shirts!

I accepted the challenge, as I know that t-shirt fabric is not the most fun material to work with.  But it would be an adventure.  My favourite part is always the designing.  So I sketched out a plan.

With only 10 shirts to work with, I had to come up with a pattern to make it bigger than a baby blanket.  PINTEREST! I found so many beautiful t-shirt quilts.  Here are some of the ones I really liked:

I think you can see which one I took my inspiration from the most.  I did not, however, choose to use other material for the accents and borders.  I wanted to use as much of the t-shirts as possible so there was as little waste as possible.  

And so it began! The most difficult part of this project was also the most forgiving.  The thing about jersey fabric (as t-shirts are most often made of) is that they have a lot of stretch, a lot of drape to them.  The most taxing thing I found was that they rolled up on the edges.  It wasn't always easy to square up the fabric. Since it stretches, it gets skewed easily.  I mainly just tried to lay it flat with no wrinkles in a way that it was relaxed with no tension on it.

The fact that it stretched also meant that if I was a tad off in managing to get it square, it would still work.  If I found that over a length of two edges to be sewn together, they were off by about a quarter inch.  The shorter one could just be stretched ever so slightly to end up matching in the whole grand scheme of the quilt.

(The back)

I had a lot of fun with this project, although I feel like it has rather taken over getting anything else done with Flouster.  I've been falling behind on blogs. I haven't made anything else since I started this except for helping a friend make a Velma costume for her little girl's skating recital.  (Which she did fabulous at! I got to go and watch.)  I haven't even posted all the items that I already have up on the Etsy website.  I have, despite all this, been getting more hits on my Etsy page, though I highly credit adding custom engraved dog tags to my store for that... ...oddly enough.

I digress, after 133 pieces and approximately 55 hours of work, the t-shirt quilt is now finished.  It is a good snuggle-up-on-the-couch size at 56"x64" and is loved by my friend, whom I made it for.

Check out my latest treasury, T-shirts say a lot about you,on Etsy

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Achoo!

Every once in a while, I like to review my waste.  Nobody's perfect.  I certainly put out a can for the garbage truck on occasion. Granted it's only every month and a half or two. But I still like to see if I can reduce it even more.

As you can see, my garbage cans are filled mostly with facial tissues.  Might not seem like such a huge deal.  Tissue is just paper, right? That's recyclable and biodegradable. True.  But like paper cups, eventually they add up to a lot even though a single one is not so bad. Also, when you buy tissues, they come in a box with a plastic opening. And if you buy a bunch of them, the pack is wrapped in plastic.  So every time you throw away a tissue, you throw away a little bit of plastic used to get it to you.  (I actually just use toilet paper, but the same principle applies with plastic packaging and toilet paper rolls.)

Well, it's a fairly obvious answer. Hankies! Hankies have been phased out in the name of convenience and germophobia! I am no germophobe. And as it is plainly a large contribution to my household waste, I am ready to make the switch!

I decided to make some.  I have no idea where you could buy hankies anyway.  I had a tiny bit of starry flannel so I made a couple out of that, but took advantage of the many receiving blankets I had on hand (for some reason?). With my allergies, a couple wasn't going to cut it.  

I cut out many 10x10 squares, rounded the corners, used a zig zag stitch around the edge to prevent unraveling and voila! Hankies! I keep a stack in my towel closet and grab a couple to get me through the day. Bye bye wads of tissue waste!

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Coaster Tutorial

I think this was one of the first things I ever learned to sew.  So simple! They make cute gifts. Or you can keep a few different sets around for different occasions. Thought I'd share the how to.

1: Pick out two fabrics you like and think would look good together.

2: Cut out 3 squares of fabric A and two of fabric B. Size depends on how big you'd like the coaster. I cut 4.5" (11.5cm) squares for a 4" (10cm) coaster.  Just add half an inch to the size you'd like for the seams. 

3: Fold two of the fabric A squares and both fabric B squares from one corner to the opposite for a right triangle and iron.

4: Arrange as in photo above. With the still square fabric A face up, then the four triangles layered over one another like a pinwheel. Pin in place.

5: Sew around the edges.

6: Cut the corners on a 45° angle. This is so you don't get a big lump of fabric in the finished piece. Be careful not to cut the thread!

7: Turn inside out through the space in the centre of the triangles.

8: I used a crochet hook to poke the corners out.

9: Iron flat and voila! Cute fabric coaster.

Repeat for a set and tie with ribbon to give as a gift. 

Try different colour combos.  A good variation is to fold the fabric into rectangles instead of triangles.

Happy sewing!

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Handmade is Just Better

I love handmade items. They are my favourite gifts to give and receive. I find they are typically a higher quality and definitely more unique than factory-made. And yes, more expensive.  But I try to support others who make things that I can't.

So when I decided I needed a holder for my new Flouster business cards, I didn't just go and order a plastic one for three bucks from Amazon or Staples. I went on Etsy and looked for ideas. I was thinking a nice wooden one.  But I saw a pottery card holder and it was gorgeous! Now the other thing I love to do is support local artisans rather than distant ones.  You know, reduce shipping fuel and keep my money as local as possible.  So I brought the idea to a potter in the next town over.  She made me a gorgeous card holder! Twenty-two dollars versus three, but my money sure isn't going to China. She does fabulous work and it's worth every penny. 

I also spontaneously picked up a couple buttons for a friend of mine who just so happens to be a fan of this lady's work. She was pretty happy with her random present. 

On a bit of a side note... For my birthday last month, I was stoked to receive not one, but two hand made cards. It was fantastic! Here's the one I got from Susan:

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Passion into Work

How many of you love your job?  I don't.  I'm sure you're aware of that if you've been reading my blog for more than a couple months.  Well, I'm on my way to getting out of it.  Store is for sale.  Everything is on clearance, now.  Getting ready to move.

But... I have no idea where I'm headed.  Not physically.  Dan and I are planning on moving to Nanaimo or near there.  But as far as a job goes, we have no clue what awaits us.  We're just those kind of people.  No plan is okay.  However, for me, I like to at least have a direction.  Thus far, my direction has been that I want to get into something environmental. Well, that's a pretty broad spectrum of careers! I need to figure out what I actually want to do if I am to get there.

I had an appointment yesterday at our local community college.  I had the expectation that I would say, "What jobs are available in the environmental spectrum?" and the director would provide me a list.  Well, when I asked him, he was at a loss.  Apparently most people come with a career and need to figure out how to get there.  I must not be most  people because if I knew what career I wanted, I could probably figure out how to get there pretty easily myself.  What I needed was guidance on a choice.  We had a pretty lengthy and interesting discussion during which I felt like I was of little use.

I've sort of envisioned my ideal career as being an environmental engineer.  Perhaps designing eco-friendly housing or a more efficient solar panel or wind turbine.  But I fear the debt that goes along with extensive schooling.  So we ruled out any careers that required many years at school.

Then we looked at more simplistic ideas.  He seemed interested in the passion I put behind my beliefs.  Suggested I might be a good instructor.  Teach people how to go green through workshops or visiting schools.  But I feel like I'm not enough of an expert on anything green to teach others.  I would need to learn first.  I thought maybe I could be a farmer's market manager.  I have a little experience with that.  Not a really easy career to get into as most markets have a manager for life and then the torch is passed on rather than applied for in many cases.  We talked about making and selling compost.  Well, you need land for that.  Maybe I could invent new ways to make your house less energy intensive using simple materials rather than purchases expensive new devices.  That's sort of in the direction of eco-engineering.  But how could I test these things out?


It seems every direction had a few hurdles.  Which is fine, mostly.  I don't mind having barriers to overcome along the way, but I still felt blocked by that eureka moment when I would finally say, "YES! That's the career! That's what I want to be when I grow up!"


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