Recycled gift bags.....again......

Yesterday I worked on creating gift bags for the holidays.  I'm recycling Trader Joe's grocery bags, and one Bob's Red Mill bag. Yes, I know I shouldn't even have these in my possession - I have many, many reusable bags for my groceries but unfortunately they don't always end up back in my car or I'm at the check-out and realize I've left them in the car. So, what do I do with them but make gift bags for the holidays and other times of the year.  I made many yesterday and still have more to go that will end up being used throughout the year for other gift giving.  This year I took my Sharpie markers to them to put the recipient's name and a little holly design.

These bags have a little pleat on the bottom. I put up a post 2 years ago on how they're made, well, a so-so post. You can find it here if you have paper grocery bags to recycle. 

The only issue with these bags is that they're only so big - when I need a bigger bag I make a trip to the Dollar Store where they have an incredible selection of bags for $1 each.  I did make a few of these bags smaller this year to match the gift size.

More Scrabble Tea Pins

I found more tea pins in my organizing today. How many of these things did I make anyhow???  I gifted some, I sold many, and I still have quite a number left.  They are for sale on the 'Other Stuff for Sale' page of this blog - look up under my top banner for that page. They can be bought directly from me or I can list in my etsy shop. They were originally $28 - now at close out price of $14.

I've also unearthed more hand-dyed yarn and fiber to list in my fiber etsy shop and bookmarks to list in the handwoven etsy shop. Much photo editing to do first. If I keep organizing and cleaning out who knows what else I'll find.........

Recycling........

Making headway here on holiday gifts - phew. I panicked the other day when I realized how few shipping days were left until  Christmas and the fact that I had a few sewing projects I hadn't even started yet. Yesterday I worked at breakneck speed, got the sewing projects started and finished, gifts to be shipped wrapped, boxes packed and all off to be shipped today......not to mention packing up 9 orders from my etsy shops that needed to go out too. Unfortunately during my crazy hectic day I forgot to take pictures of a few of the handmade items to show later - oh well......

Today I was working on more gifts - the embroidery machine was smokin'. I have to stay near since there are many thread color changes so I work on other projects in the sewing room while the machine is going.  Here's part of what I worked on this afternoon - gift bags recycled from Trader Joe's grocery bags. Yes, I know, I shouldn't even have these since we all should be using reusable grocery bags but there are those times when I'm halfway thru shopping and realize I've left my bags in the car........and I park my car out in tim-buck-tu hoping no one will park next to me and nick up the sides of it. In a years time there are only 9 of these so I didn't do too bad.

I did not come up with this idea - a tiny little home decor shop in Bandon, Patina, makes these to use for shopping bags when you purchase from them - yes, I've got a few of their bags.  First I cut the bottom off the bag, then cut up each side to get two flat pieces. I did run an iron over them just to make them easier to sew.

Then put them wrong sides together and sew a 1/4" seam along the bottom - it's tough to see in this picture but it's there.

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of one step where I folded the bottom up a few inches  so it creates a pleat - sorry for that.  So, after you do that sew a 1/4" seam up each side.

Here's what it looks like standing upright, it stands up nicely with that pleated bottom.

And here is looking down into the bag.

Now they're ready to decorate, although I probably won't bother just because I'm running out of time, I'll just hang a tag and wrap the gifts in some pretty country holiday tissue I have that will look perfect with the brown paper bags. But if I were to decorate I'd probably stencil some holly or something like that on them.......or maybe make a sponge stamp of some holly leaves.......

Upcycled, recycled scrabble tiles

Look at what was waiting in the mail for me in the mail from over the weekend. A fun scrabble bracelet that spells out 'ewenique'  It came in a cute little handmade pouch. My cousin Claudia sent this. She has an etsy shop where she sells upcycled handmade creations and also a blog. Check them out!

The Washed Ashore Project

This past weekend was a girls coast getaway, me and my good friend Pat, one of my fiber peeps.....well Bailey went too so not a total girls getaway. We walked the Bandon beaches, relaxed, went through some shops, drank a little wine, had great food and just had a nice leisurely 3 days relaxing at the cottage. One of the fun, most inspiring places we visited was The Washed Ashore Project and Art 101 just south of  Bandon on the Oregon Coast. This is an incredible project lead by artist and director Angela Haseltine with the help of many volunteers in the community. Unfortunately we didn't get to meet Angela as she was out of town promoting the project but we had a great visit with a wonderful couple working there on Saturday. Incredible giant sealife sculptures are created with all the trash, marine and plastic, collected off the beaches. The idea behind it is to bring awareness to the problem out there and the consequences of this trash to our marine life. I apologize for the pictures, my phone's camera isn't the greatest but it's all I had with me at the time. Please take the time to visit the websites by clicking on the links to their names above. And be sure to click on the movie tab and watch the video on The Washed Ashore Project site, it's very moving. And there are great photographs on the site....unlike my poor ones. I couldn't leave there without leaving a donation and plan on bringing some items to donate to the resale project to help raise funds. Remember as you look at these pictures that everything was created from trash.


The Sea Cave - they turned out the lights on us and it also glowed in the dark - wow!



Sea cave close-up

Fish tank

Fish tank close-up

Jellyfish made of plastic bottles destined to go with turtles & fish as a part of a larger piece

Part of a tiger shark in progress

recycle, upcycle, reuse

This box of many layers of scrabble tiles headed north yesterday to my cousin Claudia who has an etsy shop and blog everyone should check out. She's doing some very fun things with recycling/upcycling.

I was using these scrabble tiles for pins mixing in glass beads and charms, I did many for sale and for gifts but it's time to move on which means tiles are moving out.

I thought I'd just dump them all in the small flat rate priority mail box for the least expensive shipping method but that box is about the size of a vcr tape, pretty small. Tiles wouldn't fit so then I proceeded to do something that was time consuming but made me think of my father the entire time I was doing it. He would have layered them in the box in perfect order for shipping so I did the same and fit every single tile in. Then he would have taped the bejebbers out of the box to make sure it made it to it's destination safe and sound....I put a bit of tape but no where near what he would have done. If Claudia opens this box up with the right side up she'll see my message.....if I had thought ahead I would have had a message on the other side too....or maybe she'll just open it up and those hundreds of tiles will fall all over the floor!

First rag bag sewn......

Phew, I got the first of the rag bags sewn this morning. I'm hoping the rest of them go quickly now that I'm over the learning curve. My first error was in figuring the strapping, I was thinking I had enough strapping to go around the bottom of the bag - uh, oh....no way.....but the straps are sewn on securely and very strong the way I did them. I decided I wanted to line them to make them nicer looking and more serviceable with a couple pockets, lining material also from the stash cupboard, hoping I'm making a dent in those leftovers but not so sure I have yet. So the size bag I'm making will make a great knitting/project bag, spinning bag, farmer's market bag (it is machine washable) or just all around nice big tote bag. It measures 17" tall by 16" wide and has a box bottom. Sure hope they eventually sell or everyone I know will be getting one for Christmas this year!  Will post pictures of more as they are sewn, another red, two purple colorway, two pink colorway. And I'm thinking I'll put more warp on to make other colorsways, heck, I've got plenty of fabric leftovers to use up.

New etsy shop

My cousin, Claudia, from up near Seattle just opened her etsy shop - I hope everyone that reads my blog takes a minute to check it out. I love her journals and the game tile bracelets are very fun. The shop is called WasNowCreations. This is her quote from the shop announcement: "I look for old castoffs (WAS) and transform them into cool new handmade stuff (NOW): Scrabble tile bracelets, vintage game board books, tuff cuffs, and more."