The easiest upcycle

Yes, I recently brought the used soap bars home from a recent hotel stay. I carried them in a bag which once held frozen fruit frozen fruit. About a year ago, I persuaded my spouse to switch from body wash to soap to eliminate plastics. Then a few weeks ago, while cleaning the bathroom, I discovered the container where he had put several soap remnants.

I used these remnants to do the easiest upcycle ever. I cut the soap up into small pieces using a knife. 

I put the scraps in a glass measuring cup and added a tablespoon or two of water. I had about a cup of soap pieces. I microwaved it at 60 percent power in 30 second increments until it was melty. You do have to watch it carefully- I did have some overflow. I poured the melty soap into the cups of a muffin tin and let it harden overnight.

Apparently, this process is called milling. So if your family wonders why you have soap bars that resemble peach yogurt, you can reply that these are fancy milled soap bars.

A trio of towel mends

 

Over the past week, I mended three towels. Two towels still had a lot of fluff. The other was simply beloved by my spouse, even though I would have cut it up to turn it into rags. Each towel was worn or ripped in a different way so I employed different mending techniques. 

Adding a strip

The brown and white towel had a simple rip along the non terry cloth strip. I don't know if the strip has a name. I reinforced the torn area with some zig zag stitches and then cut a strip of velour from my stash, covered the strip and used a zig zag to stitch around the perimeter.

Blues Clues mend

The first blue towel has two serious tears on it. I pinned a thin scrap over the holes and then I went back and forth over the area using the darning foot to close them up. Then I cut out patches of blue velour and sewed them on each side the towel using a zig zag stitch around the perimeter. I used an over cast stitch on the edges to finish it off. The final product reminded me of Blues Clues.

Binding

The third towel had fraying edges. In the past I had stitched fraying edges with a zig zag, but the towels looked messy. I decided to bind this one. I used washed and preshrunk quilting fabric from my stash. I decided I didn't need bias binding because the towel didn't have curves, the fabric remnant selected was narrow and I didn't want to do the extra work to make bias tape.

I simply cut three inch strips along the grain and joined them with a quarter inch seam. I wanted to make a tape rather than using a double folded edge.

I folded the tape in half and pressed the fold. I then unfolded and used the bias tape guide I had to fold the edges into the middle. I ended up with single fold non-bias tape, a term I just made up!

Next, I unfolded the tape and pinned it wrong side up flush with the towel edge. I folded the end under at the beginning.

I stitched a little to the outside of the fold since the non-bias tape did not have the shorter edge like commercial tape. I used thread I wanted to use up even though it did not match. I stopped a quarter inch from each corner and took it off the machine to fold down the corner so they were mitered. 

After I finished attaching the tape to the towel,  I folded over the tape, pressed and stitched the opposite side as close to the edge as I could. I used matching thread so the stitching was less conspicuous. It's an old towel so you can see my stitching was not perfectly neat.

These mending techniques will help me keep these towels out of the landfill for a few more years.

A long term project

Every once and a while I decide that rug making would be kind of cool. But it never goes as planned. I started this rug for the landing on my basement stairwell using a locker hook technique.  I thought it would take a few weeks. Two years later, my family laughs at me when I take out the project to work on it.

I am determined to finish this project some day. And I like the color scheme. So I am going to blog about it and hopefully you will join me in the journey.

To make this type of rug, you will need rug canvas, fabric to cut into strips, yarn or string and a locker hook. A locker hook looks like a needle on one end and a crochet hook on the other. I used canvas that had four squares per inch.

  

To begin, I took custom measurements of the space, which has some notches. When it is finally done, it will fit perfectly. I cut it the canvas leaving four or five excess rows at the edge. I hand stitched  two pieces of canvas together because neither piece I purchased was large enough. I overlapped several rows. I also covered the outside canvas with duct tape so it didn't poke me.

Then I started cutting one inch strips of fabric. I started with my son's old holey pants, then added torn sheets, socks and t-shirts to the mix. Several articles of old clothing have ended up in this project so far. I initially cute strips about an inch wide. I found that the thicker fabrics were hard to work with and started cutting them more narrowly. I tapered the ends and cut a small slit so I could later join the strips.

To start fabric to the canvas, I threaded the needle with the yarn and knotted it on the canvas. I decided the perimeter would be black.Then, I took the first strip of fabric and placed it under the canvas while keeping the hook on top of the canvas, then used the hook end to pull a loop through to the top. I left a tail so I could knot it with another piece of fabric later. To secure the loop I pulled the yarn through it. 

All subsequent stitches are made in the same manner. I joined the fabric strips as I reached the end of the one I was hooking. To do that I fed the second strip stop through the slit on the first, then threaded that end on the second strip through the other slit on the second strip and pulled it through.

This is what the finished stitches look like. Some day, I look forward to showing off the final rug.

Adapting patterns for upcycled materials - purse edition

 

I am not generally a purse person. I use them to carry my stuff, but I don't have many. I use a relatively small crossbody purse daily, and the zipper on that bag broke. The bag was a little smaller than I needed and the fabric had pilled. Instead of taking apart the purse to replace the zipper, I  decided it was time for a new purse. 

Through an online search, I identified a cross-body purse pattern that filled my needs - the Teya Crossbody from Apple Green Cottages.  I downloaded the pattern and printed it on recycled paper. Then I began searching through my stash of materials.

I had wanted to use the upholstery scrap with the blue flower (pictured above) forever and decided to coordinate that with a plain blue scrap  I had a bunch of zippers from the jumble stash. I also had a strap and hardware from a purse that was still functional, but really dirty despite washing. I also had some lightweight interfacing, quilting cotton, corduroy, and a jacket that my son had outgrown, but was not in good enough shape to be given away. 

Upcycling means working with what I have, not necessarily what the pattern envisioned and I had several redos and adaptations along the way. 

I had hoped to use the jacket for the pocket linings at the front and back of the purse, thinking it would add water repellency, but when I pinned the pattern pieces to the fabric and cut one of the pocket linings, I realized that I did not have enough and it wasn't sturdy enough for what I needed. I switched to the quilting cotton I was using on the pattern.

The upholstery scraps also caused me consternation. One of the first steps of the pattern was to make a tab for a recessed zippered. The directions called for the fabric to be folded over twice. I tried that with the flowered upholstery and with the plain upholstery and both fabrics were simply too thick. I ended up cutting the tab to nearly the size I wanted and using an overcast stitch and some fray check to finish the edges. 

The seam allowance on the bag was 3/8 inch and in some places, I simply went to 1/2 inch to accommodate the thickness of the layers. The bottom of the bag is not as neat and crisp as I would have liked, but I hope no one is looking at that too carefully. The pattern called for the strap ends to be sewn onto the side seam on the outside. The fabric was too thick to sew there so I moved it to the inside on the top edge.  

I made a few changes that went off without a hitch  I did not have any fusible fleece so I sewed the corduroy to the bag lining.  None of the zippers were exactly the right size. With pliers and an Xcato knife, I was able to cut down the top metal zipper. The other two zippers were an inch smaller than called for. One required no modification and the other required me to lengthen by 1/2 inch the fabric tabs on either side of it. I was able to add clips to the inside and outside of the purse. 

I haven't yet tackled water repellency and I am not yet sure if I will do that, but I did test rubbing some beeswax on some of the outer fabric after warming it with an iron and I may add that later (probably by melting it and brushing the wax on) 

I am looking forward to transferring my stuff to this bag tomorrow and seeing how this works in real life. 

 

Low waste Valentine's gifts

One of the things that really bothers me about gift-giving is all the packaging. I love the aesthetics of a well put together gift basket, flower arrangement or tray, but there is so much stuff involved that just clutters up my house or goes straight into the recycling bin or trash.

This year my co-op Mississippi Market tweeted the suggestion to buy Valentine's Day treats in their bulk section. I buy grains and dried fruit in bulk, but it had not occurred to me to buy gifts.

I went to the co-op with my own containers, purchase six treat items, and layered them in large mason jars that I already had. Finished it off with some reused ribbon. One of the items was a dark chocolate turtle .  I had asked for dark chocolate turtles for Hanukkah and my spouse ordered some from a city many hundreds of miles away but apparently they were sitting at the co-op we go to weekly.

Voila - a low waste gift.

Oven mitt makeover

We have a debate in our household on what the item above is called.  I call it a potholder.  My middle schooler insists it is an oven mitt. I decided to let him win the debate and I will use oven mitt for this post.

As I have continued on my upcycling and mending journey, I continually see more potential of what can be fixed rather than thrown away.  At one point, I had two pairs of matching oven mitts, but I must have thrown one away.  The hanging loop on the remaining oven mitt came apart and we could no longer hang it. My spouse asked me if I could sew the loop back together. As I looked at the oven mitt, I thought to myself, this is really ratty. The outside edging was falling apart and, despite washing, the fabric was stained.  However, the silicone pad and the batting were in decent shape. I could see that potholder had been sewn together and I had a heavy-duty needle in my sewing machine. 

The first thing I did was to see if my needle and sewing machine could handle the silicone pad so I put the unthreaded needle through all the layers and it worked. The next thing I did was to use a seam ripper to remove the frayed (and greasy) bias tape from the edges.  

I was able to locate some of the same size bias tape in the jumble stash and some quilting fabric from the 38-lb box that matched both the silicone and the bias tape. I cut the quilting fabric in the same size and shape as the existing fabric and attached a thinner light green bias tape along the top.  I unfolded the dark green wider bias tape and then used wonder clips to attach the quilting fabric and bias tape to the cloth side of the oven mitt. 

Because I wanted to avoid having melted thread, I used cotton, which conveniently was already in my machine from another project. I also attached my walking foot so I could effectively stitch through all the layers.  I made one round of stitching, removing the clips as I went. I then trimmed the quilting fabric and then folded the bias tape to the front and topstitched the bias tape to the oven mitt.  I then cut a strip from the quilting fabric for the loop. I folded it and stitched right sides together and then used a back and forth zig-zag stitch to attach it to the potholder. I attached it a little off center, but I decided to leave it as is since it did not make much of a functional difference to the potholder. Last, I hand stitched the quilting fabric to the existing oven mitt fabric using a whip stitch.  And voila I have an oven mitt that works and looks better.

Upcycling - the Undergarment Series, Part 2

I used up my last box of pantyliners several weeks ago. Before I started upcycling, I would have simply purchased another box. However, the environmental impact of disposable menstrual products is enormous. According to National Geographic, Americans purchased nearly 6 billion tampons in 2018.  That is a lot of plastic and other materials

My mother told me that when she was growing up in India, she used rags to catch menstrual bleeding because that is what she had. Living in the developed world, I knew I could do a little better than that, but still be sustainable. The co-op that I typically shop at carries well-designed washable menstrual products and that is a good option for people who don't sew. But I sew and I am swimming in materials waiting to be repurposed. 

This tutorial from the It's Not Easy To Be Green blog provided helpful direction. The tutorial recommends three layers of fabric to make a lightweight pantyliner, including one that is water-resistant such as fleece

You already know that I upcycled a couple umbrellas into shoe bags and I have been collecting umbrella fabric. I decided to use that. The fabric I used for this project came from a  broken umbrella I found on the street. My stash contained plenty of options for the other two layers of fabric. 

I used a disposable pad to create my first pattern template. I traced the pad on a used paper bag and cut it out - that became the pattern piece of what was to become the middle layer I made a second pattern piece from the first one,  adding on 5/8" seam allowance and wings that were approximately 2" long and 3" wide.

 

I then cut out one middle layer piece and one winged pattern piece from the water-resistant fabric and one from a semi-absorbent fabric I planned to use for the top layer. 

I used two rows of stitching to secure the middle layer to the wrong side of the top layer.  My middle layer was knit fabric so I used a zig-zag stitch. I find that sometimes when you sew together knits and wovens, there is slipping, but I wasn't making a ball gown so this did not need to be perfect. I then stitched together the water-resistant layer and the top layer with right sides facing. 

I left the end of one wing open so I could turn it right side out. I clipped notches in the corners and curved parts of the liner. 

After turning with the aid of my handy chopstick to get the little corners, I pressed the liner with an iron, topstitched the open seam together and then top stitched all around the liner.  I used a sew-on snap from my jumble stash so the wings would snap together.

I made my first liner and did a test drive and decided it was a little shorter than I wanted. I added at each end of the pattern to make it longer.  I made four more liners using a red fabric for the top. I had two more sew-on snaps so I used those as closures. I also found a few random pieces of velcro including two pieces from the glider makeover and one from an umbrella and used those as closures for the other pads. And now I won't have to buy another box of disposable liners. 

Upycycling - The Undergarment Series, Part 1

 

Almost every piece of factory-made clothing I own fits me badly. I hate shopping for clothing. As I have been doing more sewing, I am realizing why that it is. Factory-made clothing is designed for some ideal or make-believe person that is definitely not me. I own a few tailor-made Indian outfits since India is one place people still do that and they, of course, fit me quite well.

I have been thinking about how I can gradually make a wardrobe that actually fits, is flattering and is comfortable. And that includes undergarments. Now, I am not too dissatisfied with the underwear I have purchased at Target (bras are another matter and I am going to write at least one post about that), but I have found that underwear that I make myself is more comfortable and than what I was purchasing at the store. 

Making underwear is also a good way to use up smaller pieces of fabric and all the underwear above was upcycled or scraps from previous projects.  Last winter I answered an ad on Facebook for someone giving away a few bags of fabric and sewing notions. I think this individual had just cleaned out an older parent's basement. 

The bags contained a huge jumble of stuff including some things that had been cut. I was never going to use the material for what the individual who had cut it had intended and I don't think I had all the pieces anyway. From the front and back of what been originally been destined to be a shirt, I was able to make two pairs of underwear from it. 

I used the Wonder Undies digital pattern from Waves and Wild (formerly Made by Jacks's Mum).  The pattern comes in a pdf file with multiple sizes. You print the pattern on standard paper and then tape it together to make the pieces (and of course I printed the pattern on the back of paper that had already been printed on!). This pattern comes with an instruction booklet containing pictures and helpful instructions. 

You can make the pattern using elastic waist/leg bands or simply by using jersey knit.  There are five pattern pieces, two of which you cut out two pieces. The first pair I made took me a couple hours. I simply used a zig-zag stitch with my regular and not very expensive sewing machine. I made the blue and black striped underwear more recently and I purchased a used serger several months ago and had it recently tuned up. I serged the two pairs and the edges were so much cleaner. There were a few places where I did not catch all the fabric layers and did some corrective work with my sewing machine. 

Now that I have repeated this pattern a few times, I can now make these in around an hour if I don't make any mistakes!  

I haven't modified the pattern much, though I will probably take in the band of the striped underwear a little bit. I could tweak it to fit my body, but I like this underwear more than what I buy at the store so I go with what is there. The jersey knit waist band is super comfortable and I have found it stays up better than I would have thought.   

All the underwear I have made so far has been from existing garments. For a few pairs of underwear I made, I had to piece together the waist and leg bands from two pieces of fabric because what I had was not long enough. It made very little difference to the final project.  

I think you should try to make underwear and other undergarments.  Stay tuned for more on this subject. 

Rethink - making upcycling economically viable

By now you all know that I don't believe our current rate of resource consumption is sustainable. 

I believe that money as a medium of exchange is useful, but I wonder how we can pivot to an economy that is more sustainable and more just.  It seems to me that we as humans have set up our whole economy - actually our whole society - on consumption.  As the pandemic just demonstrated, if I don't consume, someone else will not eat.  

In the previous blog post, I solicited a government perspective on reuse and asked about the economic incentives around reuse. In this one, I talked to Kristen McCoy, co-owner of Rethink Tailoring and Sewing Lounge, which helps people upcycle their current wardrobe. I talked to her about how you turn reuse into a successful business. 

Kristen has been upcycling for a long time. She grew up on a farm. There wasn't a fabric store nearby and not a lot of disposable income either. Kristen wanted to sew and she made purses and the like from hand-me-down clothes from her sisters. "This was what I had around. I didn't realize I was being an artist," she said. 

When Kristen started sewing clothes she found it harder than she imagined and she stuffed a number of unfinished projects in her closet.  That prompted her to enroll in an apparel technology program at Minneapolis Community Technical College.  

At MCTC, she realized that polyester and PETE 1 water bottles (the clear ones) were the same thing and we could recycle food containers, but we didn't recycle cheap blouses. Later years took her to Washington DC, where she says she "accidentally" started a tailoring business as a result of people wanting to alter clothes purchased in a vintage shop she worked at. 

Kristen has thought a lot about the environmental impacts of clothing and the working conditions of those making it.  "We are so far removed from our garments and how they are made,"  she said. "Twenty dollars is not a reasonable price for an article of clothing. To do that you have to sacrifice quality and fair labor."

I have found upcycling time consuming. Some of the upcycled dresses I made last winter took two to three times longer than if I had purchased new fabric. So I asked Kristen how, given the labor involved, upcycling becomes economically viable for a business owner.   

Rethink Tailoring is a relatively new business that opened its physical doors right before the Covid 19 pandemic so Kristen is still waiting to see if the business is profitable. Her business model involves a variety of services she hopes will provide different sources of revenue.  For those who are interested in sewing their own projects, Kristen offers both classes and coaching sessions.  Because she has formally studied apparel construction, she knows things that a self-taught sewist may not and can teach them. 

For projects that she or her staff sew themselves, she is working from existing material so customers pay for labor.  Kristen employs people locally and pays a fair wage. Many of the items that people bring to her to refashion have sentimental value so people are willing to invest in them. 

When Kristen worked in Washington DC, she tailored new garments, but she know that her passion is upcycling and she has decided that is where she will spend her time. While doing that she has found that a community of people that are interested in reuse and sustainability and she believes that every garment that someone upcycles is a "step in the right direction."

Who wants to hang their laundry out to dry with me?

It's summer in Minnesota. I am outside and simply not sewing very much. I am still thinking about my carbon footprint. It's been a warm summer here.  And the temperatures that Portland Oregon just experienced are nightmarish. Climate change is here and we have to change our behavior.  

As you know, we have been making a concerted effort to reduce the amount of laundry we do.  When I wrote a blog post on that topic a few months ago, I said that I would probably continue to use our dryer.  But there was a day three or four weeks ago when we were running our air conditioner and we had a load of laundry in our washer. I looked at what our electricity generation and consumption was and I just couldn't turn on the dryer. 

I took the wooden rack we use inside outside and hung up the laundry. Earlier this week, I was hanging our laundry and my spouse came outside and said he had just been listening to Minnesota Public Radio and a speaker said we need to get of our *sses now and do something about climate change so it was a good thing we were hanging up our clothes. I have been hanging sheets inside on chairs since I don't want pollen on them. 

We have had to change our rhythm of laundry, often starting the washer at night so we could hang them in the morning and doing wash on warmer days, but since we are still working at home, it has worked out. 

There are a lot of benefits to washing clothes on cold and hang drying them from carbon savings to clothes lasting longer.  Who is going to join me in hang drying at least some of their clothes?