#119 - #121 Recycled Sweater Crafts

Ok, somewhere I have a picture of the original sweater that most of these were made from. I made mittens for my daughter & son and my daughter's dolly, a pillow (stuffed with extra sweater pieces) for dolly, and leg warmers. I also used the remaining pieces of fleece that I used to make my son's blanket & pillow to make a blanket for my daughter's dolly.

I do plan to try more crafts where I re-purpose a sweater, as my husband has one that has a hole in it that is no longer fit to be worn. But I have to admit that these were a lot more time-consuming to make than what I thought they would be because of the sweater I chose to re-purpose. In the future I will use one that is either a wool or cashmere (I have one with a ripped seem that cannot be repaired) and a tighter weave (like the one from the hubby.)

The loose weave of this sweater and the multiple colors and especially the periodic sequins & beads used, proved to make it much more difficult to stitch. I kept breaking the thread when the needle would go through a sequin and the loose weave & multiple colored design made there be too many loose strands to get caught and made it not push through the machine as easy.

#117 - #118 Using What You Have To Make Gifts

Sometimes being green means using what you have rather than purchasing something new. I made up this princess cone hat and magic wand as Christmas presents for my daughter out of all items I already owned.

I did re-purpose 2 metal frozen juice lids to make the top of the magic wand. But everything else you see is leftover crafting & sewing supplies from various & assorted projects.

I had planned to make this hat with a couple friends so that we could all give them as gifts to our daughters, but for personal reasons they were unable to come over the other night, but rather than have their daughters miss out on getting this fun dress-up hat, I had the supplies and made them each one. They happen to have birthdays coming up in the next month, so now my daughter has a fun, frugal & green gift to give her friends (she just doesn't know it yet, since she will get her own on Christmas Eve.)

#114-#116 Stationary Crafts

We have a little bit of everything with this project that my daughter & I worked on. We created these as Christmas presents for the staff in her preschool classroom.

Notebook: This is a composition notebook (bought on sale during back to school sales). It is important to buy something that you can wrap the fabric around in one piece. We used fabric that was all leftover from other project (chair upholstery, xmas stocking, & window swag) and stringed pearly beads (which were leftover as well). We simply applied glue to the front & back of the notebook and then applied the fabric. After it was dry, the fabric was trimmed to make clean edges. The beads were then applied with hot glue.

Pen Holder: We started out with a tin can, which we thorough cleaned. Then we applied spray adhesive to the fabric (same fabric to make a matching set) and rolled the can over the fabric, flush with the bottom edge, then folded the top edge to the inside of the can (about an inch). Then with hot glue we applied ribbon, beads & lace that we were leftover from other projects.

Flower Pens: This we started out with some pens that were bought during the back to school sales. We then used some reused flowers that we found at a rummage sale and bought some green floral tape. After we removed the end of the pen, we put a flower in the end, then attached the leaves with floral tape, which we extended down the pen to make it look like a stem.

This was a fun project to do with my daughter. I operated the hot glue gun, spray adhesive, scissors & floral tape. She applied the craft glue, applied trim & flowers to hot glue. Together we wrapped the cans & notebooks in fabric.

She also did the stamping on card stock to make little cards to go with her gifts. I let her pick out among all the stamps we had to make her cards. I have not bought any new stamps in several years, they are just ones I accumulated over a few years of projects. So, it was a great way to continue using what we have.