Tag: recycling

Refashioning Men’s Dress Shirts

Fashion is about taking risks and combining new elements.  Sometimes you will find clothes that express your vision straight off the store rack and other times you have to make your own.  For the past year or so, I have been so inspired by all 

Best Wishes to William & Kate!

The world awaits the wedding of the century (and to be sure an amazing feat of organization!) tomorrow, between Prince William and Kate Middleton. We are all getting quite an education on the royal family in the news of late, furthering our fascination with these 

The Yarn Dregs: Baby Hat and Flowers

It was a personal challenge to use up every last inch of the cotton yarn.  The Easter dresses and tunic ate up most of it but there was still a bit left.  It’s always tough to know what to do with little bits of yarn.  I get a bit nervous that I will start something and not have enough to finish.

In anticipation of our pending arrival, I decided to make a unisex striped baby hat.

I was sort of following a pattern but I made a huge error in the gauge along with so many others that I won’t embarrass the real designer with a credit.  The resulting hat is not really at all like what the pattern said it should be but I was too jaded to unpick it and start over.  I just finished up the best I could and ended up sewing it inside out because it looked better than the front pattern.  I guess this is the danger of forcing yourself to use something that you are not really inspired to use.

There was still a smidge of red and white yarn left at this point, so I made two more little flowers.

And that was that!  There was literally nothing left.  It was a relief to be done working with the cotton yarn.  I now have some fun summer clothes instead of some stale yarn sitting in my cabinet. I also gained a better sense of how much yarn I need for a given project.  I still have TONS of yarn to work through in my stash, including a particularly large cone of pink chenille.

I will need a lot of inspiration to get through this one!

Happy Earth Day!  May you find new ways to use and transform your own clutter into treasures!

Kieran Foley-Inspired Tunic

I used up quite a bit of my cotton yarn on the girls’ Easter dresses but still had plenty left! I decided to make something for myself. As I went looking for ideas, I came across this incredible Latvian vest designed by Kieran Foley for 

Uncluttering Through Crafting: Easter/Earth Day Dresses!

Two years ago, I started the tradition of making Easter dresses for my girls.  At that time, I had a bunch of leftover white satin.  I invented a pattern on the fly and my tiny girls looked like little angels.  The dresses came out so