5 posts tagged “recycled”

okay.  so i was talking to my friend on the phone about her new floor lamp friday.  i was going to go to crap-mart to check out the same model as hers because it was cheap.  we've been needing at least one new floor lamp FOR FOREVER.  gah.  they are always so expensive new and usually arrive a the thrift store broken.  so cheap floor lamp?  i'll bite.

however, i didn't make it to crap-mart this weekend.  i went to the dog park early saturday and stepped in a hole and twisted the fuck out of my ankle and knees.  afterward i didn't feel like going to crap-mart.

today b.f. and i made a thrift store run, though.  lo and behold!  i found this:

a cheap floor lamp, no shade.  which sucked, because if you've ever had the pleasure of finding a new shade for a lamp you know they can be as pricey as a new lamp.  and a pain in the ass to find, really.  i got excited about the pricetag, though, and sprinted to the front of the store and endured the disapproving glare of an old woman sitting beside the carts to get a cart to throw this sucker into and whisk it away.

i'm currently sewing like a crazy mofo, trying to sew reusable grocery bags to sell at a couple festivals this fall.  i am donating everything i make from the sale of these to a local animal sanctuary.  they need as much money as possible before october 1!  eek! 

(kinda crappy picture--i have no excuse other than i was too exhausted from sewing 20 of these bad boys yesterday to take a decent picture)  they're all made out of reclaimed/recycled fabric and they're all C.O.O.L. to carry in the store.  you won't be ashamed to put your broccoli in these!  plus they hold a lot.  plus plastic bags, like, suck.  you know you want one (or 3)!  ::desperate jazz hands::

please allow me to bore you with the details of my latest purse, made for ~~me~~ by ~~me~~.

i love to hoard old upholstery samples.  like, a lot.  i can't get enough even though i have *ahem* several.  i usually get them from the thrift store but i think i got this particular sample from freecycle. 

it has been waiting to blossom into a bag and i chose today to work some sewing magic on it:

i dunned b.f. into modeling it for me, in case you were wondering if i had particularly hairy arms and a predilection for pink floyd.  (i do love the floyd.  i don't have hairy arms.)

the upholstery sample was called "jumbo tulips".  it's a nice cotton duck silkscreened with huge silver tulips.  can you imagine a set of curtains with this fabric? 
::sigh::  those 80's designers.
i LOVED it from the moment i saw it and have been waiting patiently for the opportune moment to work with it.  i wanted a really *comfortable* purse.  one that felt comfortable to carry, could carry an elephant and was cute.  and it had to use grommets in some form.  GIANT grommets. 

a friend came to visit today!  yay! 
she gave me my birthday present early:

JUST in time for earth day!

on this week's thrift trip on thursday i found a couple bags o' fabric.  i like these grab bags because they usually jam a bunch of yardage in the bags for pretty cheap.  i found probably 12 yards total fabric in each bag for $2.99 each bag.  yay.  the problem is, however, you have no idea about fiber content or if the pieces have been cut or WHAT is going on in that plastic bag.  they refuse sale of the bag if there's a hole in it and it is sealed up tight.  eh.  it's not THAT big a problem.  i'll take a gamble for $3.00. 

i was happy with one bag's contents--mostly upholstery materials.  ::check::  the other bag, though, had a lot of fabric ends from a quilter's cast offs.  a lot of the fabric was country/calico-ey stuff that was pretty useless to me.  then there was the utterly repulsive blue stretch polyester knit.  oy.

it DID have two pieces of pre-quilted fabric (think laura ashley purse calico) that will make cute totes for gifts for my b.f.'s "country decor" obsessed mom so yay?

adding to the "oy" pile, though, was about a yard and a half of a baby blue woven fabric.  it's not cotton duck per se?  but it's still heavier than quilting cottons.  i don't know what it is.  it was about as inspirational as corn flakes.  blehhhh.  this stuff was going to just take up precious space in my fabric closet!  boo! 

then i realized i could use it to make reusable shopping bags and make it actually USEFUL!!! 

previously we only had one reusable bag.  and it sucked.  it was small and made out of itchy wool.  and it had "ecuador" on it.  and some llamas.  i got nothing against either one but i never wanted to use it ::itches::.  i figured if i made something that was really cool i'd actually USE the bags!!

this one is slightly larger than the other.  both are about 16" wide, 14" tall and 7" deep.  it can ~~easily~~ hold four two liter bottles of soda plus another bunch of stuff (the fourth 2 liter in the other one is a teensy bit of a squeeze).  the handles on both are a webbed belts i got at the thrift store.  i ALWAYS buy any webbed belts i can find so i can use their d-rings for purses.  the appliques are silkscreened patches i did a long time ago onto thrifted fabric.