Dozi Paper Packs (shown at top) include 8 different patterns on small (4″ x 5 1/4″) pieces of 80 lb. premium acid-free recycled card stock. They are the perfect size for postcards, making gift tags, scrapbooking, and collage. The pocket-size workbooks are saddle-stitched and include 32 pages of post-consumer recycled paper. In the set of three workbooks you get one with blank pages, one with lined pages, and one with grid paper....
At the Giant Dwarf Make and Take Trunk Show on Saturday in Philadelphia, PA, Sue Eggen will be sewing her gorgeous hats from recycled materials. She is inviting attendees to customize their item, and will whip it up for them, right there on the spot. This is a fantastic way to not only demonstrate a craft, but let the consumer witness part of the fabrication process. My buddies over at Handmade Detroit are gearing up for the third annual Detroit Urban Craft Fair....
David Janesko creates beautiful art pieces using electronic and toxic waste. While Janesko says that his art doesn’t have an environmental agenda, I think these pieces are incredibly eye-opening. He creates these pieces by dipping canvas in polluted rivers or dissolving electronics in salt and vinegar. He may not be trying to send an environmental message, but each piece feels like a testament to the waste we create and the ways it shapes our planet....
Check out these beautiful fabric swatches: PickNatural’s limited edition line has some gorgeous prints and all of the stuff you’d expect from an ecofriendly fabric vendor: organic cotton, hemp, and blends of the two. They also have some recycled hemp/organic cotton blends! Alongside the expected though, is this intriguing hemp and silk charmeuse blend! Have any of you guys used a hemp/charmeuse fabric before? Charmeuse is silk with a sort of satiny finish....
Lovell, who goes by “Mama Mel” was looking for fabric options without toxins like flame retardants, chemicals, synthetic dyes. She says: When she discovered that sustainably dyed organic cotton addressed her concerns, she decided to help make those fabrics accessible to other folks trying to green their sewing, and The Organic Mamas was born. Lovell isn’t a fabric designer, but she is a fabric lover and it really shows in the selection at The Organic Mamas....
Loop Fabrics’ “aim is to provide high quality, progressive fabrics and consultation in support of the growing demand for environmentally sensitive end products within the textile industry as a whole.” All of their products are sustainable, biodegradable or from certified organic fibers. Find easy muslin, linens, hemp/silk blends, specialty weaves, canvas and knits in their extensive eco line up. Their range of fabrics is really quite amazing. Check out their corduroy made from a hemp and organic cotton blend....
It’s been one hundred years since the passenger pigeon has lived, and 114 years since the bird that used to number in the billions has lived free, outside of a zoo exhibit. Fold the Flock has a mission to recreate the long-gone flocks of passenger pigeons in memorium this year, by asking individuals to fold an origami passenger pigeon. You can then add your origami passenger pigeon to the “flock,” symbolically rebuilding a paper passenger pigeon population that reminds us of the real ones that have passed....
Free Patterns Month is a holiday that I invented to encourage myself to actually sew some of the beautiful sewing patterns that I’ve been collecting for the past eleven months. I’m trying very hard to convince myself that my hobby is SEWING clothes, NOT hoarding sewing patterns! I especially love finding free patterns offered by indie pattern companies. I love buying from independent pattern labels, but I love it a lot more when there’s a pattern or two that I can test-drive first....
Waist deep in the ocean, my daughters floating in inner tubes next to me, I felt on the sand below my feet what could only be a giant seashell. I don’t dunk my head under water on purpose, but I am pretty dexterous with my toes, so it wasn’t long before I’d snagged the shell and hauled it up for my daughters to look at, only to find a GIGANTIC hermit crab looking back at us, waving its hermit crab claws....
Tracy Prince of Sea Find Designs transforms pieces of found sea glass into beautiful jewelry and jewelry supplies. She and her family make daily trips to the beach near their Rhode Island home to hunt down bits of glass shaped by the ocean’s currents. Tracy calls Sea Find Designs “a family affair,” since the whole Prince family is involved in much of her process. She says she’s drawn to sea glass because: What a beautiful way to do your part!...
I am completely in love with Liz Dickey’s art made from discarded bicycle parts! She launched 1.by.liz, making and selling her reCYCLED art, in Portland, Oregon just a few years ago. Each of her one-of-a-kind clocks and magnets are made from upcycled materials. All of 1.by.liz‘s designs are inspired by and made from recycled & reclaimed materials. She says that she has always been inspired by different materials – texture, color, light, nature – and the various perspectives they offer....
Here are six awesomely eco-fabulous winners (in my opinion) that I saw at the D.C. expo. THE CRAFTIEST I’m a sucker for all things crafty – and a handbag made from pop tops really caught my eye. The attention to detail was amazing. This vendor also had bracelets and dresses made from old pop tops! There were all sorts of crafty things on display and for sale. Have you ever seen a chair made of old wires and thingamajigs?...
Of course, you don’t exactly know all that’s in that one-buck sidewalk chalk, nor do you know the conditions of the workers who manufactured it. That aside, however, there’s also just something to be said for fostering the D.I.Y. ethic in your life. When you make homemade sidewalk chalk, you can make it any color you want, using your own pigment that you’re comfortable with. You can make it practically any shape you want, using anything from muffin tins to toilet paper rolls....
Are you having a family dinner this week? Perhaps you’re having a birthday party this month. If you were thinking about purchasing or making place cards for your event, consider creating these fun and recycled place cards instead! What You Will Need: Magazines Scissors Glue. To make this project even more eco-friendly, use eco-glue! Tape How To Do It: Flip through your magazine and find a large section of a neutral color....
Once upon a time, I was Team Wrapping Paper. I liked using unusual ephemera, or embellishing large-format blank paper. It was fun to upcycle paper, and I loved how cute and unique my presents looked. The problem, though, is that even upcycled wrapping paper generally gets thrown away after the present is opened. Not even my Depression-raised grandparents, who saved bread bags and rubber bands, spent Christmas afternoon picking the tape off of wrapping paper and saving it to be re-used....
Well, they are if you upcycle them! Here’s a useful and cute way to upcycle a greeting card into a blank book. Use it as a travel or nature or art journal, or just use it for your shopping lists. No matter how you use it, you’ll have given new life to one old greeting card, upcycling it into something brand-new. You will need: Greeting card. My favorite cards to use are the ones with personal notes inside–it’s an easy way to keep your loved one with you in the day-to-day....
Of course, it’s also possible to make a pincushion into a miniature work of art, and there isn’t a sewer around who wouldn’t appreciate one of those, too! Here, then, are my favorite tutorials for making pincushions. From the no-sew to the highly-elaborate, each one is completely do-able, completely lovely, and will be completely useful for its whole little pincushion life: Napkin ring pincushion. You don’t always want the napkin rings that you end up with, and it’s likely that nobody else wants them, either....
Supplies & Tools You will need: Tiles. Even brand-new, plain white tiles cost pennies at the big-box hardware store. And if you’ve got a ReStore near you, you can nab them for far fewer pennies. I used white tiles in this particular project, but don’t be afraid to snap up super ugly tiles if they’re even more of a steal, because the primer will cover all the tackiness for you....
When my little girls were just babies in cloth diapers, I spent a lot of money on eco-friendly, clean-rinsing, free and clear laundry detergent. The amount of money that our family saved by using cloth diapers way more than made up for the gourmet laundry detergent, but in the name of frugality, and since the girls’ cloth diapers have long since been passed on to other mommas, it was a habit that I needed to kick....
It is apparently my Summer of Quilting Tiny Things, as I have quilted so many wee pretties so far! Completely ignoring the Foundation Paper Pieced quilt I promised my high school graduate for her college dorm bed, I’ve instead been busily sewing up little quilt-as-you-go bookmarks and zipper pouches and applique patches and these adorable postcards. Quilted postcards have been my particular favorite lately, because they make such great gifts for so many occasions....
