the Green (Ecological) Crafts Thread

I thought that this may be an appropriate thing both in the crafts forum and on a hippie site! :daisy: I was wondering what sort of green (not colour, but ecological, rather) crafts everyone was whipping up, if any? :birds:

Is what you're making from organic fibers? Have you recycled one article of clothing into another? Stuff like that... opcorn: post pictures where you can!

:flowers:​

 

I just bought 6 sweaters at GoodWill today to recycle, upcycle, reclaim...whatever it is. I found some nice wool sweaters, one with lambs wool and rabbit angora blend. It has a tag in it that says hand knit by *someone's name* for *someones name* in England.

I can't wait to start on one tonight!

 

Wow awesome! What are you gonna do with it? Unravel the yarn and reknit something? Make sure to show pics when you are done

 

I get a lot from Good Will. I do altered books and 80% of the stuff I get to use/alter is from Salvation Army or something.

I just got a used sewing machine from Good Will-still seems to work perfectly fine, so I'm going to start revamping stuff pretty soon!

 

I got some super soft wool sweaters at yard sales this weekend that I'm unraveling. I'm going to use the wool to knit up some cozy long johns for Judah to wear this winter.

 

I got 2 bed sheets and a bag of quilt batting from Value Village to make a quilt for my son's bed recently.
I get yarn from there all the time.

 

I've been staring at a pile of plastic shopping bags and been wanting to crochet them, somehow, into a floor mat or something.

 

I don't recycle a lot of fabric, personally... I just put so much work into what I sew, I don't want to compromise the strength/integrity of it by using worn fabrics. What I HAVE done a lot lately though, is making eco-friendly projects for gifts etc. - like reusable cloth grocery bags and menstrual pads... Soon I'm going to start on a few other projects for household application.

 

I make cloth grocery bags which I give to people as gifts, and sell. I knit with recycled yarn. Oh, and I operate a paint drop off. People give me their left over paints (latex house paints) which I use to make my paintings with. That way the paint doesn't end up in the landfill and I still get to make my art!! I also take old tiles, opened bags of groute and make mosiacs mirrors out of them, make painted art cupboards out of old kitchen cupboards. Old jeans I take to make purses, grocery bags and skirts out of, which I turn around and paint.

People in our city/town are constantly dropping things off at my job for me, or even just putting a box in my back seat with a note: "thought you might have a use for this!!"

 

the unraveling of the first sweater just about wore down all my patience! I worked and worked at pulling out the seams, accidentally cutting wrong pieces here and there so that I have lots of broken pieces and just one good sized ball of yarn so far. still have one arm and half another arm and part of the body to go. I guess I could spin the shorter pieces in with other fiber. I just really hoped it would go better. I think I will use that yarn for socks. It just looks like it would be good for that.

I've read what I could find about unraveling sweaters, but no really good instructions about the seams, other than dont get serged seamed sweaters.
Anyone have any good links?

 

I found the link on this site to be very helpful:

http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/ashley.asp

 

These are my two 'green' crafts:




The plastic bag was crocheted from a collection of plastic grocery bags, and scraps of yarn that would otherwise been thrown out, and a few beads to decorate. The shawl is knit from partial balls of yarn to make stripes. (Also an ideal project to use up yarn scraps!)

 

thanks icedTea- that one was really helpful. I am doing much better with it now. Found some more nice sweaters at a thrift shop in Mt. Airy at Mayberry Days. Ripping it out is really very therapeutic.

 

That shawl is awesome! I love the colors and the shagginess. It looks so cozy.

 

yeah cerridwen, those are amazing! I never would have thought that the bag was made of plastic bags! That is too nice! And I also love the colors in the shawl. It is an amazing way to use scraps!

 

that tutorial is amazing and i suggest everyone look at it. myself, i like making rag rugs with old clothing

 

i made some notition blocks. the one with the lion is made from old paper and envelopes, the green is from a christmass card and the lion is from a magazine.
the white one is made from old paper, and the front also from an old christmass card.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2385/2221537302_ecbabfa505.jpg?v=0

 

this wallet is made from an old pair of pants and some lefotvers from a curtain, hope you like it! i made it for my boyfriend so

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/2466852017_c31c76005d.jpg?v=0

 

i finally worked out a way to make hemp dog collars, and have used the old brass fixings from previous collars.
hopefully i wont have to put up with stinky wet leather smell from me puppers when we come back from the river now
my doggies be organic an eco friendly now!

 

nice bunjies... i recently made some hemp macrame necklaces for my 2 huskies, bought 2 big fat metal rings to stick in there... my dogs have been breaking their metal chain collars! like seriously just pulling on them so hard that the metal starts bending or snapping. they've also busted a bunch of there cables with the swivel thing on them... they've had their new necklaces on for sometime now and theres no way there are breaking them. i should make some other ones and stick beads in them, haha.