Off season? Maybe I could..... Make a braided necklace

Time: approx an hour and a half
Materials: seed beads, wire cord, crimp beads, chain
Cost: $2 for crimp beads
Satisfaction: * * * *
What I learned: Crimp beads make necklaces look much more professional and crimp pliers are worth the investment. Threading seed beads takes longer than you would expect. I like braids.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and it is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngaje Ngai," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.

-intro to Hemingway's story

Off season? Maybe I could.....Make an apron out of an old skirt

Time: several hours
Materials: old skirt from a secondhand store, colored sheet, sewing machine, ruler
Cost: $0
Satisfaction: * * * *
What I learned: Save old lace. Eyeballing measurements can yield decent results. An ugly skirt can make a less ugly apron. Having a new apron signiicantly increases the likelihood of baking muffins. When you're all sewed out, it's 1 am, and you can't figure out how to continue, go to sleep and pick it up again in the morning.

Off season? Maybe I could.....Make a record clock

Time: approx 30 minutes
Materials: old record softened in an oven and shaped, cheap clock for parts, hot glue gun, AA battery
Cost: $4 for Walmart clock
Satisfaction: * * * * *
What I learned: Old records are cheap if you know where to look for them. It's $5 cheaper to buy an entire clock at Walmart and pull it apart than to buy a clock kit from a craft store. You don't need numbers to read time on a clock.

Reducing Textile Waste

"Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Do without."
-Saying popularized during WWII rationing efforts




The following is another clip from Sewing Green by Betz White:

Here are a few ways you can help to keep textile waste out of our landfills:

Reduce consumption. You may think you need new linens or that new dress, but sometimes less really is more.

Reuse and repurpose. Use your craftiness to refashion your used textiles.

Buy secondhand. Thrift and consignment shops are often full of nearly-new items at affordable prices.

Swap, donate, or hand it down. Start a clothing swap in your neighborhood. Donate clothing to a charity, such as Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Check out freecycle.org, a nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff free in their towns. Got kids? Join freepeats.org to find or pass on gently-used baby, kid, and maternity clothing, and more.

Quality clothing. When you do choose new, purchase clothing and textile products that are high quality and designed to last.

Off season? Maybe I could.....Make pins out of scrap fabric

I came across a glue gun in the basement a few days ago and have been trying it out a few mostly unsuccessful accessories. Since I had my coffee by myself this morning,I picked up my mom´s copy of Better Homes and Gardens (which I never read) and came across a page of DIY Christmas gifts inspired by Etsy. An 8 petal version of this gem caught my eye. Turned out to be the perfect fit for my budding glue gun interest and leftover fabric from last week´s scrubs project.

Time: approx 10 minutes
Materials: scrap fabric, compass to draw circles, spare button, pin back, hot glue gun
Cost: $0
Satisfaction: * * * *
What I learned: Hot glue works for SO MANY THINGS. Compulsively hoarding tiny pieces of scrap fabric can have a purpose after all. Don´t get rid of buttons. Sometimes a magazine with an uncompelling cover can have a good idea or two inside.

Quilters--The Original Repurposers

Clip from Betz White´s Sewing Green, p 36

"Today green-minded sewers often reuse fabrics for clothing and quilts because it helps keep textiles out of our landfills. But throughout history--especially from the post-Civil War era to the Great Depression--materials were scarce and many quilts had to be made from leftover fabric scraps and from what we might call "trash" today. When clothing was no longer wearable, it was deconstructed,and the usable fabric was stitched together to make quilt tops. If batting was not available, blankets, worn out quilts, and in especialy dire times, even newpapers were inserted between the quilt front and back to add warmth. Since new fabrics were often hard to come by, on-hand materials, such as feedsacks, made their way into pieced quilt tops. On occasion even the silk cigar ribbons and colorful textile inserts from tobacco packaging were stitched into unique and complex quilt designs, further demonstrating the quiltmaker's imagination and resourcefulness."

Off season? Maybe I could.....Make cards and send them to France

Time: approx 10 minutes per card
Materials: Phi Beta Kappa magazine or any magazine with interesting words and/or ideas, glue stick, cardstock, scissors, stickers, hole punch, or other decorating supplies.
Cost: $0
Satisfaction: * * * *
What I learned: It´s so much cheaper to make cards than buy them. Shaped hole punches can work for adult crafts, not just kid crafts. Postage to France is .98. Don´t throw away your sticker collection, use it up.

Off season? Maybe I could..... Refinish a Steelcase chair

My junior year of college I lived in an apartment at Maxwell Terrace. It was my first year off campus, and I only planned to be there for 4 months before leaving to study abroad. Dumpster diving for office furniture was a natural choice. (Please suspend ¨dirty hippy¨ judgements. Think Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, and it might seem more responsible and less....dirty.)

I found a disaster of a desk that worked well enough through college before I returned to the dumpster where I had found it and a mustard yellow desk chair. The chair was in good enough shape, or maybe I just liked the color enough, so I brought it home after college.

Liked the color and shape. Felt sturdy. Looked like it may have been around since the 70s but could easily serve me for a few decades more.

Not a fan of the dirt, spots, and scratched metal it had picked up in the past four decades of use.

Nothing some Soft Scrub, soaking, scrubbing, scratching up metal, and spray paint couldn´t fix.

Time: approx 2 hours, including drying time between coats
Materials: old chair, screwdriver, Soft Scrub, scouring pad, stainless steel spray paint
Cost: $5.50 for 2 cans of spray paint, $2 for stainless steel scouring pads to scratch up previous finish on the metal frame
Satisfaction: * * * * *
What I learned: What a Steelcase chair is. Stainless steel spray paint is dry to the touch in under 15 minutes but can take 2 weeks to fully set. Bringing your project(or chair) with you to the hardware store is a way to make sure the person working knows exactly what you´re talking about. Novice spray painters (like me) might need up to twice as much spray paint as a pro. Short sprays and multiple coats make for an even final product. Windy days are not the best days for spray painting unless you do it inside a garage. Quality items (like Steelcase chairs,) even ones found in the trash, are worth the effort.

Off season? Maybe I could.....Fix the straps on a dress

2 months ago I went shopping at Plato´s Closet´s bag sale with my sister. At $15 for a stuffed bag, we decided to shove as many things in the bag as possible without waiting behind thousands of tweens in line for the fitting rooms. Since we averaged out at 50 cents per item, we decided the cost/benefit didn´t make trying things on worth it.

Which meant about a third of our finds went directly to Goodwill after being tried on at home. I kept one dress around even though the straps were approx a foot too long formy shoulders.

Since it´s off season, I decided to try my hand at hand sewing.

Time: approx 1 hr
Materials: 1 dress, seam ripper, scissors, needle, thread
Cost: 50 cents for dress
Satisfaction: * * * * *
What I learned: I have small shoulders. Hand sewing gives you more control than machine sewing and is worth it for small areas (aka dress straps). SOME alterations give can make a big difference in the fit of a piece of clothing without much effort. I´ve worn the dress twice already since finishing it. Great success. Great dress.