Getting To Know You, Recycled.

Hi there, Anne-Marie of Handmade by Amo'r here with this month's Getting to Know You Treasury.

Welcome Wallhanging by Heckety Beckety

This is where the Crafty Ireland Team gets to meet and greet another Etsy team in a 50-50 cross-team treasury. The idea is to introduce ourselves and mutually promote both teams.  Please give a hearty Irish welcome to this month's guests, The Era of Recycling Team.

Etsy is awash with glorious green treasuries this time of year in the run up to St Patrick's Day. Thank you Etsy people around the globe for acknowledging our tiny green isle!!  I thought I'd go green in a different way and sought out a team that believed in recycling, upcycling, being Eco-friendly and using sustainable materials.

'Getting To Know You - Let's Recycle Together' by byAMOR

The Crafty Ireland Team says HELLO to The Era of Recycling Team. Let's go Green in a different way for St Patrick's Day

Reusable Snack Bag - Pink Ca... EkoSaks $6.99	Blue and white recycled cera... louisespokes $80	Recycled Tin Geometric Disc ... SaleOfWork $24
6 Origami flowers // Your fl... myCrazyHands $18	Wearable art fabric brooch w... GoblinStitch $15	Magenta Aspen Leaf Recycled ... mlwdesigns $20
SALE / Kids pillow/ Personal... Gizabelle4kids $25	Pink flower clutch purse TwigsBags $15	Gold Metal Picture Frame, 5 ... ArtOnceAgain $32
Cersei. Handmade Purple Etch... magpieandbutto... $9.5	Handknitted neckwarmer in ba... purlsofcolour $30	Blue paper bead necklace/bra... Fracmatic $25
Recycled Glass Bottle or Jar... KingsForgeGlas... $7	Hot pink mobile phone sleeve... HereAtSmallGoo... $8	Handmade birthday card, flow... CardsMadebyAnn... $4
Seagrams Platinum Select Vod... dables $50

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

And continuing with the theme, here are a couple of super simple ideas for recycling or re-using in the home. No skills required!

 

Candle holder made with re-purposed souffle packaging (glass ramekin) and tiny pieces of frosted sea glass. (more info here, on my own blog if required)

Don't discard those laddered stockings and tights! Cut the 'foot' off and cover the end of your broom for an amazing cobweb and animal hair duster. An old sock will work ok too, but the static electricity of the nylon really draws fluff, dust and dander like a magnet. And it's more Eco-friendly than plugging in your vacuum cleaner every time! 

Have you got any quick and easy tips for recycling and re-using at home? Please do comment below.

How to knit...with denims!

Do you have any old jeans or cotton t-shirts in the house that you no longer wear? Are these too good for the rag bag, but not good enough for the charity shop or selling at a market? Do you hate throwing stuff away and are looking for a way to recycle the material?

Brigitte from Purls of Colour has the perfect upcycling solution: knit them!

I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Dublin last week and showed people how to knit with t-shirt and denim yarn, and I now reveal my secrets...




First of all, you need the fabric - this could be cotton t-shirts, a pair of old denims, a worn-out silk scarf or fabric remnants from a sewing project. If you haven't washed any fabric remnants beforehand, I'd advise to wash them to make sure the material doesn't shrink terribly or falls apart. I've just ruined a cushion cover by washing it and I had no idea that it would totally go to pieces.

I prefer working with natural fibre, but I know people have knitted with plastic bags rather successfully. I also tried to knit with ties (and am still working on that one), but again, wash them first, because some silk ties lose shape after washing.



You also need a pair of BIG NEEDLES - yes, needles that put fear into the hearts of men! Size 15 or 20 - if you can get any bigger, go for it! At the last Knitting and Stitching Show, a lady knitted rugs on needles that were the size of broomsticks!




Then you need a pair of scissors and the fun starts. There are various ways of cutting the fabric. Some cut strips and then sew the ends together by hand or machine. Some knot the ends of stips together, but that means you either let the ends hang, or you have to sew them in later on.



To avoid too much sewing or knotting, you can cut your piece in the round or in serpentines to have longer strips.


Yes, you get corners, but they aren't too visible when you knit, and the ones that show look rather arty and interesting.

That's really it. Once you have enough strips sewn or knotted together, you just roll them into a ball and start knitting scarves, hats, bags, rugs...

This is a rug I knitted from cotton t-shirts and cast off with denim (the loopy bits are the corners of strips cut out in the round).

I've even used some denim in my latest Austerity Neckwarmer!

Although I love love love wool, I am beginning to develop a soft spot for knitting with fabric, so there are Purls' creations in the making which mix wool and interesting fabrics.

Belfast’s Fashion Souk: up- and recycled, handmade, and fashion conscious!

Belfast’s First Fashion Souk opened its doors for the first time on Sunday, 14 February 2010 in the Ulster Hall Lobby. This new exciting fair fashion market for second hand and handmade clothing runs on a trial basis for three months, during which it has to prove its worth for more funding, but it was about time that Belfast gets a proper clothes market!
Purls of Colour stall at the Fashion Souk (yes, and me…)

Our city certainly has plenty of charity shops to donate your unwanted clothes, but no dedicated market to sell your old darlings. Last month, I tried to sell some of my clothes at St George’s Friday market, but I realised quickly that most visitors there were more interested in bric-a-brac. If you want to sell your previously loved clothes, there are some shops that take vintage or designer clothes, like Déjà vu on the Lisburn Road, or the Rusty Zip on Botanic Avenue, but the Fashion Souk certainly fills a huge void. It gives fashion designers, artists and craftspeople an opportunity to showcase and sell their creations, and people who are clearing out their wardrobes can do likewise.

The Fashion Souk is Belfast’s first fair fashion market, intended to reduce the amount of clothing we throw away every year. Recently some powerful advertisements printed on Belfast Metro buses and black taxis appeared, telling us how many bus- or taxi loads of clothes we throw away each week. Scary!

The fashion souk is organised by Aly McElroy Jones, who organised the Changing Rooms, an initiative to make fashion fairer and more sustainable, and Belfast’s Stitch and Style workshops and fashion shows, where people have the opportunity to learn how to customise their clothes, and also see how customised and handmade clothes look on a catwalk. I’ve exhibited twice at the Stitch and Style shows, and have to say it is amazing to see your own creations modelled at a proper public fashion show.
‘As Pink as you can get’ Purls of Colour scarf modelled at the Stitch and Style Show, November 2009

Exhibiting and selling at the Fashion Souk was great fun, and it was amazing to see all the different stalls and creativity displayed there, for instance, there are belts made from bicycle tyres, rainskirts made from old tents, and rucksacks made from Coca Cola tins.
I have a whole list in my head of all the things I want to buy if I ever come into money.

And it wasn’t just Belfast stalls, since I spotted our very own CraftyIrelandTeam member Missy Bonkers from Galway, who was one of the crafters who had come up from the South. Team member Lilgreenshop from Belfast also was there as a customer, but we didn’t manage to meet up!

Running a stall at such an event is fascinating. As a non-driver, I am so used to bring my suitcase of knitted accessories to a stall, but this time, a friend of mine drove me, my knits and my boxes of second hand clothing to the souk. My non-driver mind forgot so many things I could have taken, like a big mirror and my wire mannequin. Still we set up, and I had a wonderful time chatting and selling to customers – although I did not sell any of my Purls of Colour creations. I did sell some of my previously loved clothes, and I am glad they found new homes, since I found it hard enough to part from them, even when I hadn’t worn some of them for years!

Chatting to some other traders, I heard the same thing again and again, namely how difficult it is to sell your handmade items, because people always expect to pay cheap chain store prices for everything. So I learnt that is really important to drive the handmade message home, to let people know what makes your item so special and more costly than chain store items. I find this quite difficult, since I am not a born seller, but I am planning to have some information at my next stall about the process of handknitting. And I will definitely bring a mirror…

The Fashion Souk is a great event for sellers and buyers alike. It showcases the talent of Ireland’s fashion community, and the buzz of creativity is infectious. It celebrates the joy of dressing up or down, of difference and wearing one-offs, and of shopping for clothes while you are doing your bit for the environment and reduce waste.

And it had cupcakes, which are the rage here in Belfast at the moment.

Dates of the next two Fashion Souks, which take place at Belfast’s Ulster Hall Lobby from 1-5pm:

Sunday, 14 March 2010
Sunday, 11 April 2010

For more information or to book a stall, email info@thefashionsouk.com

There are also Stitch and Style workshops (no fashion show though) at St George’s Market on 6 March 2010.

For further information:

www.thefashionsouk.com/
www.belfastcity.gov.uk/stitch/
www.thechangingroomni.com/