City living is eco

I've been helping out the caretaker in our apartment building. He digs through the rubbish looking for cardboard and glass, and finally the body corporate has asked everyone to separate those and he will collect. Unfortunately this is purely a cost driven exercise for this bloke, so he isn't interested in anything else of limited value, but I was thinking of starting a compost heap (a friend of mine is organising a worm one in her block). This got me to thinking how it's so much easier to co-operate when you live in close quarters... city living can be eco sometimes. All we need is lift sharing or car sharing and then we're sorted. Hmmm..

Biodegradable is not always good

Biodegradable plastics sound good for the environment, right? You've heard how many years plastics hang around for in the landfills ... Technically yes, but only if you keep them out of your rubbish bins and plastic recycling because if these biodegradable plastics are mixed with regular plastic recycling they can ruin the integrity of the recycled products (i.e. the products would be weakened). This in turn will cause people to move away from recycled plastic products, which is not good for the recycling industry. Not only that but landfills 'mummify' our trash, so degrading takes centuries, not years.

So, what can we do about it - not too sure (avoid Tiger Brands bread or bury the bags in your garden?). This press release from SAPRO on biodegradable plastics isn't written for the layman. Their conclusion seems to be unsure and instead suggest reduction of packaging is a better way to go (I agree).

to make yourself

100 things you can make yourself, a title that jumped out at me from my daily newsletter, The Everyday Cheapskate (too much sneaky product placement for me to recommend this newsletter, but I like to credit my source anyway). From ice-cream, to socks to an entire house, it's inspiring.

Strapped for ca$h?

Isn't this belt fabulous, it looks almost bling - do you know what it's made out of? Well soda can tops - you know the things that you inveriably pull off. Collect 112 of them and you can have a 35"/88cm long belt. Get the tutorial here on CraftBits. What a creative project from 24/7ARTSY. I want one!!!

Scraps

I can't wait to get to Cape Town. It seems there are a few like-minded people around - like scrapskisskiss who makes boys clothing from scraps. Doesn't sound that appealing, but it's not the kind of scraps you use for rags - it's something for us eco friendly folk. Anyway, what got me interested was her mention of the Waldorf market. - definitely going to check that one out.
ps: She has an etsy shop, but it seems rather empty (perhaps the market went well?)

Patch on my jeans

So I found a cool enough patching post on Craftzine. Yes I know it is no longer March (is mending month) but I promise I did this in March and never got around to posting a photo :)

If you would like the instructions, go here

Happy Weekend!

My old jean pant ... wift a belt

So I had an even older pair of jeans (the painting pants) which I decided to cut up and transform into baby shoes. I used this pattern from Michelle Q which was slightly bigger than the first pattern I found from Stardust shoes. Both are pretty similar.

I used the old denim for the outer and sole and an old t-shirt for the inner. The first pair I made were too narrow - the instructions to enlarge the shoe (baby has a big foot) say to make it longer but I found that I needed to make it bigger all the way around and the heel longer and wider at the bottom (not the fold side).

It was a fairly straight forward pattern. The only tough bit was remembering how to do a button hole on my own machine (Elna 2004). Sewing the heel on the sole I only got 100% right the third time - it's hard to pin right and I made the fabric pleat instead of just unpinning the rest of the seam and moving the end along.

It would be nice to add some embellishment (like a bow, a felt or embroidered heart) but I have enough to keep me busy and she needs some easy to slip on shoes.

My eco credentials go down the toilet

The baby didn't grow as much as I expected in South Africa and I only brought the large sized cloth nappies back with me., so we are sadly back on disposable nappies. In the Netherlands you can buy these eco/green nappies called Nature Babycare and it's not that much more expensive than regular disposables nappies. So I went out of my way to the shop where I can buy them and was pretty stoked ... until I opened the packet. Have pampers (soft and thin) spoilt me! These are hard and papery and worst of all the little 'un got a rash. I just can't do that to my precious, even if it's 100% maize, no plastic, yadda yadda fishpaste. I like the design on the nappies tho...

Green crafts

Ladies, this is the ultimate test of your eco-friendliness... washable menstruation pads. I first came across them when shopping for fabric breast pads last year (on Etsy of course - from MellyGirl2007). I got them for free because I bought a fair few pads and at first I didn't have a clue to what it was. Perhaps a handy container - except it wasn't too handy as they didn't fit. Then I read the note from the seller and all was revealed. At first I was unsure (I am putting this very politely) but then after reasoning that I expect my child to wear cloth nappies the least I can do is give it a go. I haven't had a chance yet, but I am sure will soon enough. The blog post with instructions how to make your own is Crafting Green World - a new an novel idea for a craft blog, which I am adding to my rss reader now. Enjoy.

March is mending month

On the Craftzine site March is mending month. I found this out at quite an appropriate time - when the knees in my favourite Lee jeans gave out. But I didn't find any patching solution that wasn't, well, uncool. Like the tourniquet patch gets marks for being original but no way would I wear that. The buttons idea is also a little funny, and I'm not in the market for ripped jeans. Hmmm. To celebrate March I'll have to come up with something.

Cool baby

I have a Dutch book called Cool Baby with really neat ideas like creating a kid rain poncho out of an old umbrella, or baby outfits out of t-shirts, jerseys out of scarves, or dresses from jean pant legs.

I have gotten so much inspiration... like the idea to create my brother a dreads shower cap out of a dead umbrella. There is really a gap in the market here but I must perfect my design. He says it drips cold water down his neck (brrrr).

Then I made baby C some dress from B's old and stained t-shirts. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos along the way to show you exactly how, but here is a rough guide.


I cut (roughly) along the red lines seen in the photo, measuring against another dress of hers to be sure the width and length would be good.

First I cut in the middle of the v-neck, then in a square around (both sides). Then enough to make a skirt using the right edge, and including the cute polo logo.

Then I pinned them together, criss-crossing the collar like you see in the finished dress. I cut whatever was left over once I pinned the skirt to the top and sewed around, making sure that the whole collar edge was caught in the seam.

Then, if the fabric is nice, you can use the rest to make bibs!

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

Since I had a baby I have become even more of a eco nut (although I have been a local crackpot for a while). I really enjoy finding a re-use for something or re-purposing something else.

My classic example is using vegetable containers for drawer organisers.

Crafters has a whole forum dedicated to this topic -


And what about this list of recycled crafts from craft bits? I love these projects
* denim flower (pictured)
* funky glass bottles which are great vases (I don't particularly like this example, but minus the gold paint will be a lot cooler)
* baby water bottle rattle (I always have way too many of these bottles floating around)