Posted by faboolicious on 2004-09-04 07:26:16
Post Subject: crafty in noho!
Hey moxiegirl,
I'm in Noho and do s&b's too! I'm just trying to get stuff together to make a t-shirt quilt - any hints or tips would be great - I'm a beginner! What are your weird dolls like?
-faboo!
Posted by Morgan on 2005-07-20 09:34:45
Post Subject:
It's so nice to see quilts that aren't perfect, & here you guys say that you like those better!!! I'm incapable of making anything straight or perfect. Even when I use the stupid rotary cutter, things get cut out crookedly, and even if the pieces are straight, they aren't be the time I'm done sewing them!! I've never taken a class, and kinda taught myself to quilt (with a little help from my grandma), so I guess it's natural that my quilts will be a bit wonky. But I love them anyway, and the wonkiness makes them look more handmade. Besides, why would I want something that looks like I bought it in a store? & I LOVE using old clothes & recycled material. My stash is mostly old fabric from my grandma (including some velvet my grandpa got in Japan in the 1950s that I can't bring myself to use) and garage sales, though, so it's not exactly a lot of recycled stuff, except for my t-shirt quilt.
Yay for wonky!!
Posted by lizzymahoney on 2008-05-21 10:47:35
Post Subject:
Sunday morning at my favorite dumpster behind a thift store, I found a ton of stuff to use or wear or donate elsewhere. They'd thrown it all out as usual, and much of it had already been rifled through.
A white satin acetate tea length gown with crinolines. Donate.
Dozen medium and large black t-shirts with special events or special characters on them. One had a still functioning electronic thing stitched into the design that would repeat some cartoon saying when you pressed it. A couple of others were biker themed, some were resort themed. Some I kept, some I gave to people.
Another half dozen white or gray or tan t-shirts, most of which are going to be used as rags. There were a couple of interesting details that I thought I might add to a t-shirt quilt though.
Four pairs of shoes, two that would fit me, but all used and abused enough that I threw them out.
Probably twenty or so blouses or womans' tops that were in various degrees of wear, some of them fabulous and new looking. All to family pretty much, with three or four tossed out and a couple more cut up for trims or rags.
Two new sweat shirts, with tags, to family. One suede vest, donated.
Four lined wool womans' dress slacks from Talbots fit my mother. Jeans and capris she didn't like, but wouldn't fit me even with alterations. Those I donated.
T-shirt dress for my mom.
Woven chunky wool blanket, blah beige, but useful for a car blanket.
Some children's clothing that had seen better days, about half trashed or cut up and half donated.
And the odd bit was a polyester jacquard smiley face thong, new with tags. Still kinda creepy funny. I mean, I looked at some of the t-shirt stuff I couldn't use and thought about making underwear, but actual underwear from a dumpster? I was saved from confronting my fears by the fact that only wear natural material in panties.
Mens shorts, some of which had thrift store tags from elsewhere. Family.
Men's linen/poly suit jacket in a pale color. Should fit one brother.
All of it seemed to come from this one bag. A lot of the t-shirts that I scrapped from there had bleach marks splattered on them, probably from the original owner, although the thought did occur to me that the destruction was intentional.
There were other things acquired, but this is just the highlights of the clothing. Some of the stuff I could have resold, I suppose, and there were way more shirts and blouses than I need. I will have to cull from my collection to make room for the new stuff.
There probably was more good stuff left behind by me, and probably stuff I'm forgetting right now.
Posted by jennjitsu on 2005-04-26 14:38:34
Post Subject:
I am loving this thread! Here are my conrtibutions:
I also save dryer lint and egg cartons to make firestarters. We are camping people!
I save toilet paper and paper towel tubes to wind ribbon around. Sometimes you can fit several lengths on one tube and you don't have a million little spools floating around.
I don't use paper towels that much, I have TWO decorative towels that stay on my stove (even though I don't understand the concept of decorative dish towels! Wedding gift *shrug*). I have a million and one dish towels that I use for all of my spill and dish drying needs.
Old cookie sheets make great plant bases. And they also make great little magnet boards for kids when you travel. You can keep a toddler busy for a while in a car if you give them a cookie sheet and a bag of magnets! They could use it for leggos too.
I save bottle caps for making neat little wire/cap baskets.
Those tiny little gladware cups and babyfood jars keep my beading stuff organized.
My husband had too many teeshirts that were sentimental but falling apart so I made a ragged edge t-shirt quilt out of them and he loves it!
I save all cards (the fronts) and use them to make 'Happy Birthday' or 'Merry Christmas' streamers. I forget which magazine I saw that in...
I grate used orange, lemon and lime peels for the zest so I don't have to buy zest for a recipe. I just save them in old spice jars.
Clean film cannisters with a nut or something rattle-y inside keep my cats busy forever. I glue the cap on so they don't choke.
Same goes for empty soda bottles. I made a rattle for my little cousin out of a soda bottle and extra bulky beads I didn't need. She LOVED it. Favored it over her expensive boring quiet toys!
Yay on the plastic bags. They are used for litter bags, garbage bags (we haven't bought garbage bags in over a year!), and I send them with husband on his Jeep Dates (put that muddy shirt in there until it makes it to the wash!)
I'm a ziplock diva too.
Magazines are not safe when I weild a pair of scissors.
I repair clothes or use old ones as shop rags for the car/garage.
Any plastic/glass container goes to the garage for our loose screws and stuff or to my craft corner for various and sundry.
My husband saves boxes. LOTS of boxes. Half of our clutter is because of this. I'm hoping the kid will like playing with boxes so she can beat them up and he won't keep so many around.
We use any kind of junkmail (or anything with personal info that we don't need), beat up shipping boxes or loose paper as firestarter in our fireplace. In the warm months (all two of them) we take them to the recycling center. Thats how we can use little ol' shopping bags as trash bags!
That is all I can think of at the moment. I like this! getting lots of good ideas!
