Hula Hoop Rug

I've completed my first recycled t-shirt rug, a circular rug which is woven out of strips of old t-shirts, with a hula hoop used as a template. The tutorial can be found here.  This is mine:

 Its a fun project, and looks effective, but there are a couple of discoveries on completion:

1. You need a lot of time to complete a rug, my weaving consumed most of my two day weekend.
2. You need a lot of patience, it becomes tedious.
3. The further down you get, the less neat, you have to pull your weave through a bit tighter toward the end.
4. I started tying knots to attach each strip of t-shirt to the next.  Knots can look quite bulky, so I quickly changed tactic, and used a needle and thread to sew the next strip onto the previous, before weaving through.
5. You don't need to use t-shirts, you can use fabric scraps, but jersey fabric works best as it doesn't fray.
6. I believe you can get larger hula hoops that I did, which will leave you with a bigger rug. Mine will be big enough as a large table centerpiece, or perhaps a bath mat, but it would not be big enough as a rug for a lounge room.

Zipper pencil cases

I saw these zipper pencil cases for sale in the post office yesterday, and thought what a great recycled sewing idea.  I have a stack of op-shopped zippers!

Take a bunch of unwanted zippers, sew together, leave one zipper tag in place for opening and voila, you have a pencil case, or coin purse etc

Socky snakes

My son and I had an idea.  Make socks into snake puppets; "Socky Snakes"  A pair of old socks, one with a hole in it, buttons for eyes, and a ribbon cut into a tongue.  My son particularly wanted a blue tongue (perhaps he remembered seeing a blue tongue lizard?) 

You can't see that clearly, but he also used a dark red marker pen to make dots and stripes on the body.  I got him to choose the buttons he wanted from my thrifted button stash, I then stitched with needle and thread. 

He called his snake "Teresa" - an interesting name for a snake?!

Car Caddy

Inspired by a sewing project seen on pinterest by homemadebyjill.blogspot.com, I've had a go at one myself

I've used recycled denim, using a huge off cut from my thrifted stash, along with second hand fabric, thrifted bias tape and thread, and felt off cuts from resource rescue.

The only new material - the velcro, and Lightning McQueen patch, which I got from Spotlight over a year ago, not used till now.

Fold in half

Roll up

Velcro shut

Close up of felt pockets, I doubled up on felt for extra thickness, 

and zig zagged stitched for extra support

These little car caddy's are great to pop in your bag for pre-schoolers to play with in cafes, long journeys etc.

Recycled Bunting

A couple of weeks ago, I held a marketstall at Southside Market, in St Kilda. It was fun to do a marketstall and meet other makers, and sellers. I've often shopped at market's but not held a stall before.

As a cheap/recycled set up for my marketstall, I purchased a wicker picnic basket from the op shop for just $3, and made a small banner with the word 'recycled' made from a jute fabric sample, bias tape, and the words 'recycled' cut from newspaper, and stitched onto each bunting flag.

More on Southside market here

Easter DIY Garland Idea

Saw this, thought it was cool...

DIY Paint Sample Card Egg Garland

c/o Modern Parents Messy Kids

Bird Brooch from Recycled Materials

My tutorial: How to Make a Bird Brooch from Recycled Materials

Can be found over at Epheriell Designs

Junk Wave Workshop Recycled Bowl

Yesterday, I attended Megan Bayliss' recycled craft workshop called The Junk Wave.

Her workshop taught us how to craft bowls using junk mail, beads using cardboard, and bags made from chip packets! I have yet to complete my chip packet bag or recycled beaded necklace yet, but I did finish my little paper bowl last night..


The Junk Wave is a social enterprise that turns post consumer waste into saleable art and craft material. Megan Bayliss workshops with community members and early childhood centers, all around Australia, to teach around sustainability (recycling), business (social enterprise and triple bottom lines) and to develop skills in hygiene (clean communities includes keeping waste out of landfill and water ways) and recycled craft.

If a Junk Wave Smart Art workshop comes to your town, I highly recommend it!

House Warming

A housewarming gift for a friend



House drawn freehand onto newspaper, sewn with recycled fabric (including felt)

Jungle Fabric Crayon Roll

My mum picked up some jungle themed fabric from a charity shop in the Uk which she posted to me in Australia for my crafty projects.

I received an order for two crayon rolls on Recycled Market, so I made one crayon roll (boy theme) in aforementioned jungle fabric..




Felt is eco-fi, and elastic ribbon is from the resource rescue centre.

iPad Case

We have succumbed to technology, and got ourselves an iPad. I refuse however, to buy a new case for the iPad, when I can make one myself.

So, using the excess denim cut away fabric from a $3 thrift skirt refashion, and some leftover cool vintage Pucci-style fabric from a top I made, I traced around the outside of my iPad, and created a case. I did use quilt padding, to make it softer in between layers.

I used a button and hair tie to close its lip shut, and used fluorescent embroidery thread around the outside.