Turning your stockings into hair ties is easy and gives you a large supply of hair ties (and rubber bands, and gift wrappers, and…).
It is so simple and even better if you have colourful stockings. Just cut them into 2cm wide rings all the way up the leg. The lower foot part is great for hair ties, the higher part around the tights is better for hair bands as its much larger.
Twist it and gift it!
Old bicycle tyres are great for upcycling. With a sewing machine they quickly are turned into a useful little bag – a perfect present for yourself and others. It can be a simple phone protection case or a bag for jewellery or a torch. Just be careful with your sewing machine. The lower thread needs to be widened much more than for clothes material. You can do that on the little screw of the case that your lower thread is usually living in.
The pictures below give some design inspiration where also the opening and closing mechanism is from recycled material. The blue band is looped through holes created with a paper punch. The white cord with the plug is from a broken headset cable and was a present for my best techie friend. The last picture shows a bum bag where the upper part is open for a belt to fit through.
The main thing that makes upcycled tyres look special is using colourful thread and unique closing mechanisms. Make use of what you have around.
Most products are wrapped in plastic. It is hard to avoid in your daily shopping from food items to toilet paper. Plastic bags are easily turned into plastic “wool” for knitting or crocheting. Start reusing plastic bags by making yarn out of them. You can then knit or crochet anything that comes to your mind. I was inspired at Peats Ridge Festival – a New Years festival near Sydney know for it’s sustainability focus. The little workshop tent was full of hand bags and clutches.
In the picture below I have started knitting a curtain for our bathroom window out of the plastic bag that toilet paper is stored in. Preparing the plastic wool is more time consuming than buying wool but it takes rather time than money and then the knitting is much faster as plastic is thicker than wool. The outcome also makes for different purpose than wool. It is more robust and can also turned into e.g. a mat for shoes. You can go colourful. You can knit hand bags and braid the handles. You might want to experiment with different size needles.
Be creative and share your ideas with me!
How to create yarn out of plastic bags:
1. stretch a plastic bag
2. roll it up like dough for cookies with the longer side facing you.
3. cut off the end parts – the bottom rim and the handle
4. cut the long dough piece in 2cm wide pieces
5. unfolded they turn into a large loop.
6. now you connect loop through looping and you will have a string of yarn
This is a great video to explain the process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTm2V4ssvY