Category Archives: Recycled materials

Upcycled Wool Mittens

Posted in Recycled materials, Sewing, Stuff to make by

This no-knit shortcut to making mittens is so preposterously easy (and somehow ridiculous) that it makes me giddy. To prep, toss an old sweater into the hot cycle of your washing machine and shrink it to kid-size. The finished cuffs of the sweater sleeves make excellent cuffs for mittens.

Constructing the mittens takes about 10 minutes. First, I turned the sweater sleeves inside out and lay them flat, using the existing sleeve seam. I traced my hand with pencil and sewed around the top and thumb. Turned right side out and that’s it: new stripey mitts!

This was my first foray with felted sweater wool–I’d like to collect enough sweaters to make a blanket, like this one from the Better Homes and Gardens blog.

Paper garland and wooden block village

Posted in Holiday, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

A quick tour of my mantelpiece. Here is the finished paper garland, which was fairly laborious to complete–I cut out 120 paper flowers in all, and slowly slotted them together. It is a perfect activity if you want to feel productive while watching a marathon of Christmas movies. And my Christmas village! Met with approval by all. The houses were really simple to make. I ordered some plain wooden blocks in three shapes (square, rectangle, and triangle) and glued the triangles to the squares for the houses. I used a little wood filler to smooth out the seam. Then I painted them using “Folk art” acrylic paint. I used a fine point Sharpie to add the details, and then painted on the final touches like the wreathes.

Matchbox House

Posted in Free Printables, Free Tutorials, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

More elfin houses . . . for this one I drew floorplans that fit inside a matchbox.

    

If you take a childlike pleasure in coloring, or if you happen to have an actual child who likes to color (and has excellent fine motor skills), I made tiny coloring pages so you can make your own matchbox house.

The exterior wraps around a standard matchbox. Interior is supposed to fit the inside tray but may need some judicious trimming. I used Sharpies for saturated color and generous amounts of glue stick (after failed attempts with other sticky substances) to adhere. Enjoy! And send me pix, please.

Paper garland

Posted in Holiday, Kids, Paper, Recycled materials, Stuff to make by

I am getting pretty excited about decorating my house for Christmas. Oh the crafty possibilties! I saw this post on How About Orange this morning and thought these paper ball ornaments would look pretty great strung together to make a garland. It seems like a nifty update on traditional paper chains, which I also love.  All white would be quite sophisticated, but it’s hard to pass up the chance to use some pretty colored paper. For those people who save wrapping paper, this would be a great way to use up some of your stash. I plan to get my little elf to help me. Stay tuned for the finished garland!

Little white houses

Posted in Boston, Recycled materials, Things to see by

I’m not sure how best to describe these: whitewashed Monopoly houses scattered on an oversized board game? Typewritten pages folded into paper houses? Stencilled with bits of poems from Emily Dickinson and tossed about the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts, the houses are the creation of Peter Krasznekewicz, who is currently a junior at Deerfield Academy. (You can see a slideshow of the project here.)

If you live near Boston, it’s worth the field trip to visit and wander around. But if you don’t catch the installation this fall, the Little White House Project will move to the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Mass. in the spring, and maybe to the Boston Children’s Museum. After that, the houses will have a second life: the artist plans to “up-cycle” the structures as material to be used in the construction of a Habitat for Humanity house.