Polaroid-Style Christmas Ornament

Since this will be Virginia’s very first Christmas, my husband and I wanted to celebrate it by making photo ornaments of her to give to close family and friends.

If you would like to make your own Polaroid-style ornament, just follow along with my tutorial below.  There’s still enough time to make a nice DIY Christmas ornament with just the right amount of a retro flair!

Materials:
Here are the materials that I used.  Most can be substituted with things that you already have on hand.

wallet-sized photographs
ruler
Exacto knife/ cutting mat
bone folder (nice but not necessary)
heavy white paper (I used Reeves BFK)
ribbon
glue (I used a glue stick)
plastic sleeves to protect photo (again, nice but not necessary, I happened to have these laying around)
type writer (or just a pen if you want to have something written on your ornament)

Tutorial:
First choose the photo that you want to use and get it printed in wallet size. We ordered ours via email from Walgreens and they were ready for pick up in about an hour.

You will then trim your photos so that they are 2″ x 2″ squares.
Next, cut out your paper to 2.5″ x  6″ using an Exacto knife and mark the “window” where your photo will be, as well as a center line at the 3″ mark with a pencil as a guide (this will help you line up your type if you are using a typewriter, though in this photo the type has already been added to the ornament).  There is a 1/4″ border around the window on the top and sides and about 3/4″ border along the bottom, giving it a Polaroid-like appearance.  If you are making several ornaments, as we did, it is easiest to make one and use it as a template for the rest.

Now you can feed your paper through your typewriter to make your label. It is easiest to do this before you cut the window out.

Carefully cut out the window using an Exacto blade and a ruler.

Using your bone folder to make a nice, clean, crease; fold the paper in half, width-wise.

To help protect your photo and make it look a little more Polaroid-like, insert it into a plastic sleeve, cutting off the extra plastic.

Now spread glue all over the back of your ornament, sandwiching in your now-protected photo as well as your length of ribbon.

Your done! Now we’ll just have to explain to Virginia what a Polaroid and a typewriter is when she gets older!

Happy crafting and Merry Christmas!

Crochet Neckline; DIY Shirt Refashion

Do you know how to crochet?  Do you have a plain shirt that is in need of a little pick-me-up?  Than this project is for you.  Crocheting a neckline is an easy way to transform a ho-hum shirt into something with a little more interest and feminine style.  I love how the openwork crochet creates a lace-like appearance without being overly fru-fru.

I only used three different stitches to create this particular neckline; chain stitch, single crochet, and double crochet.  The thread that I used was just a simple cotton crochet thread that I inherited from my Grandma.  It’s probably a size 10 thread, though it didn’t have a label so I’m not exactly sure.

To begin, I used a 1mm crochet hook to pierce the fabric of the original shirt neckline and create a crocheted foundation for my new crocheted neckline.  This particular shirt has a double layer of knit fabric in the bodice, so it was a little difficult to pierce, which is why I used the smallest hook that I could use with the thickness of thread that I had.  In the places where I pierced the shirt I made a single crochet, then made three chain stitches between each single crochet stitch.  At this point, a fabric marker may come in handy so that you can be sure that your stitches are evenly spaced along the neckline.  Or, you can just wing it like I did.

Once you have a foundation row established, it is a good idea to find the middle of the shirt (front and back) and mark it with some contrasting yarn.  This will come in handy if you would like to do any shaping of your neckline.

From here on your stitches will depend on the look you want as well as the size and shape of your particular neckline.  For my shirt, I used various combinations of double crochet with chain stitches between and single crochet with chain stitches between.  Keep in mind that if you want your neckline to lay flat, the overall number of stitches will need to decrease as you add each successive row.

My original shirt had a neckline that was very deep in front and in back.  I really like it, but I thought that it was a bit low in the front, so I gave myself a little more coverage with the crochet neckline in the front than I did in the back.

To keep up on all things zween, please follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

Happy Crafting!

This post has been added to the linky party make it, wear it Thursdays on The Train to Crazy, Make it Pretty Monday on the Dedicated House, The Inspiration Board Link Party on Caroyln’s Homework,  and Made By You Mondays on Skip to my Lou.

DIY recycled sweater sleep sack

Fall is in the air and it’s time to start thinking about how to keep our new baby nice and toasty warm once the cold weather settles in.

It has been said that loose bedding in cribs can pose a suffocation hazard in babies less than one year old.   So in my quest to negate this issue I came across some “wearable blankets” such as this one by Baby in a Bag and this one by Halo.  They seemed to be good products with good reviews and reasonable prices (about $30 each from what I can tell).  But naturally, I wanted to see if I could make one myself.

Which lead me to my new obsession with Pinterest, where I found this wearable blanket project by Ashley.  In her blog post, she gives an excellent tutorial on how to make a baby sleep sack made with fleece fabric.

I was all excited about this project but…

I had no fleece and did not like the prospect of driving a half hour (one way) to the nearest fabric store.  Wa wa.

But, lets face it, buying new fabric is not my style anyway, so I started to look around at what I already had.  That’s when I discovered two bags of old clothes set aside for donation.  When I found my old cashmere sweater (originally purchased at a thrift store) in the pile I had a eureka moment.  That’s it!  I’ll use this!

(see how much she likes it!)

When I started this project I planned on using Ashley’s tutorial as-is, and even found a detachable zipper to use from a hoodie that I was also about to donate.

The pink cardigan shown above is what I used as the guide for the neck, armhole, and torso width of my pattern as per Ashley’s suggestion (see Ashley’s original post for further explanation of this point).

Notice that I lined up my neckline with the neckline of the sweater.  I also ended up extending my pattern to include the entire length of the sweater.

However, I quickly decided that I would need to make some adaptions to her project since I had a limited amount of fabric to work with.  Since my sweater was only so wide, I didn’t really have enough of it to make the two separate pieces for the front (because I would need about 1.5 inches more in the width).  You see, in the original design, the sleep sack is supposed to have a zipper running down the entire length of the front.  But, since my sleep sack was made from a stretchy knit sweater, I figured, why not make it a pull-over?

So that’s what I did, I just cut two pieces that were basically the same then sewed them together at the shoulder seams and down the sides.  Remember how I used the bottom of the sweater as the bottom of the sleep sack and the neckline of the sweater as the neckline of the sleep sack?  Well, that meant no fraying in those areas!

The arm holes, on the other hand, were fraying terribly.  So I made a crocheted ribbed edging around them.  Just one row of single crochet worked directly into the sweater and 3 rows of double crochet worked into a “ribbed” pattern.  (first row; sc into sweater all the way around armhole.  Second row; dc in each sc.  Third row; front post dc in first two dc, dc in next two dc, repeat for entire row.  Fourth row, same as row three).

Since I used the original neckline, I could have just left that as-is, but I decided that I wanted to open it up a little more. After I cut the neck hole I added a decorative crochet edge (row 1; sc all the way around neckline into sweater, row 2; picot in first st, sc in next st, repeat all the way around).

I could have left this project alone at this point and basically have a baby-sized sweater night gown, but I wanted to make sure that her legs and feet would stay nice and warm (that was the whole point after all). So I added a zipper along the bottom edge, which gives easy access for midnight diaper changes!

I love how light weight and warm this cashmere sweater is. And oh so soft! As you can tell, Virginia likes it too…

to keep up to date with all things zween please like my facebook page.  And, if you’re a Pinterest junkie like me you can find me there too!

Find this post helpful?  I’d love to hear about it, so leave me a comment below!

Happy crafting!

oh yeah, I couldn’t resist making a “night cap” with one of the left over sleeves. Don’t worry this is just for fun and a photo shoot; she won’t actually be sleeping in it.

This post has been added to the linky party Make it Pretty Monday week 16 over on the dedicated house, Made by you Mondays over on Skip to my Lou, and Make It Wear It Thursday over on The Train to Crazy, so check them out for some linky fun!

Pin-spiration; DIY Nursing T-Shirt

If you’ve read anything about breastfeeding I’m sure you know about the many benefits to nursing; it promotes bonding between mother and baby, it gives the baby’s immune system a boost, it helps the mother’s uterus to contract after birth and can help with loosing that maternity weight more quickly, plus it’s way less expensive than formula feeding.

But there are also some obstacles associated with nursing; cracked and sore nipples, plugged ducts, Mastitis, more frequent feedings (as compared with formula-fed babies), and the logistics of breastfeeding discretely in public so that you can some day leave your house!  So far, six weeks into baby number one, I have dealt with all of the above obstacles.  And today I’m going to address that last one; dealing with discretely nursing in public.

For some, the answer is using a large bib-like fabric such as a Hooter Hider.  These are great and in fact I have one that was given to me by my sister-in-law.  You can even find tutorials (such as this one) for how to make your own.  But although they are fantastic and have their place, I don’t always want to have a huge piece of fabric draped over me, which can be awkward to maneuver with a hungry, fussy baby.  Plus, I also feel like it draws more attention to what I’m doing; feeding my baby.

This predicament lead me to start searching out DIY nursing tops on Pinterest.  I found several that I thought were cute, but chose this one from Project Open Hearts for my first attempt.  Allison wrote a very comprehensive tutorial on how to make a discreet nursing top using two identical shirts (or two nursing tops using 3 shirts).

For my top I used two shirts that I had on hand that had seen better days to say the least.  The short sleeve top, which is my main shirt, actually had several holes in the front, making it the perfect candidate for this project since that section of the shirt was removed.  Though both of my tops are brown, they are not exactly the same color, but it doesn’t really bother me.  I kind of like how the two tone turned out actually.

The other way that my top differs from Allison’s is that I didn’t hem the overlapping section of the main shirt that hangs over the replaced section of the shirt.  Also, the long-sleeved shirt, which I used to make the new front panel, was not as long as the short-sleeved shirt.  Though I cut the long sleeve shirt just under the armpits, the fabric does not reach that far up on the finished shirt.  I don’t find this to be a huge problem though, because I did leave a generous amount of length for the overlapping part of the shirt.

Below is my finished DIY nursing top using Allison’s tutorial and my own recycled shirts that were on their way to the rag pile.  I do intend to make more of these, possibly with new shirts, but using what I already had was quicker and I didn’t have to worry about messing it up and wasting money on new clothes if it didn’t work out.

And here is how it works…

And here is Virginia trying it out for the first time!

See, very discrete.

Thank you for stopping by.  This has been another installment of my Pin-spiration series, where I do a project that I find on Pinterest and share it with you all!  Keep pinning and keep crafting!

Question; are you on Facebook?  Me too!  find me here!

This post has been linked up to Made By You Monday #11 6 over on Skip to my Lou and Make it Pretty Monday #14 over on The Dedicated House!

Pin-spiration; Flip-Flop Rehab

Trying to balance first-time motherhood and making things for my own enjoyment/ sanity, I came up with the idea to create a new blog series called “pin-spiration,” where I do projects inspired by things I see on Pinterest.

This flip-flop project seemed like the perfect place to start.  It looked simple enough and I thought it would be quick.  Lucky for me, it was both!

I saw this pin this morning, and since the little one was sleeping, I took the opportunity to get my craft on.  Unfortunately, there was no additional tutorial or explanation to go along with the series of photos, but the photos tell the story anyway, so it wasn’t difficult to follow along and recreate.

For my version I re-purpossed a pair of very worn (and uncomfortable) flip-flops as well as an old shirt that was in my “to use for other purposes besides wearing” pile.

Next, I removed the plastic thongs from the flip-flops (the cause of my discomfort).

Finally, I cut four strips of fabric from the shirt measuring roughly 2.25 inches by 18 inches each and attached them to the flip-flop soles, as shown in the photos below, adding a glob of hot glue to keep the knots in place.

And there you have it!  A “new” pair of useable flip-flops that I can actually wear instead without getting a blister.

When was the last time you saw something on Pinterest that inspired you than actually made it (or traveled there, etc)?  A lot of times we have the best of intentions to do make things but then life kind of happens and it doesn’t get done, or you just plain forget about it.  So today I’d like to encourage you to go look through your Pinterest boards and find all those DIY projects on your to-do list.  Pick one out and at least get it started.  Or better yet, find one that you think you can follow to completion today!  Go ahead, get YOUR craft on!  Then come back here and tell me what you made.  I’d love to see it!

Thank you for stopping by.  Happy crafting!

A Whimsical DIY Tree Decal for the Nursery

When you live in a rental, wall decals are the way to go.  They aren’t permanent but they provide a big impact.  I’ve seen a lot of lovely wall decals online, but their price tags ($60-$150 or more) were not in our budget.  Besides, buying ready-made decals isn’t really our style.  I had a feeling that there was a way to DIY it, and sure enough there was.

I found this tutorial to be indispensable to the process and basically followed the directions exactly.

I’ll summarize the process here, although for more detailed instruction you may want to check out the above mentioned link.

We made the wall decals themselves out of Contact paper.  Contact paper is self adhesive vinyl that is primarily used for shelf liners.  I was a bit skeptical at first that Contact paper would work, because I remembered it being very sticky and I thought it might damage the walls, but after trying out a small sample I realized that it was indeed the perfect material for making wall decals.  The finish on our walls is a semi-gloss, and it is very easy to remove the Contact paper and even reposition it if needed.

When planning our design we started by looking at different wall decals online for inspiration.  I really liked how this image incorporated both a wall decal and an actual tree branch that suspends from the ceiling.  So the first thing that we did was go to our local park to find the perfect branch.  The branch that we found was very light weight; perfect for suspending from a small hook on the ceiling.

Next we went out looking for the perfect colors of Contact paper at Target.  Unfortunately, the selection of contact paper was very limited.  They had a plain white paper, which would have been perfect had our walls been any other color besides white, but for our purposes we had something more like black or brown in mind.  We were able to find a pretty green and white patterned paper, which I thought would work well for making leaves, so we bought a roll of that.

After Target we stopped at Home Depot (I know, I know, I hate Home Depot and vowed never to return after that fiasco with the table legs, but we really wanted to get this project going and not have to order something online).  Though it was a little difficult to locate in the huge expanses of this super sized store, we did locate the Contact paper eventually and found just what we were looking for; a dark brown with a subtle, kitschy, wood veneer pattern.  Perfect!  The two rolls of Contact paper were more than enough to make our tree and cost less than $15 together.

Now that we had the basic elements it was time to get started!  I sketched out a design in a sketch book then Jon taped up several large sheets of newsprint on the wall to encompass the size tree we wanted to make.  We wanted our tree to be floor to ceiling and incorporate the corner of the room.  After all the paper was in place using painters tape Jon used my sketch to rough out the idea on the wall itself.  Once we had a tree that we were generally happy with, Jon held up the branch to see how we liked how they looked together and  make sure that the base of the branch would intersect with the tree trunk.  Finally, we just cut it out to use as a pattern for the contact paper.  Below are a few pictures of this process.

Once we had the tree completely cut out we needed to get it traced onto the Contact paper.  We had to make the tree in sections of course so we developed an easy way to divide the tree into different segments then label each section in a way that we’d be able to reconstruct it.  Also, I wanted the branches to follow the “grain” of the printed design on the pattern so we took this into consideration when tracing the pieces.  If your design is not completely symmetrical like ours, you’ll also need to take care that if you trace your pattern on the back of the contact paper, you must also reverse your design, otherwise it will end up being backwards.

Next came the fun part; sticking cut pieces of Contact paper to the wall.  To do this we started with the bottom most section of the trunk since it was most important that it line up perfectly with the baseboard of the wall.  The rest of the tree then “grew” from that in more or less the way that we had designed it.  There was a bit shifting, but all in all it came out pretty much spot on.  After the “naked” tree was completely on the wall the branch was ready to be installed.  To do this Jon installed a very small hook into the ceiling and used monofilament to hang the branch.  I’m really happy with how well the color of the vinyl matches the color of the branch.

This was the end of day one.  Luckily, I also had the next day off work so I was able to cut out and stick on the “leaves.”  At first our idea was to make the leaves more “leaf shaped” and kind of floating around the branches, but at the last minute I decided that I liked the more Mid-Century-Modern and “design-y” look of using circles to represent the leaves, kind of like this image.

After I put the circles on the wall I decided that the actual branch looked too bare, so I sandwiched some of the small branches between more circles.

We wanted to add more elements to our tree with more colors of Contact paper, but since we already knew what was available to us at Target and Home Depot, and since we wouldn’t be needing nearly an entire roll just to make a few birds, butterflies, or flowers, I decided to put a listing up on Freecycle asking if anyone had any leftover Contact paper that they didn’t need.  To my delight I got a reply and was able to make an owl out of some light brown suede contact paper.  A word of caution about the suede material though; it gives a really great texture and is just as easily removed from the wall, but unlike the vinyl kind, this stuff is very flexible and does not hold its shape easily.  I still like the way the owl turned out, though it has more of a “hand drawn” look to it.

So what do you think of our DIY tree wall decal?  I’d love to hear your comments!  Did you find this post helpful in your own DIY project?  Does this inspire you to make your own wall decals?  If so, please let me know.

Happy crafting!

This post has been linked to;
Show it off party# 21 on Get Outta my Head {Please}
Make Mondays Marvelous on C.R.A.F.T
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays #117 on Coastal Charm
Tutorials & Tips Link party {63} on Home Stories A2Z
Take-A-Look Tuesday on Sugar Bee Crafts
Too Cute Tuesday: Linky Par-Tay #97 on Funky Polkadot Giraffe

DIY mobile

Yesterday I had the urge to make something for the new baby again, and thought that a mobile would be a fun project.

It all started with a box full of beautiful origami paper cranes that my husband made for me in 2004.  I forget exactly how many he made, but I believe that it was over 100!  At the time we were living in two different cities; I in Cleveland, Ohio and him in Atlanta, Georgia.  He sent the cranes loose in a care package.  I always meant to do something crafty with them and yesterday I finally got my chance.

I’ve never made a mobile before, but I knew that I wanted it to be very light and delicate, so the cranes where a perfect fit.

To give the paper cranes some weight, I added a few beads to each strand.  The thread that I used was just a little heavier than regular sewing thread and it is doubled.  The beads and cranes are secured from slipping off the string by the bottom most bead/decoration.  I did not bother securing the decorations at the top since gravity will keep everything in place.  To keep all the strands organized and prevent tangling while I worked, I clipped each one to my sewing basket as seen below.

Once I had several strands to work with I started cutting down some green floral wire.  This wire is a fairly thin gauge and can be easily cut with scissors.  I had no idea how long to make each piece so I just played around with different lengths of wire.  I ended up using longer lengths at the top and the shortest ones at the bottom.  I bent each end of the wire upward to create a loop as seen in the photo below.

Creating balance in the mobile is very important and can’t be done unless you have the piece hanging as you work. So to help me construct this piece I used our floor lamp which has bendable armatures.  It was the perfect height for me to work.  Balance can easily be reached by adjusting the wires and threads.  Remember that you will need to continuously adjust this balance as your piece gets longer.

It’s also important that the strands do not easily tangle when the mobile gently rotates, so testing it to make sure that it does so is also very important.  Because this whole mobile is so light weight it can easily rotate with the most gentle indoor air currents.

After the mobile was as long as I wanted and I was satisfied with the way it was balanced, I secured each knot where the thread meets the wire with some clear-drying super strong non toxic glue.  This allowed me to clip the thread ends completely without the worry that my knots would come undone.

And here is how we can expect our little one to view their mobile as it hangs (high) above his/her crib.

Thank you for stopping by!  If you have a story about mobile making that you’d like to share I’d love to hear it!  Just leave me a comment below or write on the zween facebook wall.  Happy Crafting!

Traditional Christmas Stars

This Christmas season I decided to tackle a traditional ornament project; the Froebel Star (also know as an Advent Star, Danish Star, Polish Star, German Star, Swedish Star, etc).

I got the idea a couple of weeks ago on a routine trip to my local printer here in Lakewood, Ohio.  There the owner bundles up small packs of scrap paper that he trims from larger sheets.  Many of these are the perfect size for jotting down notes, but some are a bit more unusual.  I noticed that he was selling some bundles of long, thin strips of paper and the first thing that came to my mind where the Christmas stars that my Mom and her siblings used to make.  Growing up, I remember having  several of these stars that we hung on our tree.

At one point, several years ago, my mom taught me how to make one but I could no longer remember.  I decided to buy a bundle of long paper strips from the printer and give it a try anyway.

Starting with a simple google search, I eventually found this tutorial.  At first I found the tutorial too confusing to follow so I turned to YouTube, but I could only find one video which was poorly lite and not even in English.  It did give me a good enough understanding of the process however and when I went back to the original tutorial I found it much easier to understand.

When my mom used to make these she would dip them in wax and sprinkle them with glitter.  I decided to go sans wax and glitter on mine.  I like the simplicity of the parchment-like paper.

I love the dimensionality of these stars and I also love that I was able to make them out of materials that would otherwise be wasted.  The other day I went back to the printer to give him one of the stars made from his paper scraps.  He was really excited because he often gets customers in his shop who ask him, “what would you ever do with these skinny paper scraps?  Who would want these??”  So now he has something to show them when they ask these questions.

These stars make wonderful individual ornaments, but could also be strung together to form a beautiful garland.

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?  I’d love to hear about them in the comments below or on the zween facebook page.

Merry Christmas and happy crafting!

 

 

Toot Tuesday; Making Plarn

About a week ago I wrote this post that told the story about how I came to work with plastic grocery bags turned into yarn, a material that is now know as “plarn” ([p]lastic y[arn]).  Now I’m going to share with you how plarn is made.

When I first started crocheting with the plastic bags I had never seen it done before and was therefore winging it.  In those days I would cut my bags into long flat strips and knot them together using square knots.  This plarn is okay, but not ideal in my opinion.  It’s still strong and I’ve never had a problem with the knots coming undone or anything, it’s just “messier” looking, which is fine, but I like the cleaner look better.

After spending about a year making things with the knotted plarn I learned about the looping technique that I will show you today from my Grandma Virgie.  I think she told me that she’d seen it on TV, but I’m not exactly sure.

Now, without further ado, your tutorial on making plarn:

Materials needed:
Many plastic grocery bags
Scissors

Process:

First, cut the bottom seem off of your bag.

Next, flatten out the bag and cut off the handles.  Now you should have one big tube.

With the open ends of your big tube facing East and West, cut your big tube into strips North and South.  I usually get 6 or 7 strips out of each bags.  The wider your strips the thicker your plarn will be, so play around with what thickness works best for you.  These newly cut strips will now look like big loops.

Now you’re going to lock your loops together. It’s a little hard to describe with words, so I hope this next sequence of pictures illustrates the process well enough for you to understand…

Now your on your way to making some plarn!  You will need a LOT of bags to make a purse, so get to work!  Make sure that after connecting all the loops of two or three grocery bags you take the time to wind them into a ball so that they don’t become a knotted mess on your floor (because it will happen if you don’t).  A simple ball will do, but if you’re a bit on the OCD side like me you can make a center pull ball (shown at the top of this post) so that it doesn’t roll all over the place as you work.

Happy plarning!

Did you find this tutorial helpful?  Was any part confusing or unclear?  Let me know in the comments below so that I will be encouraged to continue making tutorials and making them better.

If you did find this tutorial helpful, make sure to like zween’s facebook page and you will be updated when future tutorials, stories, and events are posted on my blog.  Thank you!

Rag-tastic

So I’ve been putting some more thought into the direction that I want to go with zween and came to the conclusion that I really like working with re-claimed/re-purposed/recycled objects.  So now, at last, I have a focus!  I can’t tell you want a relief this is!

Though I’ve done lots of work with re-claimed/re-purposed/recycled objects in the past, I only just realized while participating in the Sandusky Art Walk last Thursday that most of my work now could be categorized in this way.  It seems like such a simple thing, but once I realized this it was much easier to talk with people about my work in a genuine and excited manner.

What is really exciting about this realization is that it’s still a broad category.  It focuses as much on the materials as the end product.  By this I mean I can find a material that is in need of a new life (ie: bed sheets, plastic bags, puzzles with missing pieces, damaged clothing, matchbooks, junk mail, etc.) and work with them until I find an appropriate application.

This of course means that I may go to a craft fair with an array of items; personal accessories, home items, and gift items (in other words, what would seem as a complete hodge podge of products) but they can still all live together in that realm of the re-made.

Last week I showed you a rag rug made from old bed sheets.  Well, it didn’t work out.  I was throughly unhappy with the oval shape and the use of double crochet so I ripped it all out and started over, making it into a circular rug instead.

I took my unfinished rug to the Art Walk to work on during slow periods.  It proved to be quite the conversation starter!  I can’t count the number of times someone said, “oh hey, a rag rug!  My mother/grandmother/aunt used to make those!”

As it turns out an Art Walk is not the best place to work on a giant rag rug.  For one thing I couldn’t check its flatness on the ground, as it was filthy, and it was a bit cumbersome when I needed to stop and get up to talk with someone.  My second attempt didn’t work out very well either.  Though I was sure I was counting my stitches correctly, it become apparently clear that the rug was becoming wavier with every round, meaning that there were probably too many stitches somehow.  I ended up ripping out more than half of my work, so what you see in this post is actually my third attempt (see photo at top of post).

As you can see, my new rug is made in a single crochet spiral.  It’s turning out much better now but the next time I make a rug I think I will make my strips of cloth skinnier.  The strips for this pink, white, and yellow rug are 2 inches wide.  One and a half-inch strips would work better I think.

Though I’m not quite done with my rug (but almost!) I decided to start (and finish) another rag project, so I made a bag.  Though this bag is made out of strips of cloth like the rug, it is not from a bed sheet.  The black fabric I used here is from my college thesis project.  My project was a huge installation of crochet copper wire, and at the last-minute I realized that I would need a black ceiling to really set off the copper.  Since I wasn’t allowed to paint the ceiling black I did the next best thing; I bought yards and yards of the cheapest black fabric I could find and sewed the panels together.  It sounds janky but the end result turned out well and my project ended up being in the top 20 of my class.

That was 6 years ago however and I still have all this fabric! And now I’m using it. It was a great way to experiment with the fabric strips as well with my crochet techniques.

For my black hand bag I ripped my fabric strips to just one inch wide, which is quite skinny, but I still used my chunkiest hook (seen in rug photo). This gives the crocheted fabric a lot more drape, yet it still keeps its form very well. In the picture above the bag is not propped up against anything, nor is there any stuffing inside of it.

Since the fabric is a solid color I thought it would be fun to make some different textures with the crochet to give it more visual interest.  The base and lower portion of the bag is single crochet, which gives it a lot of strength.  The vertical ribs around the mid-section of the bag are made using a technique of crocheting around the post of a double crochet.  By alternating between regular double crochet and double crochet around the post you get these nice ribs, which almost look a little like knit.  It also gives this mid section a nice stretchiness, which is usually hard to achieve in crochet.

Tutorial: fabric strips for use in crochet or knitting

For those of you who would like to learn to crochet or knit with fabric strips you can watch this video on Etsy.  Or, if you don’t have a fast enough internet connection (this one’s for you Noelle) I have prepared a little photo tutorial to help illustrate the process.

first, rip your fabric into strips. The strips shown here are 2 inches wide. The wider your strips the thicker your end fabric will be. Thick strips work well for rugs but they are also a little hard to crochet with in my opinion.

Next, if your fabric is hemmed rip out the hem as well.

Now fold over the end a bit and make a small, vertical slit in the fabric.

Do the same thing with your next fabric strip.

Thread the second strip through the hole of the first strip.

Now thread the other end of the second strip through the hole of the second strip and pull. (it’s a little tricky to see this part in the photos).

When the two strips are pulled tightly you will have a very strong knot that will not unravel!

Keep your eyes out for more recycled inspired objects in the near future.  If you haven’t already, make sure to like zween on facebook so that you can keep up to date on all my new posts, projects, and upcoming events.

See you soon and happy crafting!