CONGRATULATIONS to Tina in Boston for winning our giveaway of Sewing Green! Be on the look out for an email from us for further details.
Thank you to everyone who entered. We here at CAGW have been rejuvenated and inspired by all of your upcycling ideas! Don’t forget your other chances to win this beautiful book, you can find out where to enter here.
I know you’ve waited with bated breath so here it is, your chance to win a copy of Sewing Green, the latest and greatest book by Betz White, author of Warm Fuzzies.
Sewing Green offers 25 cute projects made from repurposed or organic materials. Learn how to make aprons and wallets from dress shirts, and sandwich wraps, and lounge pants from organic and thrifted fabrics. The projects are are direct and easy to follow even for this crafter who likes to skip ahead and tweak things. I especially like the sandwich wrap project and the use of PUL – a material that is not vinyl and one that I need to look into more.
White’s favorite project from the book is the woodland draft buster, a much more refined version of the draft catcher that I created a while back. This version looks like an adorable tree branch that helps you save money on your heating bill. White wanted everything in the book to have a good purpose without being preachy. She wanted everything to be fun and easy and show that any one can do these projects and be eco-friendly. “You don’t have to suffer,” she said. “Suffering is not involved.”
Continue reading to enter the contest!
Sewing Green also contains great features and side bars that showcase the history of repurposing, tips on thrifting, and advise on how to avoid thrifting pits falls. There are also several interviews and highlights with eco innovators – people in the crafting world, textile industry and various repurposers.
For example there is a write up on Claire Morsmen and Moresbags, a non-profit group based in the U.K. Morsbags was created by Marsmen who was put off by the wastefulness of plastic bags. Morsmen gathers people together to created the bags and then distributes them free to unsuspecting people. A technique she calls “social guerrilla bagging.” It is a great example of how one person can make a difference and perfect for this book full of eco-consciousness.
White worked hard to add dimension to the book. As you can tell it’s not just a project book, it teaches and encourages green living and for us to think about waste and reuse in positive ways. But the best and most amazing thing about this book? Crafting a Green World is mentioned as an additional resource.
We here at CAGW are in awe and completely touched to know that we’ve grown up so much to be considered a good and solid green crafting resource. Thanks Betz.
So now that you REALLY want to win this book, how do you enter?
Leave a comment about your favorite upcycled project that you’ve made or are thinking of making.
I’ll draw a random winner on Friday April 17th, so check back here for the winner’s announcement. Directions on how the winner can claim their prize will be posted here. If you are the winner and you don’t claim your prize within one week of the drawing, you forfeit and the book will be re-drawn.
For other chances to win Sewing Green see a complete listing of all the contests right here on CAGW and over at STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books blog.
Good luck and happy upcycling!
I’d really like to take some of my daughters baby clothes and also some vintage dresses and make a quilt.I guess I should learn how to make a quilt first but I love quilts and think it would be so pretty on my daughter’s bed.Please enter me for this giveaway.At a green fair last year my daughter’s made tote bags out of clothes people donated & it was so cool.I totally love that idea, but I’m not so good at coming up with ideas so having that book would be fantastic.Renee
I really love to upcycle things. In fact most of the things I sew are from upcycled sweaters, or sheets or rescued vintage fabrics. Just this last Sunday I made a sweet little sweater for my daughter from an old pink cashmere sweater. Very cute!
I am exited to see what projects she has for the PUL. I just had some custom made through a coop I am on. You can get your own fabric laminated on the front or the back.
Last Christmas, I made two stockings out of clothes that had becomes too warn. The first was a rodeo-themed stocking out of old jeans and a felted sweater. Next, a fishing wader out of an old pair of green pants. I definitely enjoy upcycling and would enjoy this book!
I am looking forward to finally having enough material to make my jean quilt.
I have upcycled an accidentally felted sweater by making coffee cup sleeves out of 3 inch sections of the sleeves. I save paper by not using the one from the sleeve from the coffee shop.
I’m thinking about making a few things. I want to make an apron from a pillowcase. I like the idea of making pincushions from plasic bottle caps and making jewelry from metal bottle caps.
I take old clothes (especially jeans) and turn them into dog chew toys- the pups love them and if you use Upholstery thread, they are nearly indestructible!
Can’t wait to get my hands on this book!
My favorite upcycled project so far is a quilt I made for my husband out of old flannel plaid shirts and one new (!) pair of corduroy pants. Yep, you read that right, he had put his new trousers in my sewing room to be hemmed, but I thought they were ones he was done with. He walked in one day to see me chopping them up with the rotary cutter. Oops! But he loves his soft cozy quilt.
I am new at the upcycled thing but I am in the progress of making my son a quilt from old sweatersm shirts and sheets.
I love making softies and coffee cozies with felted wool sweaters.
I have plans to make a child’s baptismal gown out of the fabric from my wedding dress…too often those sit in boxes or on hangers in the back of the closet, and I’d like to put mine to good use! Also, the symbolism of my child wearing something made from when my husband and I got married is especially meaningful to me.
Some other recycled items: grocery bags made from t-shirts. I’ve also spiced up baby onesies with appliques from scrap fabric or fabric from old clothes.
Oh, I hope I win this!!! It’s one of my new interests, green sewing, repurposing, etc. So far the only thing I’ve done in that area is to make my own fabric produce bags (which I love) out of sheer curtains that I bought at the flea market. Ideas and inspiration for my next project would be great!
I love the “soaker pants” I made for my daughter out of a thrifted wool sweater. She looks so cute in them (they are more capris than pants on her!) and they keep her a bit warmer on chilly nights.
I love taking any old mens dress shirts and using them for fabric to make pretty much anything! quilts, placemats, even skirts! there is a great tutorial on threadbanger on how to turn mens dress shirts into super cute underwear!
I love to use old wool sweaters – felt them – and make projects such as cupcake pincushions, brooches and whatever strikes my fancy. I also use old unwanted clothing and repurpose them into smaller quilts, pincushions and again, whatever strikes my fancy!! Fun to reuse and go green!!
Oh, where to start? I have a huge stack of clothes that are waiting to be upcycled. They’re all too worn to be donated, but I haven’t found the right inspiration yet.
I’ve been doing crafty upcycling crafts for a while now (jewellery from beer bottle tops, bead curtains from plastic bottles), but need some help in the sewing department. Fortunately my mom is a brilliant sewer, but she doesn’t get the whole upcycling thing. Hopefully with this book and my mom, I’ll finally be a green sewer too.
I upcycle/ recycle all sorts of things for my artist teddy bears… old hankies into dresses, felted sweater in bear clothes, old mohair upholstery into the bears themselves. I used to turn old mink stoles into bears…but the “flying fur” got to me. I still make “Memory bears” out of a loved ones clothing…
I think this book would have projects that would have me looking at upcycling in new ways!
As silly as it is…using clear plastic cupcake holders or egg cartons and 2 liter pop bottles as “ghetto greenhouses”.
I felted a few old sweaters and made a purse and an iPod pouch, but I think my favorite was re-finishing some old dressers that my Husband got from his Grandmother. We made them look ultra modern and I am very proud to show them off. Oh and just a fun thing to do is make old T-shirts into shopping bags by cutting off the arms and the neck band and sewing the bottom closed.
I felt thrifted sweaters: if they fit my daughter, she gets to wear them; when they don’t fit they get added to my craft pile (bag making and other Betz-inspired items). I also recently made my girl a pair of “modesty” shorts to wear under dresses at school–out of a worn t shirt of mine.
I love trying to upcycle things into USEFUL craft projects (sure, teddy bears are cute, but how many do we really need?!) One that I’ve tried is making an apron out of an old pillow case. I love this project http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=123434.0 Because it uses the WHOLE pillowcase. However, I find that half aprons often aren’t that useful, so I’m going to try to make a full apron with the same idea, but out of 2 pillow cases!
This Christmas, my mum brought me the quilt that I made when I was about 14. I used scraps from the big big bag that my mum used to have, and now and then, when I was feeling a bit tired, or poorly, and wanted to cuddle up, I’d get it down from my room and sit with my mum pointing out what scrap came from where: my mum’s summerdress from when we were in France, my grandmother’s apron, my own and my sisters’ nightdresses, etc. My mum would make a cup of tea, and somehow it always felt like a little sliver of time quite set apart from ordinary life. And guess what – I’m doing the same thing now, with my own children.. Feels quite special, that!
I want to take some of my older clothes that I don’t wear anymore – but have nice patterns or designs – and make things like wallets and purses for birthday/Christmas gifts. I would love to learn how to make the reusable sandwich bag from this book, as well as all of the other projects.
sarahbcrawford(at)gmail(dot)com
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I once made a dress out of old AOL CDs collected from coworkers. I drilled holes in the CDs and linked them with jumprings. It was awesome!
I’m using some vintage fabrics – floursack prints that my husband’s grandmother saved – and making napkins for our everyday use. I’d love to win this book!
I upcycled an old table I found that had stains all over it by sanding and painting it with a cool black and white striped design. It is now the focal point of my dining room and everyone asks where I bought it!
I am about to start making my patchwork wedding dress out of vintage silk saris
that is my new favourite project of all time I think. The saris came in the post today, so I am very excited!
Great info about the book! Honestly, my favorite upcycled project was when I finally cut up the cotton sundress I wore to my HIGH SCHOOL graduation over ten years earlier. I cut the fabric into strips, and then knit it into a bathmat.
On Saturday before Easter, I turned my husband’s old dress shirt into a shirt dress for my daughter. These dress shirt make-overs are all over the internet, but it’s so cute and my husband is so happy to see his shirt on his little girl.
I’m not sure that this files into the category of upcycled but we had giant glass containers for punch at our wedding (four to be exact) and I just saw a project that uses something similar to make a succlent terranium. I can’t wait to get started!
Wow, you’re right this isn’t just a pattern book. And that’s exactly what I thought it was. So glad to read your review, now I’m even more excited.
I like to use up my yarn scraps for really messy looking scarves, and I plan on using up some fabric scraps and old greeting cards to make some new cards!
I have made softies from my sons out-grown clothes and just finished a set of placemats made from my old curtains, I have a bag full of old clothes that are waiting for new projects.
i have made a tea cozy with my daughter’s old fleece sweatshirt as a lining–it is very cozy!
I’m in the process of making a yo-yo coverlet out of vintage scraps. It’s a work in progress (and likely will be for a long time). I try to pick up interesting fabrics from the thrift store whenever I’m there.
I am collecting t-shirts from a summer camp I went to as a kid to make a quilt for the family lake cabin. The whole family has spent time there as well. I am re-porpoising some good-will sheet sets for the backing. I have also found that old towels make warm “batting” for the middle.
One of my fav upcycle projects is also the simplest one I’ve ever done: I just decoupaged an old cookie tin with old wrapping paper…it now holds my cookie cutters and is really cute to boot!
I’ve been taking old cotton sweaters and taking them apart to use the yarn for other projects.
I’ve done quite a bit with felted sweaters. My favorite project is a pipe cozy! We have a large (around 9 ft long) hot water pipe running through our bedroom. I used to hate it, but now that it’s got a patchwork of wool, I love it!
I recently made a little sundress for a friend’s daughter from a shirt I bought at Goodwill. It’s quite cute, and I can’t wait to give it to her.
I would love to have this book to get more ideas for recycling.
Right now I am showing my kids at the Boys and Girls Club how to make jewelry from old buttons (thank you Bust mag.), how to reuse old broken crayons by melting them down and poring them into IKEA ice tray molds and how to make yarn from plastic bags. We have a Go Green science fair coming up so we’ve been busy!
I’m working my way through a stack of felted sweaters that I’m cutting into squares and puuting together into a blanket. Perhaps it will be done in time for next winter!!!
As senior year comes to a close, I’ve come up with a very big collection of college brochures, viewbooks, and other literature! I can’t bear to see all of that quality paper simply tossed into recycling, so I’ve been using it to make bookmarks and greeting cards for my friends.
There’s something truly beautiful about taking would-be trash and making into something you’ll never want to throw away!
I very much want to make some reusable sandwich wraps for my family. Right now, we use ziplocs and wash/reuse them until they fall apart, but I prefer the durability of wraps.
I’m really wanting to make something that holds all my scrap threads, strings and yarns for birds and their nests.
I love the quilt that I made out of my family’s old jeans. The little back pocket of the toddler jeans is my favorite part. I’m a big fan of recycled wool sweaters. I’ve made children’s sweaters, hats, scarf and I just made the bunny from Betz White’s blog. I’d like to work more with vintage sheets. I love the fun colors and the smooth, cool feeling of that fabric.
My favourite was old thrifted flannel shirts that I used to make my husband a quilt for this birthday. I was a student at the time, and he was my boyfriend, and I was broke. That quilt is now over 10 years old and our children love it.
I love to make pants for my son out of old t-shirts!
I cut off the bottoms of a favorite pair of ripped jeans and made it into a miniskirt. This was back in high school (many many years ago) when I really had no idea what I was doing, but it turned out great so I was pretty proud of myself at the time!
I like to take all of my bought as well as thrifted fabric scraps leftover from large projects and turn them into patchwork sheets that I can use for more large projects. While I love saving this material for small projects too, its nice to magically have enough fabric for a one of a kind skirt from what easily could be thrown away.