Carnival of Green Crafts #5

carnival of green crafts

Welcome to the fifth Carnival of Green Crafts!

Another carnival, another bunch of craft-a-licious green goodness.  A bunch of, um, somewhat disturbing craftiness.  Glue sniffing.  Hitting things with sticks.  Metal saws.

What the heck are you people up to out there?

Before we begin, a few administrative notes: The sixth Carnival will head to Canada on October 2nd to be hosted at Smidge! Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today! The Carnival of Green Crafts home page has background info.  And if you missed it, the fourth carnival was at Whip Up and others are linked at the end of this post.

Now on to the carnival!

Merete of en reise med små {s}ting i bagasjen submitted her post skjørt :: green craft :: skirt for last month’s carnival, but we just missed it while dealing with time zones and scheduled posts.  Sorry Merete!  This is the first bilingual post we’ve received for the carnival, and it shows off a dance skirt that Merete’s sister made incorporating old curtains.  Take that, Scarlett O’Hara!

Lightening recently attended an event where competitors create garments from recycled materials.  She posted photos of some of the entries so we could all admire the creativity.  To see what was made out of soda cans, tennis balls, and bamboo blinds, check out her post Artyculture Fashion Parade. She followed up with Wedding and Evening Gowns From Recycled Materials featuring bicycle inner tubes and flour sacks. Now I’m feeling silly for buying a wedding dress…

Design^Sprout posted a simple tutorial for simple but stunning recycled light bulb hanging vases.  Can I borrow your metal saw?  We’ve been swapping out incandescents for compact fluorescents chez moi, so I have a lot of raw materials for this one.

Cheryl at Naptime Quilter took inspiration from Leslie’s post here about natural dyeing and she’s been trying it out.  Her first experiment was dyeing with black currants, then she moved on to dyeing with nanking cherries collected in her yard:

To prepare the fabric I decided to treat it with a mordant, alum. Alum is toxic, if you eat a tablespoon or more. But considering it is sold in the spice aisle at the grocery store and is approved as a food additive, I decided it fit into my efforts at natural dying.

(Leslie’s also been doing additional experiments with dye, and the latest, Poke Berry Paint and Dye, is posted at her blog The Oko Box.)

Lisa of at Condo Blues presents Environmentally Friendly Wood Glue, Who Knew?.  “I have to admit that I never thought about the ecological or environmental ramifications of a low VOC glue until I won some in a contest,” she said when she submitted the post.  But she sniffed glue to prepare this post for you, so honestly you owe her a visit to learn more about glue, VOCs, and your health.

Deanna of Little House in the Suburbs wanted to try some Hand Papermaking with Daylily Clippings:

I can’t believe I have been throwing all my daylily and iris clippings in the compost bin! You can make paper out of them! Not only those but okra stems and milkweed stems and corn husks–and that’s only the beginning.

She ended up also making her own beating stick out of scrap lumber to, um, whack the dickens out of some pulp.  Don’t mess with Deanna, folks.

recycled plastic bag mesh toteRecycleCindy of My Recycled Bags.com loves you so much that she’s giving away another free pattern, this one for the Recycled Mega Tote Bag pictured here.  (Thanks for the photo, Cindy!) She describes it as a “mega-sized wide bag that makes a wonderful tote bag or market grocery bag.”  Anyone object to crowning RecycleCindy as the Queen of Recycling Plastic bags?

Kelly and I put together handy posts listing all the earth-friendly yarns and fabrics we’ve covered here on Crafting A Green World: More Eco-Friendly And Organic Fabric Than You Can Shake A Stick At and Yarn Round Up.

Alli of at One Pearl Button used her mad sewing skillz to go From Men’s Shirt to Sweet and Pretty Shoulder Cape and posted a full on tutorial for the rest of us.  Apparently there was some cursing involved in the creation of this project, but who among us hasn’t been there?

(Well, ok, some of you probably don’t curse, and I totally respect that.  I bet you have something you say when particularly frustrated, though.  Right?)

 Monica Todd of Clever Chook did a striking Lounge makeover.  For those of us in the U.S., a lounge in this case is basically a couch. Hers goes from ugly to crafty, and check out this picture of her use of the pockets for remote control holders! (Thanks for the photo, Monica!)  Take a look at her post for the whole process.

Kristin of Craft Leftovers put together an illustrated tutorial about Recycling Sweaters for Yarn:

Shortly after I learned how to knit I read about how one could recycle a sweater for the yarn. Sweet! Cheap yarn I thought! I went to the Salvation Army and picked out a sweater I thought would be good for recycling. Huge, an XXXL, and 100% cotton. It was all cream colored and pretty nice. I took it home and gave it my best shot. Which failed pretty miserably at first.

Luckily she stuck with it, and now she’s sharing her expertise with the rest of us.

And last but certainly not least, you must see this Big, Bold & Eco Friendly! necklace made out of vintage scarves at Manic Trout.  Go look!

That’s all for this time.  Don’t forget to submit your post for the next edition!  Or your friend’s post!  Or your mom’s post!  If it’s green and crafty, we want it!

Previous editions of the Carnival of Green Crafts:

1 thought on “Carnival of Green Crafts #5”

  1. Pingback: Next Carnival of Green Crafts Coming Up! | Eco Buying

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