Featured!

Etsy designer 13threads shows off a pair of our recycled sweater and crochet arm warmers along with her beautiful tweed wrap coat.

Zippers!

For some reason I have always been afraid of zippers. Not anymore! These little lined zipper pouches are not that hard to make, thanks to free online tutorials. I like to make them from recycled fabric and with recycled zippers.

I am the zipper zapper! I have been taking zippers out of old, worn out, unwearable pants and searching free piles and thrift stores for working zippers I can use in pouches and bags.

Handmade

Sewn entirely by hand. Recycled fabric. Vintage buttons. Crochet coin purse. I am working on more pouches and wallets like this one. I love the slightly uneven and irregular quality of hand sewn seams. These are also projects I can take with me and work on anywhere. I don't have to take up the dining room table with the big sewing machine.

Our new friend

A few weeks ago I decided to try my hand at doll making. Using beautiful local wool, I hand crocheted this little girl (she still needs a name). Her fully rooted hair is made from soft washable wool so that it will not get tangled and matted (I hope!). Her head, body and legs are stuffed with polyfil. I did not stuff her arms so that they would be more flexible. She has cute little mitten hands.

Recycled corduroy bag with owl patch - Completed!

Here are a few pictures of the finished bag....In place of the brand logo-d metal button I put a stack of three vintage buttons.

A work in progress

What a mess! Covered in lint and little threads with pins all over, this doesn't look like much. But, I love it already!
This bag to be was once a pair of old, but never worn, corduroy 'jeans'. Actually, I am just using the top part because the legs (and the zipper) already became a skirt. A while back I made a bag, actually two bags out of a pair of corduroy carpenter shorts. I loved all of the fun little pockets. For this one, made out of traditional five pocket jeans, I wanted to make use of the pockets, but I did not want it to look like I just put a seam at the bottom and added some straps. Instead, I carefully took off the waistband and split the center front. I then added a piece of fabric from the legs and made a tube. Then I rotated the tube until I found just the right configuration of pockets.
Upon removing the waistband, it became clear that the rivet for the front 'hand' pocket was too close to the edge for a proper fold-over and hem, so I added a little scrap along part of the top edge. I also wanted to use only one original front and one back pocket, but thought that the bag needed more pockets than that, so I created one out of what was left of one of the legs. In order to make it look like it belonged I wound a length of the original yellow thread around an old spool and machine - sewed the pocket on.
The next step is to finish making the shoulder straps out of the waistband. This will be done by hand with brown cotton embroidery thread. I think i will also replace the button with its company logo with one from our collection of vintage buttons.

Rescued and reinvented vintage purses

We have a large collection of vintage (70's and 80's) purses and handbags in varying states of repair and disrepair. So I have been rescuing and reinventing them.

While the bags themselves are great, the handles and shoulder straps are often too long or too short, too thin or too wide, too worn-out or just plain too ugly. For example, the woven leather one pictured here had a super long leather "rope" for a shoulder strap. Not only was it unattractive, it was super uncomfortable to wear for any length of time even with the bag empty. A wider and much shorter shoulder strap updates the look and makes the bag far more usable. The new strap is hand cable knit gray merino on the outside and crocheted red merino on the inner side. It is thick and strong and soft.
The ends loop around a short length of the original shoulder strap and attach to the strap with two vintage pea coat buttons.

Another problem these bags sometimes have is that their linings have seen better days. In the case of the bag pictured here the lining in one section could not simply be repaired or patched, but needed to be fully replaced. This gave me an opportunity to add a little interest. Instead of trying to match the plain solid color of the original lining, I used a black cotton with a bright orange and yellow print that matches the felt sunshine patch and the new crochet shoulder strap.

The button box

We get most of our vintage buttons from a little antique store a few blocks from our house, called Pastimes. I am always on the look out for interesting shapes and colors. Orange buttons are particularly hard to come by. We keep them all sorted by size and color in plastic zipper bags and stored in a plastic 'shoe box'.

The Nina Collection

Nina Collection of free-form crochet purses, clutches, and pouches was named for Emilin's baby-word for snails and all things spiral. I like the idea of using very basic crochet stitches to create sophisticated and artistic, yet wearable and usable pieces. I wanted the Nina collection to stand in contrast to both the super-cute amigurumi style of crochet and the classic, granny-square-afghan style of crochet. I wanted the color, shape and texture to look polished and sculpted while retaining the softness and lightness of fine wool.

Lola made bread!

Yummy yummy bread! While searching for pointers on improving my breadmaking techniques, I came across a video on youtube for no-knead bread . It was super easy, not at all messy, and the bread was perfect!

I followed the recipe except that I subbed half of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. The only oven proof container I have that has a lid is a braising pan. The lid has a tiny hole in it for letting out steam. Since the point of the lid is to keep the steam in I plugged the hole up with some extra dough. (Brilliant idea! Not mine!)

The key to this technique is patience! You have to let the dough rise for a long time, at least 12 hours. I mixed everything at around 5 pm and baked it when I got up around 8 am.