Here are a couple of pictures of the process. If you want to make something similar I urge you to go and have a look at the tutorial – its really easy to understand.

Cutting out the parts for the hanger

Attaching the hanger part to the french seam drawstring bag (see tutorial here - also by // Between the lines //) – this one is for the coloured clothes.

Here’s how it looks from the back with the opening.

I am going to keep Grey Duckling for things that I design/produce – be it tutorials (like the one on how to recycle yarn from a sweater), lace and lace patterns (like the bobbin lace flowers) or special DIY projects.

On the agenda for Grey Duckling for the rest of the year are a couple of projects I have been working on. One is sewing curtains out of old shirts (see the taster below). Another is making a blanket out of old jeans. I have a couple more decoupage projects I want to show off too. I will probably talk about them as they come along over on Eddie’s room but I will publish the finished result with instructions on how I did it here. I am also planning some lace to use with baby clothes (something I have been sewing a bit of with my sister recently). Last but not least John will continue to use the Grey Duckling blog to show off his drawings once he gets settled in and has time to do some.

Eddie’s room will then be my main blog where I will post refashions, knitting, sewing, photography, food and bits from the home. It will also be where I update little snippets from my pregnancy.

I am still on facebook, twitter and pinterest where you are very welcome to come over and have a chat.

First off I want to share with you something amazing I did in my little blogging holiday. I went to France for the first time and stayed with my friend Cecile’s parents. While we were there we did some dyeing experiments (as you can see from the colour wheel we produced above).
While I have stuck to taking pictures and otherwise being quite lazy about it, Cecile has done a wonderful job of documenting the experiments on her blog Ways of the Whorl. We experimented with Alum Mordanting with Heuchera Plants, dyeing with onion skins which produced wonderful oranges, and dyeing with black beans with produced equally wonderful blues. We did some more experimenting which Cecile will talk about on her blog too and I will try to keep you posted about this.
I for my part started a flickr group where we are sharing our photos of the experiments.

In other news I have moved the Historic Crafts blog over to a blogger platform. It can now be found at http://historic-crafts.blogspot.com. I have also moved my family history blog over to a blogger platform.
Over the next couple of months there will be more moving about I’m afraid. I would really like to revive my original blog roued.com and move more of the things relating to what I am doing like refashions, knitting and DIY over there. This would make more room here on Grey Duckling for John’s illustrations and my lace making. I will let you know how that goes.

Take care,
Eddie

Bobbin lace flower by Eddie

I have made a decision to take a little blogging break for the rest of March and possible the beginning of April. Mostly because we all need a little time off to recharge the batteries and get new inspiration, and also because I have other commitments that really need my attention at the moment. But don’t fear I will be back in April, hopefully with a lot of new refashions, DIY projects and yarn, yarn, yarn.

I will also continue to do my duties as editor over on the Refashion Co-op every Wednesday and I will continue to refashion and do other crafts. The only difference will be that I will lay low on the blogging (and spending time on the computer) for a while.

In the meantime I do hope you won’t write me off as a lost cause. There should be plenty of fun stuff to look at in the archives. Grey Duckling might also still have some activity if John decides to post a bit about some of the illustrations he is doing at the moment.

So long and take care,
Eddie

Portia's MMM'11 first week collage (from Miss P)

The other mention I had recently was on Craft Gossip where they mentioned my pin cushion tutorial from my Christmas gift series. Let me just give a great big thanks to Anne, the sewing editor on Craft Gossip.

On to the presents. Well actually one was a giveaway I won on Minnando’s House where the lovely Debbie was giving away a Burda magazine. I can’t wait to try out some of the patterns in it. Thank you Debbie.

The other thing I won was in a price raffle on the Ravelry Group ‘Trash to Treasure” (you need to login). Kim or Minerva’s hand had entered a pair of sweater refashioned into fingerless mittens into the prize draw and this is exactly what I won. Kim blogs on “A little bit less” where she tries to de-clutter her house a bit a day. Thank you Kim for the mittens – they are lovely.

Kim is not the only one who is trying to get rid of stuff at the moment. Cry is also trying to giveaway 100 things and she decided upon seeing my stamp collection that I use for among other the stamp bowl, that she would send me a couple of stamps she had left from her Grandmother. Thank you Cry!

Finally, I want to tell you about this Danish blog I recently discovered. A while back I asked for help figuring out what to do with this coffee packaging I had been saving up. Someone sent me the link to ‘Når Genbrug bliver Guld‘. This translates to ‘When Recycling becomes Gold” and it is a Danish blog written by Helene, an extremely creative Danish girl. I know you might not all understand Danish and that’s when Google Translate steps in. Also her blog is mainly about all the wonderful images of the amazing restyling projects she does. I am especially fascinated by her tutorial on making bags out of plastic packaging, which I plan to try with my coffee packaging.

Let me wish you all a wonderful and sunny day.

take care,
Eddie

Vintage sewing pattern wall art from Shelley Inspired

This batch of Friday Finds includes two patterns. The first is just for a dress I find cute but the second is for some Vogue trousers. At the moment I still believe that I will make trousers with this pattern but even if I never do i found this great little idea of framing pattern covers on Shelley Inspired via The Decorologist and Pinterest.

I also bought these two shirts and a sweater for my refashioning stash. The blue silk shirt gave me an idea for another refashion I am doing with a top. I would have loved to be able to unravel the sweater but alas it is too felted for that. So I am thinking about it for a cardigan refashion because I do so love the colour.

Finally, we have the garden birds book. When I first opened this I was struck by all the drawings of birds so it has gone to my book/paper stash for furniture refashions. John loves birds so maybe I will make something for him out of it.

Today I’m going to begin with some of the blogs I have found through the refashioning community. Some are my fellow editors on Refashion Co-op and some I came across when I first joined the community on Wardrobe Refashion.

Eaton's seamstresses at work from Wikimedia Commons

I have divided them into different categories that will hopefully fill up as we go along. I hope you will enjoy and find inspiration in them as I do.

• Esthetically Ethical Blogs

  • Bagsful

• Reflective Refashionista Blogs

  • ayenforcraft
  • Ma Chemise d homme
  • Minnando’s House
  • Pagano Designworks
  • Recycled Fashion
  • ReFashionista
  • So Zo…

• Stylish Sewing Blogs

  • Recycled Sewing
  • Tilly and the Buttons

The finished Echo Flower shawl

The shawl was the first I have ever knitted. I joined Historic Crafts Echo Flower Shawl Knit-along where we were all knitting the same Estonian Lace pattern by Jenny Johnson Johnen. This has been my most successful knitting project so far and I love the result. I have already started my next lace shawl project, which if you are on Ravelry you can see here.

I posted about the green merino yarn and my other yarn making project too.  If you are interested in making yarn from recycled sweaters I have written an introduction for this here on Grey Duckling.

It all started with a sweater like this one

The sweater is taken apart

Yarn is frogged from the sweater and 3-plied

The shawl was knitted

and blocked/stretched

and finally ready to be worn

This time around I would like to know ‘how would you refashion men’s skirts’?

Like the last couple of times (Jeans, purple skirt, coffee bags) I will summarise your ideas in a couple of weeks  and then I will follow it up with a shirt refashion of my own. I can’t wait to hear your ideas.

How would you refashion this men's shirt?

• TAD day 16: Refashion Co-op and my Valentines card
• TAD day 14 + 15: Leftover sweater beads
• TAD day 13: Valentines decoration
• TAD day 12: magic toe socks
• TAD day 11: more colour mixes
• TAD day 10: fun with colours

Stack of sweaters

OK you have me, I’m obsessed with sweaters at the moment. But I don’t wear all of them though. I make yarn from them. I really love doing this, even though John is getting pretty tired of having the sweaters all over the place and boy do they get all over the place. Bits of sweater fluff everywhere! Oh well.
I do use the yarn, for this Echo Flower Shawl among others, so I think it is fair enough. What do you think? Have you tried extending your yarn stash with some recycled sweater yarn?

Brown merino blouse

This Friday’s catch on my thrifting round included this brown merino blouse. It’s a women’s blouse so there is not as much yarn in it as there could have been.

Green Lambswool sweater

This green lambswool is full of lovely thick yarn. It’s the first time I am going to unravel a thick sweater.

Green silk/wool cardigan

OK now you are thinking – has she gone crazy. Trying to unravel a cardigan is just asking for trouble. But, I tell you this cardigan is weirdly made all in one. Have you seen this before? I haven’t! So I will give it a try and let you know how it goes.

Rosa wool blouse

I have a thing for Rosa even though I don’t think of myself as a pink kinda gal. For me rosa is not pink and I dare you to say that it is! It’s just plain old slightly thicker wool but I think it will make for lovely socks.

This Monday (Valentines day for an easy to remember blog anniversary) I and 6 other wonderful women launched the Refashion Co-op. I want to share with you today a little about each of these women and their blogs but first I want to tell you that: WE NEED YOU! Ok that was more yelling than telling. But it’s true. We started the Refashion Co-op as a network and a place to get inspiration. But without YOU contributing your refashions or commenting and encouraging others in their refashions, well, it’s just not going to work.

So join us here, or email us (refashioncoop @ gmail . com). Or come over and chat to us on facebook and twitter!

Refashion Co-op badge - feel free to use on your blog

On to the next bit. I really want to sing the praise of these 6 women who so wonderfully came to me a month ago and said that they wanted to make this project come together with me. We always list ourselves alphabetically but today I’m going to be awkward and do it backwards.

I first really heard of Jillian through Erica’s interview with her. She has this amazing ability to turn a $1 hideous dress into an extremely chic wonder. I admire her for that – but must admit that I am also slightly jealous. I’ll just have to keep a close eye on her refashions and see if I can learn from her. You can learn from her too at the Refashion Co-op or on her own blog Refashionista.net.

I first stumbled upon Jessica’s refashions over on Wardrobe Refashion. She blogs on ayenforcraft about her refashion, hand knits and other things happening around her. I am really amazed and inspired by her skirts and blouses.

I met Jenni at a Craft Social on twitter as far as I remember. She does some great refashioning on her blog Pagano Designworks, but I am also so in love with some of her other non-refashioning projects such as the teacup pincushions.

Erica is the one I turned to after WR closed down to see if she was interested in carrying on in some way. She was and together we did a couple of Refashion Interviews. She blogs about Recycled Fashion and Recycled Sewing where she does some amazing refashions and recycled houseware. But above all she is a fantastic thrifter!

Debbie is quite a dynamo. She sews and refashions, thrifts and makes handmade gifts all of it over on Minnado’s house. We were both a part of the Crafty Christmas Club too!

Bryony’s blog bagsful is the ultimate place to go if you want to know more about fashion and the downside of fashion. I find her posts such an eye opener and am very grateful to her for that.

A little note about self-hosting a blog and feeling friend-less.

I hate to sound self-pitying, I really do, but recently I have discovered the fantastic functions of Google Friends Connects, Facebook pages and the likes. Because I don’t use a blog host like Blogger, Typepad or WordPress I didn’t setup my blog with their ‘follow’ widgets. I only recently thought of it. So this leaves me with a nearly empty Friends connect widget (and a big hug to those who have already connected) and a Facebook page with no likes at all.

Now I know in my logical brain that I do have followers and readers (I can see that with Google Analytics) and I know I have blog friends (among other the wonderful women above), but my emotional, illogical side is crying, why oh why! So while I go out and grab some chocolate to console it you might consider connecting with me. I promise that if you do I will connect back, because I really do want to get to know you too!

Take care,
Eddie

Some of you may have seen my crocheted heart garland that I have been posting about on the Thing a Day blog.

So far I have 5 hearts for the garland but I am hoping to have a few more before Valentines day.

Another thing I am doing for Valentines is launching the new Refashion Co-op blog together with my 6 fellow editors. But I’m sure I will have more to tell about this soon.

But back to my question – are you doing anything special in terms of crafts or DIY? I can’t wait to hear about your projects.

Anyway here is a run through of this week’s TAD posts:

• TAD day 3: Weaving strips of jeans
• TAD day 4 – Recycling yarn from sweater
• TAD day 5 – recycling jars and making rosemary jelly
• TAD day 6: preparing yarn for dyeing
• TAD day 7: some more hearts for the garland
• TAD day 8 – more sweater yarn and the first day in the garden
• TAD day 9 – update on my Echo Flower shawl

The finished Echo flower shawl

Choosing the right sweater

When choosing the sweater Lee mentions that it is important not get a sweater that is in any way felted. Any amount of felting makes a sweater difficult -> impossible to unravel. Having said that I find that it is a question of how much you want that particular yarn in that particular colour. For example this green sweater to the right. I just had to have this colour and the wool mix with a bit of nylon made is perfect for socks. But the sweater was ever so slightly felted. This meant that I had to pull the yarn out by hand before winding it into a ball (I will explain this more further down). It took a bit longer but was well worth it. Whereas, I bought sweaters earlier on in my experimenting that were just impossible to unravel due to felting. But the most important thing I want you to note is that there is degrees of felting and whether you take on a sweater that is slightly felted depends entirely on how much you want that particular yarn.

Another thing to consider is when buying a cardigan. First of all you should check what type of button-holes you are dealing with. Dawn shows a bad one here and explains this in more detail. She also mentions that you have to be careful with what lies beneath the button band. I have recently bought my first cardigan myself to unravel, but I checked it over very carefully before I did so.

Dawn also mentions that V-neck sweaters/blouses can be an issue. I must admit that the way I unravel sweaters this doesn’t pose any issue. Yes there is a bit of loss at the top of the sweater but I gain from this by using these small bits in other projects as a piece of knitted/felted fabric. I will show you some of these projects at a later date.

Good and bad seams

I find that again this is a question of how bad you want the yarn. There are good seams (easy-peasy), annoying seams (ones you only take on if you really really want this yarn), and bad seams (forget about it). Let’s start with bad seams. I read up on this before I began buying sweaters so I avoided the bad seams – which means that I can’t show you a picture of this. But Dawn show us an examples of bad seams to stay away.

Next up is annoying seams. These are possible to unravel – but it means sitting and unpicking each seam with your seam ripper. This is why I call them annoying. I only buy a sweater with this type of seam if I really, really want this particular yarn. Lee shows us an example of this and so does Dawn! They both class these as good seams though, so it might just be me who finds them a bit annoying.

Finally, we get to the bit that’s most interesting – the good seams. What do they look like? Well they look like on this image below. According to Lee this is a crochet seam. Towards the middle of her post Dawn has a really good explanation on how to rip this type of seam. You can easily recognise a good seam because it has small Vs on the front and little Ls on the back

Good seam front and back

Where to begin

You are ready to start now. The first step is to take the sweater apart. Craft Leftovers suggest beginning by taking the sleeves of first and then go on to the body. Have a look at her diagram here!

I must admit that I am not the most patient of people – as my husband will happily tell you! So I really can’t be bothered with taking the top of each piece apart like a nice girl. I tend to resort to the good old scissors and chop it parallel with the knitting as far up as possible. If I am dealing with a V-neck sweater I will chop below the point of the V. If I manage to chop nicely along a knitted row the amount of unravelling to get to the start of the continuous yarn is minimal.

If you on the other hand have loads of patience and nothing to use the odd bits of knit fabric for then Dawn has some great instructions on how to take the sweater apart nicely from the top of each piece.

Warning alert!! Whatever you do, never use the scissors to chop of seams horizontally to the knitting direction. These seams must always be taken apart, preserving the knitting as best you can, otherwise you will end up with hundreds of 30cm long pieces of yarn. This is probably not what you want.

The unraveling process

If at all possible I like to unravel the sweater directly onto my ball winder in this way. Once I find the end of the continuous yarn I attach it to my ball winder and just start winding the yarn straight of the sweater and into a ball. If the sweater is slightly felted it might resist being wound straight into a ball and I have to help it along a bit by pulling out a measure of yarn – winding it up – pulling more out and winding it up, continuously. This is more time consuming so I only do this if I really, really want the yarn.

Breakages

What happens if the yarn breaks while you are unraveling it. Well you just tie it together and continue. At least that’s what I do and I’ll tell you why it makes sense. If you are unraveling yarn that is at least 3-ply weight then you shouldn’t have many breakages (unless you cut it by mistake when taking the sweater apart) so this won’t be a problem. And if you are unraveling yarn that is thinner (practically thread) then you will probably need to ply it anyway and breakages do become very well hidden in the ply.

Plying

Do I need to ply my yarn after I unravelled it, you may ask. Well only if it is lighter than a 2-ply weight. I tend to fall for lovely cashmere and merino sweaters (or rather blouses) than when unravelled come out very thin. So I have no option but to ply it to make it thicker. I usually 3-ply my yarn using the Navaho technique which means that I can ply one ball at a time with itself.

Washing and winding

It might just be me but I’m not to keen on the smell of the fabric softener used by most charity shops (in the UK at lease), but at least it’s better than the item smelling of smoke or worse, depending on where it comes from. However, this fabric softener smell is impossible to get rip of. I’ve tried!

Even if you like this smell you might still want to wash your yarn. This is best done by skeining it using the back of a chair, a skein winder or a niddy-noddy. Having said that I have successfully washed cotton sweaters before I begin the unravelling. Once your yarn is dry you will probably want to wind it into a ball again. By now you are probably asking – do I really need this ball winder you keep talking about? Strictly speaking – no you don’t! But it makes life so much more easy for you if you have one and if you want to produce yarn to sell it becomes even more important.

If there is anything else you want to know about this that is not covered do leave a comment. Also if you have experience with recycling your own yarn – please share this below. I would love to hear from you!

Great posts on the subject:

• How to Recycle Yarn from a Thrift-Store Sweater by Lee Meredith (from Leethal yarn) on Craft Stylish
• How To:: Recycling Sweaters for Yarn by Kristin Roach on Craft Leftovers
• Recycling Sweaters for Yarn by Dawn on My Virtual Sanity
• How to Unravel a Sweater to Recycle Yarn on neauveau
• How to take apart a sweater for the yarn… with no mess! on The Cashmere Connoisseur
• How to Make Recycled Cotton Art Yarn by Lee Meredith (from Leethal yarn) on Craft Stylish [How to use your recycled yarn to make more exciting art yarn]
• Sweater to Goodies by Britt on Sneezerville [great post with tips on getting more out of your sweater than just yarn]
• Big Fat Yarn by Betz White [if you want real chunky yarn this is what you do]

Great videos to help you along:

• How to Unravel a Sweater to Recycle Yarn by Ashley (from neauveau)
• How to Unravel a Sweater for the Yarn by CashmereCreations
• The Unknitting by ronaldooregano [This is how I unravel using my ball winder]

Don’t feel like unwinding sweaters yourself but want to support the idea. Here is a list of places you can buy recycled sweater yarn:

• Grey Duckling Recycled Yarns can also be found on Ravelry
• Yarn Harvest

The first thing I will share is these three sweaters. The top one is a dusty teal cotton, the bottom one a pink wool and the right hand one is a green cotton. The first two are going to be unraveled and re-used as yarn I think. I have great plans for knitting a toy pig out of the pink yarn.
The last one however, I chose for the pretty cable/lace pattern on the front. With this one I am planning to make two cushions using the pink silk below as a backing. One cushion will have a front with green cable knit and the other will use the plain stockinette stitch back of the sweater as a front. It’s going to be a bit like this one here on refashionoso, but just with a different back.

Another thing I found was these great stamp albums. Last year I bought a lot of stamps as a part of my stash – mainly to make the stamp bowl. As I have quite a few stamps left over I decided it was time to get organised so I spent the entire Sunday evening sorting and colour-coding the stamps and add them to the albums.

TAD began 5 years ago as a community blog running for 4 weeks in the month of february as a creative outlet for an ad-hoc community of participants.

My theme for this month of making is recycling. I am going to do crafts that show off the potential of using recycled materials. I began yesterday by making one of many crochet hearts for the A World in Love project out of yarn I had recycled from an old sweater.

Other projects I am planning to work on this month included a rug made by weaving strips of old jeans, something made with used coffee bags and finding a fun way to recycle old tins and cans.

I have only been doing this for 2 days now but i think I enjoy this style of posting a diary of the stuff I make and I think I may very well continue with this in March. You can follow me and every one else on Thing a Day. But you can also follow what I am doing along on my Posterous page and on Roued is…

So back to the question. Do you manage to do/make a thing a day? Or do you manage to do something every week? Or every month? Let me know because my curious mind wants to see what you are making.

I visited Chorley for the first time after Christmas with my darling Sister-in-law who very apologetically stated that Chorley was mostly charity shops and pie shops.
My reaction was – Yes! What more do you need? I stepped in for a meat and potato pie and we were off.

Coloured glass

What a catch! I had been eyeing up my Mother-in-law’s red pudding glasses all Christmas. I love coloured glass. In the first shop I found 6 small liquor glasses in different colours. In another I found a big box of plated spoons – Success! I have not found that down South yet. It’s all stainless steel.

Plated spoons

Wild flower book with coloured drawings

How about you? Do you also have a favoured thrift shop area that everyone else seems to disregard? I would love to hear about it (but beware – I might visit it too!)

So I am going to ask you all for your help. Do you have any ideas? Have you given this a try yourself? Please, please comment and let me know and do feel free to include a link to your own or others projects and tutorials. As before I will include them as an inspiration list at the end of the post. I have also make a Pinterest board with some of the ideas. As and when I collect ideas I will post them here on my Refashion ideas board.

Here are some of my ideas so far:

• How to turn a coffee bag into a hanging planter by Olyveoil (Instructables) – have a look at this one pinned by Sara Myers on Pinterest.
• Tutorial on weaving a bag by Når Genbrug Bliver Guld (the site is in Danish but has really good images)
• Tutorial on weaving a basket by Når Genbrug Bliver Guld (the site is in Danish but has really good images)

This project is another one from Gilian Dye’s Beginning Bobbin Lace (page 36). This one is made in double size using purple and green merino that has been spun on the spindle and 2/3 plied. I made this one purely for my own pleasure and I wear it quite a lot. When I do I often get comments on how nice it is. But no-one has yet recognized it as lace. I get knitting and crochet a lot. Crochet I can understand because it is a good craft for making flowers like this. I made loads of them myself for my wedding. But I don’t thin knitting would be a natural choice for this type of flower.

However, I have since used this technique of making a long lace piece with a loose thread in one side on my other flowers. The original pattern produces a very small flower (4cm dia max). This one is a bit too big (12cm in dia) and floppy. The ones I have made to sell are around 7cm in dia and this I find is a very good size. But this is the same technique that I have used in the sweet pea and red lily patterns.

Flower bobbin lace brooch under way

Flower bobbin lace brooch

The flower is made using a Flower Brooch pattern from Gilian Dye’s Beginning Bobbin Lace. It is made with handspun and 2 plied ramie and nylon.

Bobbin lace map of Hampshire

Bobbin lace map of Hampshire

The map of Hampshire is based on a map from Thomas Moule’s The County Maps of Old England. The map is from 1830. I used the nylon for the coast line, merino for the railway and ramie to fill it out.

Both were really fun projects that I never would have done if it hadn’t been for the challenge. As for the fibers, I already spin a lot of merino and that’s fine. The ramie was not too much fun to spin to be honest. But the nylon was surprisingly easy to spin. It felt horrible and I expected it to be horrible to spin. But it wasn’t at all.

The main part of ‘A world in love’ is this flickr group.

I wanted to share with you all my first heart in Winchester on a Sunday morning after the farmers market. The same place I bought the yarn a year ago.

The concept is simple:
1. Handcraft a heart (ideas below)
2. Take a picture of this heart in front of a place that means a lot to you
3. Let us know where the place is
4. Tell us about your handcrafted heart and why you took the photo where you did (optional)

If you share an image with this group you are also allowing us to make a collage with your photo in it. We will also use the spot where you took the photo for a Google map.

On the flickr group I have started a couple of discussions with ideas for crafting hearts. We already have ideas for knitted hearts and ideas for crochet hearts. But if you have any other ideas feel free to start a relevant discussion (e.g. paper heart ideas or felted heart ideas or basketwoven heart ideas).

If you upload the image to flickr yourself you can also geo-tag it yourself (remember to change the geo-privacy to public). If you are not a member of flickr (it’s free and easy to get an account) and you don’t wish to be either you are welcome to send the photo to me with the town and country where it was taken (you don’t have to be detailed if you don’t want to) and I can upload it for you.

I have also made a group on Ravelry and an group on Facebook. You can also post your image on any of these groups and I will move them to the flickr group. Again remember to mention the place where the photo was taken.

If you want to share this idea with your friends and followers I have made these two badges which you are free to use to link back to the flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1600626@N21/

I really hope you want to be a part of this and to encourage you friend to take part too.

Take care,
Eddie

No 137

This is my second house portrait and the first one I have been commissioned to do. I hope you like it.

The pattern is a variation of the Bookworm from Gilian Dye’s Beginning Bobbin Lace (Fig. 75, page 79). I made it using two colours (teal and blue) of hand spun merino. During the summer 2010, I spun on my spindle quite a few different colours of merino and 2 plied them to make a good but thin thread for bobbin lace projects.

Blouse front piece - bobbin lace

Buy it on Amazon:

During the interview with Zoe I mentioned the co-operative idea again and she seemed to like it too! So I decided that now that we are in the new year it’s the right time to see if I can get some more people on-board. I will go through my initial idea below but I want to make it clear first that this idea is dependent on finding a group of people who are willing to put in a little time each to be editors and each to have a ‘share’ in the blog. I would also like to join as an editor, but I won’t be, in fact no-one will be, running the blog as such. It should be run by the editors in unison or not at all! This is the only idea I want to stick with quite firmly. The other ideas I come up with can and will probably be changed depending on the people who join as editors.

Here goes:

1) First we set-up a self-contained blog on a blogging platform like wordpress, typepad or blogger. The reason for this is that it is free and therefore it would not be dependent on the person who set it up or is owns the hosting space.

2) The second part is to keep it mainly as a blog and get contributors to sign up to contribute in the same way as on Wardrobe Refashion.

What’s in it for the contributors?
I think this is a very valid question as without contributors writing about their own refashion projects there is not much point of this blog. They create the content, which is the most valuable part of the blog.

• Contributors will have a platform and a community in which to spread the word about their projects and their own blogs.
• There will be a page dedicated to contributors listing each with a link to their blog (if they have one)
• Contributors will have the chance of entering sponsored giveaways.

3) The third bit is to make sure that there are around 3-5 editors at any one time. More than 5 would be OK but not less than 3. Each editor would take a week in turn to moderate the blog.  If there are 3 editors it will mean a weeks work each every 3 weeks.
The idea of having this many editors on equal footing is that if one feels that they need to leave and do other things or just needs a break for a while we can take on another editor.

Tasks for editors when they are moderating for a week:

• Check through new posts and comments to make sure that they are above board and not spam.
  
• Check that new posts are registered in the correct categories and are tagged sufficiently.

Other tasks that the moderator on duty or any other editor can do when and if they feel like it:

• Comment on contributors posts and generally encourage a community spirit.
• Review books (once we get going we can approach publishers for review copies)
• Set-up and run sponsored giveaways (again once we get going)
• Contribute their own refashions
• Write general posts about refashioning or similar subjects.

What do editors get out of it:
All editors would have an equal position in the co-operative and no-one would get paid for their time. But as there would hopefully be quite a few of us we would not need to spend that much time on the administrative / moderating side of things. But here are some suggestions to what editors could get out of this:

• Each editor would have their badge / link to their own blog displayed in a prominent place on the blog (i.e. free advertising).
• Each editor would have a bio on a separate page where they can talk about their own interests and expertise (again free advertising).
• Editors can send off requests to publishers for free review copies of books (i.e. free books – which they of course have to review on the blog).

So that’s the idea so far. Let me know what you think? Even though I don’t want to be the one running the site alone, I don’t mind coordinating it to begin with. So you can either comment your support here or contact me (eddie at roued dot com) and let me know if you are interested in being an editor. If there are enough editors and support for this idea then we will begin to take on contributors. If you have an interest in being a contributor you can also let me know in the comments below.

Finally I just want to thank Erica and Zoe for encouraging me with this idea.

Take care,

Eddie

E: So Zoe, when and how did you get into refashioning clothes?

Z: My mum used to be a dressmaker and has always done lots of alterations to clothing (plus my mum is only 5 ft so needed to do lots of alterations for herself!) so altering and changing clothing was something I guess I always knew was possible. She taught me some sewing skills when I was little, and I started making myself clothes whilst at University where I was studying Fashion Design. Altering and refashioning clothing kind of came from that.

Dress with mustard yellow detailing from the Self-Stitch-September challenge

E: If you were already making clothes from scratch what then motivated you to begin refashioning?

Z: Refashioning is a way to get a finished creation quicker and often cheaper than starting from scratch, but I think refashioning actually needs a slightly different mindset and skills set than sewing garments from scratch. You have to learn to look at things differently and this is something I am still learning, especially in this job.

E: Yes, do tell me a bit more about your new job?

Z: I work for the charity Traid which runs charity shops around London. Specifically, I work on Traidremade, a range of clothing which is created from some of the donated clothing and fabric. The Traidremade garments and accessories are sold in the Camden branch of Traid and online. The Traid shops get their stock from peoples’ donations collected in clothing banks around England. Some of the clothing they receive cannot be sold as they are for various reasons, so much of that plus donated lengths of fabric and sometimes seconds from some retail stores get sent to our workshop to be refashioned and created into new, hopefully desirable pieces.

I find it so shocking how much perfectly good, often unworn, clothing gets discarded in the West, and making something special from mounds of it all is a real challenge. I think what we do at Traidremade is really important and could also be inspirational for those at home. If people interested in refashioning see that there is a business producing 40+ refashioned pieces a week for charity, those people might be motivated into doing it at home for themselves and their friends and family.

E: Where do you get your inspiration for refashions?

Z: Well personally, I get lots of ideas from blogs and sites like Modcloth, Anthropologie, and Built By Wendy as well as my hoard of vintage dress patterns. They all give me ideas for silhouettes, details or fabrication. I’m obsessed with the Make Do and Mend era, and the post-hippie ecological movement. Their ideas of sustainability inspire me conceptually. I love to see the various ways individuals today are responding to the same issues.

For Traidremade, my boss recently decided to adopt a slightly new spirit for the collection now. I guess it is in part inspired by my joining the team (there are only two of us!), but we are going for a more vintage theme now, which is obviously where I am at personally. Most of the silhouettes or detailing we are aiming for are inspired by 1930′s to 1980′s. A lot of my vintage patterns that I get sent to the workshop inspire shapes and silhouettes. The garments and fabric we receive from the warehouse obviously suggest what our refashioning options are. We think about colors that work together, and how fabric textures and prints can be combined in new and fun ways, like using plain sweatshirts with striped mens’ shirting or using argyle knitwear with solids.

E: What’s your favourite refashions at the moment?

Z: Cardi refashioning is massively on my mind right now, as it’s so cold and I can’t knit! Just the other week I made a big horrible jumper into a 50′s style cardi. I’m really into reshaping cardi’s and changing the buttons. It’s amazing how simply adding different buttons to a garment changes it’s ‘personality’. I’ve also commissioned my mum to crochet some collars for more refashioned knitwear.

Beautiful grey dress with lovely sleaves from the Me-Made-May challenge

E: I love the idea of getting your mom involved, but where do you source all these clothes to refashion? Do you use charity shops?

Z: At the moment I get a lot of stuff from work, but before I would definitely go to charity shops, flea markets and boot sales. However, I’m finding recently charity shops are changing, becoming more sanitised and generic, probably to compete with other high street shops. I think they are getting prohibitively expensive for many refashioners. Gone are the smelly cheap ones where lots of bargains could be discovered. It worries me because people might be less likely to take refashioning chances if second-hand garments cost as much as some new high street garments.

When I lived in Barcelona I got stuff from a flea market called Encants, or stuff that was left on the street. That’s generally how people get rid of their unwanted things there; just leave them on the street.

E: Really, in bags or just thrown on the street?

Z: Sometimes in bags, usually just in piles. It’s a bit weird at first sifting through crap on the street, but you get used to it!

E: You don’t say! So do you have any great tips for the budding refashioner?

Z: My piece of advice has been learnt the hard way! I guess, I would say, do some research on the Internet or shops or magazines and figure out the kind of looks you are into and think about how you can achieve that. In the past I have definitely been guilty of making stuff for the sake of it, getting carried away with the simple desire actually and not spending enough time planning, resulting in garments that are totally not my style which subsequently never got worn. I don’t think there’s any point of sewing or refashioning just for the sake of it. Refashioning can be such a creative activity, coming away with something you actually enjoy wearing will spur you on to do more, and therefore encourage others to try too. These days, I have a HUGE file on my laptop where I keep inspirational images and I refer back to them a lot when I’m feeling low on creative spark. You can start to see trends in your own style that way.

E: I think we are all victims of just refashioning for the sake of it at some time or another – I know I have been. Let’s round off by talking about some of the initiatives you have come up with this year.

Warm winter coat challenge finished just in time for this cold winter

Z: Back in January, I came up with Stash Bustin’ which is basically an attempt to encourage myself and others to use up the fabric, notions, patterns, wool etc. that crafty people tend to have stashed away. Stash Bustin’ really comes from the same mentality as refashioning. Making the most of what we have rather than being on this never-ending quest for more stuff, you know? Just taking a break, assessing what we have, thinking creatively of how we can make the best from it. I realised that by signing up to the Wardrobe Refashion ‘Life’ pledge and choosing to no longer shop for new clothes, it could be very easy to simply transfer that shopping instinct to fabric and notions instead of new mass-produced clothing. I needed to do something to stop myself. I feel more accountable for my crafty shopping now, and definitely make more considered purchases. Trying to stem my addiction to vintage patterns has been the biggest challenge, one that’s evidently only been a part-success!

2010 also saw the Me-Made-May and Self-Stitch-September challenges. They evolved from my initial personal challenge, Me-Made-March, in which I spent an entire month wearing only clothing I had made myself (excluding bras, socks, tights and shoes). It was a success but felt I wanted to try again with more flare and garment variety, hence coming up with Me-Made-May, which I offered up to the online sewing community to see if anyone wanted to join me. I was expecting maybe a handful of participants, but the interest in the challenge was incredible! We created a flickr group in which to post our daily pictures of our handmade garments and/or outfits. It became a really supportive community. Most of us had such an awesome time in May, that I decided to repeat the challenge again, which became Self-Stitched-September, with another, even more popular flickr group. The aim behind these challenges is to become more forgiving of our self-stitched items, to see that we can rely on them as fully-functioning parts of our wardrobes. To show us that our handmade creations are just as good as, if not better than, mass-produced store bought garments. Keep an eye on my blog in 2011 for news on more challenges along this theme!

E: Well I don’t know about everyone else but I am ready to sign up for stash bustin’ as I already try to keep the buying to a minimum. I have actually just created a new stash of all my own clothes that I have not worn for months. I have had great fun chatting to Zoe and I hope everyone else will enjoy what she had to say.

Red Lily by Richard Gustin on Flickr

Red lily bobbin lace flower brooch

Gillian from Refashionista.net

I have a special page here on Grey Duckling planned, together with a series of badges, but it will just have to wait till I feel better. For now you can enjoy the first interview by Erica, where she has interviewed the lovely Jillian from ReFashionista.net.

Read the interview here on Recycled Fashion!

P.S. I also have an interview of Zoe from So, Zo… on the way, bu it will have to wait till tomorrow as I need to go and lie down again. Oh the perils of the flu season!

Teal merino hand spun and 2 plied

This summer we went on holiday to Denmark and stayed in the summerhouse at the West coast. I did quite a bit of spindle spinnning during those two weeks – in the car, on the beach ant the BBQ. I found that it is such a social craft. It doesn’t get in the way and steal your concentration like knitting. I am able to have a good conversation while spinning. And best of all people are fascinated by the spindle twisting and turning.

While on a drive up to Ringkøbing we visited Abelines Farm. While I was there I noticed that they had loads of fibres used to show off spinning. I asked where they bought the fibres and they mentioned the nearby Uldgården in Tarm. So we had to visit this lovely yarn shop too. There I bought this 100g of teal merino and the rosa merino too.

When I got home I borrowed a Babe spinning wheel of the lovely Sue from the WSD Guild and used it to spin up both fibres in no time. Now the next step is to figure out what I am going to use 100g / c. 350m 2 ply teal merino for. I am thinking of knitting a scarf / shawl but I’m not sure yet.

Teal merino hand spun and 2 plied

Rosa merino fibre spun and 2 plied

This summer we went on holiday to Denmark and stayed in the summerhouse at the West coast. I did quite a bit of spindle spinnning during those two weeks – in the car, on the beach ant the BBQ. I found that it is such a social craft. It doesn’t get in the way and steal your concentration like knitting. I am able to have a good conversation while spinning. And best of all people are fascinated by the spindle twisting and turning.

While on a drive up to Ringkøbing we visited Abelines Farm. While I was there I noticed that they had loads of fibres used to show off spinning. I asked where they bought the fibres and they mentioned the nearby Uldgården in Tarm. So we had to visit this lovely yarn shop too. There I bought this 100g of rosa merino and the teal merino too.

When I got home I borrowed a Babe spinning wheel of the lovely Sue from the WSD Guild and used it to spin up both fibres in no time. Now the next step is to figure out what I am going to use 100g / c. 350m 2 ply rosa merino for. I am thinking of knitting a shawl but I’m not sure yet.

Rosa merino fibre spun and 2 plied

2010 was really the year that it all took off for me in terms of crafts, creativeness and blogs. I remember in late 2009 discussing with my friend Helene how we could start a blog that would take our mind off our studies for a bit and would allow us a creative outlet. We went ahead with the idea of Historic Crafts and started the blog in January 2010. I think it took off so fast because there was two of us working on it, and it has made me realise how important it is to work with someone else on projects like this.

Historic Crafts was such a fun project that I decided I wanted to start another blog which would focus a bit more on the crafts my husband John and I do. He illustrates and I do bobbin lace, make yarn and refashion clothes. Also we both love DIY and restoring furniture. Grey Duckling was born as a blog and I have also been to my first ever craft fairs with the Grey Duckling brand. We didn’t sell much but it was quite fun none-the-less. If nothing else at least we met and talked to a lot of interesting people.

As if this was not enough I have been looking back at my family history for about 8 years now and I refashioned my family history blog into ‘The Gene Pool’. I already have some branches of the family tree online as databases but the blog focuses more on the narrative of family history research. I don’t mean this blog to ever be a regular blog because my research is not regular at all. It happens in short bursts. Like this Christmas I went to the History Centre in Wigan and found out quite a few things, so the blog will be updated quite a bit over the next couple of weeks.

With all these blogs and twitter accounts (@EddieDuckling and @HistoricCrafts) that I suddenly have, also comes a lot of networking and meeting other crafty people online and in real life. This is the best part of blogging for sure. The thing is that I will be very busy with my studies in 2011 and with this move that we are going to be making; home to Denmark where I am from. But I want to keep at it with the blogs and all the projects, so I will have to find a way to do this without it all being a bit too much. I think I can do this by taking a page out of Tilly’s book and not set myself so many blog and craft deadlines. I think I need to be better at going with the flow. Since I began Grey Duckling in May I have done a lot of posts on stuff I have done. In 2011 I want to talk more about what other creative people have been doing. We began with the interviews on Historic Crafts in 2010 and boy was that fun. I have some great portraits lined up on Historic Crafts in January and an interview with Zoe from So, Zo… on Grey Duckling.

The interview with Zoe is a part of a new endeavor that I have started up together with Erica from Recycled Fashion called  Refashionista Interviews’ where we will be interviewing refashionistas’ we admire and find out what inspires them and how they go about refashioning.

I have a lot of other ideas that I would like to try out in 2011, but they are all meant to be collaborative so that I don’t end up burning myself out:

• Inspired by Danish Karina from Unikarina‘s great advent calender idea, I would love bring some people together to do a Valentines present exchange. Surely I can’t be the only one who doesn’t get anything for Valentines. It’s not even that I don’t have anyone to give me anything, but my husband just doesn’t believe in it. Oh well (he doesn’t get anything from me either but he does give me a nice hand drawn card that he’s made so it’s not all bad).
• Refashionista Co-operative is another idea I have been thinking about. After the closing of Wardrobe Refashion in 2010, myself and quite a few other refashionistas are of course distraught. Where will we now communicate with other refashionistas and get new inspiration. I love the concept of WR but I do think that it is not a one-woman project and as much as I would love to be a part of something similar I don’t want to begin one myself. So I came up with the idea of a co-operative, which would have a group of editors who would all own equal rights to the blog and who would a  sign up to do a certain amount of moderating. I have already had some positive response from other refashionistas that I have talked to so I will probably put out a call for editors some time soon. If you are interested, feel free to get in touch!
• I want to do more interviews with the Refashionista Interviews!
• I would love to do some guest posts round and about.
• I did my first ever giveaway here on Grey Duckling for New Year. It was so much fun and I want to do some more on Historic Crafts as well.

So I have told you what I want to try out in the new year. But now I want to know what you are going to be doing? Do you have any great ideas? Are you looking for someone else to try it out with or do you prefer to work on your own? Have you tried interviewing and how did it go? How about giveaways?

I can’t wait to hear from you,

Eddie

This is my first giveaway ever so please bear with me. As a New Years giveaway I will be sending this flower brooch made with bobbin lace using hand spun merino and milk protein. It has a brooch pin on the back and is c. 7cm in diameter. The button in the middle has been decoupaged with the page out of a book.

Lace flower brooch - inspired by Sweet Peas

Since it’s a New Year giveaway I’m not going to ask you why you want this brooch, because honestly, who couldn’t use a little present to cheer themselves up in January. John and I on the other hand have great plans for the year 2011, which I won’t divulge now as it’s a bit too early for that. So I was wondering if any of you have any plans for new things you will be trying in 2011. Learning a new craft, taking up art, doing a course, going on a diet or traveling the world. Whatever it is, I would love to hear about it.

So here’s how you get me to send you this flower brooch all lovingly wrapped in the beginning of January. Before the New Year, you must enter the draw with at least one point. You gain 1 point for commenting below and can gain extra points from doing some of the other things:

1. You can comment below and tell me about something new you want to do in the new year. Remember to fill in a correct email address so I can contact you.
2. You can tweet the following: @EddieDuckling is hosting a Happy New Year #giveaway over at Grey Duckling: http://roued.com/greyduckling/happy-new-year-giveaway/
3. You can also mention Grey Duckling and the giveaway with a link, on your own blog, Facebook or other social media site. If you do so just add a comment on this post telling me where you mentioned it.

To make sure that no-one around the world is missed out I won’t close the giveaway till the 2nd January 2011. After this I will randomly pick a lucky person to send the brooch to.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Eddie

Fill a vase with florist foam and add fern or fir

Decorated Christmas non-tree

I bought these vintage glass ornaments this year. I thought they were quite a catch.

Vintage bauble ornament

My friend Cecile has been having a knitted Christmas. She knitted this heart for me with some of my yarn and I just had to add it to the ‘tree’. You should see her new knitted stars. The pattern will be out soon.

Knitted Christmas heart from Cecile

Again an idea from the great book ‘Playing with Books’ that I reviewed in 2010.

John's novel bauble

Finally, a Danish style Christmas star that I made quite a few of this Christmas. This one is made out of the pages of a map. I just love the vintage feel of them.

Danish Christmas star made from maps

How to Make a 3D snowflake on Wikihow

First I decided on the bowl to use. Make sure it is watertight. I start out with a block of florist foam or Oasis, which I place in the middle. You can place your long candles directly into the foam. I just happen to have these wonderful tea light holders. They are safer as they keep the candle wick far away from anything that can burn.

Bowl with flower foam

The next thing I do is to add a good layer of greenery. I would have used fir in Denmark but since I have no fir trees around I have used other evergreens.

Decoration with greenery

The final bit is to add some extra decorations. For this decoration I have added some stars. Have a go yourself and enjoy a bit of ‘hygge’ at home.

Finished decoration

Just a little safety notice. Don’t turn your decoration on and leave it. I like to only use it if I will be sitting at the table for a while. Otherwise, I know I will forget it and probably come home to a bit of a disaster.

What would you put in such bags?

Bags for the Advent Calendar

Bags on the Advent Calendar

Island Dish

Island Dish

Do you want to see some more ideas for gifts for the navigator?

Check out my new Pinterest board with ideas.

A couple of weeks ago I asked you how you would refashion jeans. I got quite a few comments with your ideas and I have added them to the post. This post is what I have made from my stack of jeans. Project bags! I made 10 in total and I am using them for all the different projects I am working on at the moment. Have a look at the tutorial and the finished bags and why not try and make your own. If you have – I would love to hear about it!

Eddie

Materials before

Reversable jeans/sweater project bag

Reversable jeans/sweater project bag

teal lambswool recycled sweater yarn

‘Hi, I’m the love child of a teal lambswool sweater that has been carefully 3 plied. I’m 12 strands per inch making me the perfect sports weight gauge.’

There are four of us:

1. 70g / c. 180m
2. c. 85g
3. c. 50g
4. c. 50g

skein of teal lambswool recycled sweater yarn

close-up of teal lambswool recycled sweater yarn

See what my siblings have to say for themselves:

• Unravel in Farnham, British yarn and buttons
• Sweater to yarn to shawl refashion
• Update on Thing a Day – up to day 16
• Friday finds – more sweaters
• What craftyness are you doing for Valentines?
• How to recycle yarn from sweaters
• Handspun – teal merino
• Handspun – rosa merino
• What to do if you don’t have a Christmas tree!
• Love Child: Teal Lambswool Yarn

red cotton recycled sweater yarn

‘Hi, I’m the love child of a red cotton sweater that has been carefully 3 plied. I’m 16 strands per inch making me the perfect 3-ply gauge.’

There are four of us:

1. 74g / c. 300m
2. c. 85g
3. c. 58g
4. c. 58g

skein of red cotton recycled sweater yarn

close-up of red cotton recycled sweater yarn

See what my siblings have to say for themselves:

• Unravel in Farnham, British yarn and buttons
• Sweater to yarn to shawl refashion
• Update on Thing a Day – up to day 16
• Friday finds – more sweaters
• What craftyness are you doing for Valentines?
• How to recycle yarn from sweaters
• Handspun – teal merino
• Handspun – rosa merino
• What to do if you don’t have a Christmas tree!
• Love Child: Teal Lambswool Yarn

cream lambswool recycled sweater yarn

‘Hi, I’m the love child of a cream lambswool sweater that has been carefully 3 plied. I’m 12 strands per inch making me the perfect sports weight gauge.’

There are four of us:

1. 45g / c. 110m
2. c. 85g
3. c. 85g
4. c. 45g

skein of cream lambswool recycled sweater yarn

close-up of cream lambswool recycled sweater yarn

See what my siblings have to say for themselves:

• Unravel in Farnham, British yarn and buttons
• Sweater to yarn to shawl refashion
• Update on Thing a Day – up to day 16
• Friday finds – more sweaters
• What craftyness are you doing for Valentines?
• How to recycle yarn from sweaters
• Handspun – teal merino
• Handspun – rosa merino
• What to do if you don’t have a Christmas tree!
• Love Child: Teal Lambswool Yarn

Pin Cushions

Now for a couple of other ideas for that seamstress / tailor in your life. If you have made or seen something you think would fit this category then comment and link and I will add it to the list.

Bottle Cap Pin Cushion Ring

• How to Make Pretty Pincushions by JenSegrest on Craft Stylish
• How to Make a Pincushion Ring from a Plastic Bottle Cap on WikiHow
• Tiny Pincushion Tutorial by How About Orange
• DIY Ring Pincushion by A Foothill Home Companion

Using tape measures

• Tutorial ~ Super Cool Boys Belt by The Mother Huddle

Something for their stash

• Crochet basket by One Pink Plum
• How To Make Crochet Stash Baskets by Firefly
• Crocheted Stash Basket by The Purl Bee

Do you want to see some more ideas for gifts for the seamstress?

Check out my new Pinterest board with ideas.