Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Doing my own Recycling

Yesterday was "America Recycles" day. I am an avid recycler- not so much the taking it to the recycling station (though I do that quite a bit as well) but more the taking something old and junky and recycling it by myself into something new and usable. That is one of my very favorite hobbies. Before throwing anything away I usually think- could is reuse this in some way instead? And often I find that I can.

 Yesterday in honor of the holiday I finally made a wreath that I have been thinking about making for some time ever since I started seeing them all over the Internet- a book page wreath. I made it out of a tree/shrub catalog that we had received in the mail as well as a circle of cardboard from an old box. It isn't my favorite wreath ever but it was fun to make and I am glad to have tried it. Now I am hoping to find an old songbook to tear up as I think this would be very cute made with sheets of music. Making all the paper cones takes a while but I was able to make them all while watching the movie "Facing the Giants" so that worked out well.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the other projects that I have recycled things to make. So here we go......


Mittens from old wool clothes.









Leggings from an old turtleneck.












A baby dress from a onesie and a turtleneck.











An Apron from an old pair of overalls.











Socks from an old sleeper.











A dress from a t-shirt and a sundress.

















Two skirts from a dress.








A Revolutionary War Costume from old clothes.











Wool pants from bigger wool pants.











Skirt, leggings and scarf from t-shirts.











A raincoat from a bigger short sleeved jacket.











Underwear from old t-shirts.











A skirt from T-shirts.
















Cards decorated with flowers made from junk mail and scrap papers.









A berry picking bucket from an old milk jug.











Fabric flowers made from old wool clothes and other fabric scraps.








Dish rag made from old t-shirts and scrubbies made from onion/orange bags and other recycled tulle.










Hot pads made from old jeans and other recycled fabrics.








Jump rope made from old t-shirts.











Flower barrette made from used lining fabric.









Art bag made from recycled clothes.










A soft doll made from old t-shirts dyed with tea.










Cards made from Catalog pictures.









 A display board made from old shutters.











 Crocheted rugs from old clothing.









 A bible case made from an old wool coat.









A crocheted rug made from old curtains and slipcovers.









 Hankies made from old pajama pants.










A basket made from paper grocery bags.


A plane made from Popsicle sticks.
A baby quilt made from old clothes.
A bag made from old jeans.
Candles made from old candles. (molded in salt cartons, butter boxes and toilet paper tubes.




Doll clothes made from recycled clothes.










Gift container made from an old butter box.















Flower petal basket made from a milk carton.












Valentines cards made from junk mail/ flyers.








Candle Centerpiece using old books.












 Quilt using recycled fabrics.








 Basket made from an old ice cream tub.











Planters made from milk cartons.



Rag rug made from old clothes and fabrics.

A bag from old wool clothes.











 Slippers made using recycled cardboard.
An organizer made using tin cans.

Gifts tags made by repurposing brown paper and fabric scraps.
 Napkins made from old t-shirts.







 A barbie house made from recycled items to numerous to mention (basically everything is repurposed).







A quilt made from old clothes.



Hat and Mitten set made using an old t-shirt, and other repurposed fabrics.

I hope if you haven't ever repurposed things before that you might be inspired to try it out. It really is lots of fun! If you do like to repurpose things then I would love to hear about what you have done!
Repurposing things works for me!

I have blogged about all the projects I told about above and I had hoped to link to the posts- for now I ran out of time but I hope to do it later. Meanwhile feel free to search through my old posts to find them.

8 comments:

Ladybug said...

Abbi

Favorite is the Quilt from old
clothes..Have to try that for sure and the Wreath..Also enjorecycling useful items...
Keep those awesome post coming
njoyed coming by... :-)

Warm Blessings
Ladybug

angie said...

Amazing! And the objects are all so different and require so many different skills. You are very talented.
I re-use or repurpose, but it never involves sewing. :(

GracefullyCreated said...

Thanks for some great ideas :)

Becky R said...

I also melt old candles into new, cool

Nola said...

Wow that is A LOT of things when you put them all in a list!

I regularly make cards like you inspired me to using old catalogues.

I wish I had more time to do more. I'm curious- were you always this industrious in your years with all very young children? Like the nursing, constant supervision, not much sleep yeasr? (my children are still poor sleepers and were awful as babies, hopefully the new baby will be better). I just find that the training, cooking, learning to be a mom (yes still), laundry, cleaning (not as often as I want), spending time with the kids etc. I just can't do much at this stage. But I can see how it must get better as my almost 6 year old can already help a lot.

'Becca said...

Wow, what a lot of great ideas!! I especially like those hot pads with the pinwheel motif. I'm going to link to this in my big list of ways to reuse things.

Amber said...

WOW! If I was a crafty as that (and could sew), I would love to try some of those.

I do try to re-use things, and I recycle, but your post inspires me to try more crafty things!

~Amber

Abbi said...

Thank you everybody! It is fun to hear about what you like too.

Nola- to answer your question about if I always have done a lot of projects.... When I just had one baby/toddler, Mara, I did do quite a bit of sewing and other projects. She was an easy baby and actually much of the time I felt like I had time on my hands even though I was teaching music lessons as well. When I had more kids I think I did a bit less but projects/crafts have always been something I liked to do and made time for. Sometimes in the evenings I would shut myself in my crafting area and Ken would watch the kids. That wasn't entirely successful as they always seemed to stand outside the door and want me but I did do that at times. I have for quite a while involved them in many projects that I do and though at first it was more work for me than help it has gotten to be the opposite often lately as they are getting older. When you have a bunch of little kids though I would agree that it is not the easiest time to make projects.

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