Category: Altered

Sweater Scarf

Spun Magazine Sweater Arm Scarf

Links of entry

Once I found an instruction on how to make a scarf from felted old sweaters but the website doesn’t exist anymore.
The photo is from the website, click to enlarge.

 

That’s how they did it:

  1. Wash sweaters from 100% wool (mohair works fine, too) with some laundry detergent.
  2. Felt in dryer.
    Felting makes the fabric so dense that it doesn’t unravel when cut.
  3. Cut stripes from the sweaters in the width you want the scarf to be.
    The lengths will vary depending on the part of the sweater where you cut the piece.
    In the instruction they used mainly the arms.
  4. Eventually simply sew the pieces together, whether with a sewing machine or by hand.
    The seam can be used as a decorating element.
  5. The scarf can subsequently be embellished: with buttons, felted flowers, beads, pom-poms, fringes, embroidery and so on.

In fact I would like to have a cardigan-kind garment made with this technique, no scarf.
Therefore I went to several second hand stores to look for wool sweaters but found mostly sweaters from artificial material which don’t felt.
But I stay tuned ;-)


Links:
The original website that doesn’t exist anymore

Here at unikatissima: Entries with the tag ‘felting’

Weave Wrapped Bead Buttons

unikatissima Embroidered Bead Buttons

Links of entry

Once I found an instruction on making buttons by weave wrapping wooden beads and tried it immediatley with different weave patterns: It is great!
I really like the weave wrapping of the buttons and find that the results are too beautiful to be used as buttons, I like them more as beads ;-)


Links:
Weave Wrapped Bead Buttons – scroll down to ‘To construct this type of button,…’

Here at unikatissima: Entries with the tag ‘button’

PET-Inspirations

Miwa Koizumi PET project

Links of entry

I wrote several entries about crafting with plastic bottles (see links below), this one is more of an inspiration: I’d like to present the PET-project and the wonderful PET jewelry.
Fantastic, aren’t they?


Links:
PET-Project
Flower with sash

Here at unikatissima:
Knitted/Crocheted Bangles
Plastic Bottle Beads
Plastic Bottle Box
Knitting Loom from Plastic Bottle
DIY Shrinky Dinks
Box from woven PET stripes

Entries with the tag ‘plastic’

Tea Bag Envelopes

unikatissima Tea Bag Envelopes

Links of entry

I’m collecting nearly everything (and that’s how it looks here, too ;-)) and from now on I will collect used tea bags, too, to make beautiful envelopes from.
I’m really curious about it. ;-))
On the photo you see my Rooibosh tea bags. I find that the Rooibosh tea gives the most beautiful colour, a very warm red-brown :)

By the way it must look great, too, if the tea bags are sewn together and/or if they are embellished after assembly, e.g. by embroidering, painting or stamping them.


Links:
Recycling Tea Bags into Art Projects: How to Create Tea Bag Envelopes

“Tea Ceremony” – sewn tea bags
(via Wewer Keohane)
Sas Colby Teabag Art Discourse – stamped tea bags
T-Bag – Tea Bag Designs – painted tea bags

Here at unikatissima: Paper Crazy Quilt – embroidered paper

Needle Felting Your Knit

unikatissima Needle Felting Your Knit

Links of entry

I presented before some tutorials and inspirations on the subject of ‘felting’, but it were mostly instructions on how to produce something from felt.
The tutorial on how to felt on self-knitted items is a little different: we take a sweater or bag or the like that we have knitted (ok, bought works also ;-)) and applique a felt decoration.
I surely will give it a try once!


Links:
Decorate Your Knitting with Needle Felting

Here at unikatissima: entries with the tag ‘felting’

Plastic Bottle Beads


unikatissima Plastic Bottle Beads

Links of entry

There remained some leftovers from our cut plastic bottle, from which we already made a knitting loom and a plastic box and we can use them to make some beads.
In the instruction on how to make plastic bottle beads they roll up the plastic strip and melt it together with a heat gun.
I don’t have no heat gun and I’m a little afraid of possibly developing fumes, therefore I did it in a different way:

 

unikatissima Plastic Bottle Beads Material I brought water to the boil in my craft pan (which I don’t use for food preparation anymore!).
Then I cut a stripe from the plastic bottle and rolled tightly using some tweezers.
Look out, it always try to uncoil!

 

unikatissima Plastic Bottle Beads I hold the rolled ‘bead’ with my craft wooden pliers (also not used for food preparation anymore) into the simmering water and in seconds the bead was finished.
I don’t know if I could have coloured the bead with permanent markers, I’ve forgotten to test this.
Besides the end doesn’t fuse with the bead, but it doesn’t open neither.

 

unikatissima Plastic Bottle Beads Because it always wanted to uncoil I hold it quite firm with my wooden pliers and the bead became a little flat.
Pressing it in the other direction and dipping into the simmering water again didn’t make the bead round.
But 1. I like the shape and 2. I think it’s only a matter of practice.


Links:
Plastic Bottle Beads

Plastic Bottle Box

greenupgrader Soda Bottle Coin Purse

Links of entry

Yesterday we cut a plastic bottle to make a knitting loom, today we can make a box from the cut off bottom of the bottle.
It’s not a real instruction, but when you look closely at the photos you can see that the plastic bottoms are perforated at the edge and that a zipper is sewn into the holes.
Fantastic!

Addendum: There are instructions now, you can find the English ones here (thanks, Nina).


Links:
Plastic Bottle Box (recycled box/Recycling Box)
English instructions
German instructions

I’ve seen the photo and found it time-consuming to find the source:
I found the link to the plastic bottle box:
via Need More Fiber,
via Dollar Store Crafts (they have more great ideas!),
via greenUPGRADER,
via Superuse.org
I thought that I’d never reach an end ;-))

By the way I suggest to take a look a the flickr group TRASHION NATION, they also have great ideas!