Mini Stocking Advent Calender

The website Burda Style has recently published a free and easy stocking advent calender pattern. They even have a step by step tutorial that makes this project easy as pie for even beginners.

The stockings are small enough to use up scraps of fabric and ribbon, and they sew up quick enough that they could still be made before December. Even if you couldn't make them all in one go, you could make them one per day in December taking only a few minutes per day. Pictures of a few of mine are below.

Not interested in the stockings? You should still check out Burda Style. They have beginner to advanced sewing patterns that are mostly free, and great sewing info, and several quick holiday projects (even a few for ambitious hand sewing).I made all of my stockings thus far out of home dec weight fabric leftovers from other projects (mine, and the leftovers I have collected from other crafters), and scraps of ribbon. I really love the eclectic look.

Salvaged Skirt

After my first child was born I was in need of some new clothes, as mine didn't fit. I wasn't willing, or able to go out and buy a new wardrobe full of clothes that I was hoping I would only wear for a limited time. My solution was making some new clothes that could be easily taken in as my waist line diminished.

One of my first and favorite post pregnancy creations was a pleated, green linen skirt in New Look Pattern 6566 (I don't think it is in print any more). The skirt was worn extensively, taken in several times, and worn some more. The skirt was finally retired when one of it's small holes turned into one giant rip, that was beyond repair.

This skirt was recently reincarnated as a pillow cover. It is sized for a standard 14" x 14" pillow form with a side Velcro closure (a closure type I am not planning on using in the future). The leafs were simply painted on with fabric paint. I would have liked to make another with the same fabric; however, the fabric was in such bad shape that while there was enough fabric for a second pillow, it could be used. My kids enjoyed playing with the extra fabric though.
You can see in the second picture that the area directly under the leaves is slightly lighter than the surrounding fabric. That is because I originally tried to bleach the pattern into the fabric, rather than painting it on. Needless to say the bleach didn't work. That is probably what I deserve for using a harmful chemical I probably shouldn't have had in my house in the first place. My only excuse is that it is a left over from my nesting, have to sanitize everything, phase from my last pregnancy, and I didn't want to waste it.

Oops...I upcycled all over the wall.

I generally take issue with the word "upcycle", preferring to use the word "reuse."

The word upcycle was origionally proposed in the book, From the Cradle to the Grave: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by McDonough and Braungart. It was coined to give a name to the use of waste materials to make useful products. It is also obviously playing off the word recycle, that is now in the common vernacular, and is common practice. Recycling is the reprocessing of old materials into new products. The problem with recycling is that many of the most commonly recycled goods, i.e. paper and plastic, are turned into a lower quality good. For instance, recycled plastics are a lower grade than the plastics they were made of.

I believe that the word "upcycle" implies the opposite of "recycle," or the making of higher quality material from waste goods; however, in upcycling the nature of the good does not change, it is simply used in a new way. "Reuse" seems to me a far more appropriate term for the process.

However, I believe that I may have finally produced a product worthy of the name "upcycle."

A few years ago my grandmother gave me a beautiful ornate picture frame, with a gorgeous picture in it, that just didn't match my style.

The picture in question.

After about a year of looking at this picture frame everyday, I was in need of a message board, but I really didn't want a giant ugly white board on my wall. Finally, I had a use for the frame. I decided to paint the back of the glass in the frame leaving the front of the glass a perfect surface for dry erase markers. This system worked perfectly for about two years, but I was never very happy about the look of the paint on the glass.

The painted white board.

Then I found out about looking glass paint.

Looking Glass is a spray paint by Krylon that creates a mirror finish on plain glass. So I scraped all the paint off the back of the glass, and painted the back of the glass with Looking Glass twice. The finish I got is very similar to an antique mirror. I do not know if this is the finish that the paint should produce because despite the admonition on the bottle that the paint should not be used in high humidity, Florida did not provide me with humidity under 70%. The finish is however, exactly what I was hoping for, and I think it turned out beautifully. Unfortunately the picture really doesn't do it justice.

The new mirror message board.