This week’s project is a rug I crocheted from a couple of old white t-shirts and the remaining pieces of a blue jersey sheet. I cut my cotton into 3/4 inch wide strips using my t-yarn making tutorial. Recycling t-shirts and old cotton sheets is a great way to repurpose those old items into new usable rugs, oven mitts, trivets, baby bibs, and more.
Once completed, this t-yarn rug had a problem. The center was not flat and the rug needed blocking badly so this week’s project turned into a two-fold post. A blocking tutorial for t-shirt yarn rugs and the free crochet pattern for the rug.
I didn’t take a photo of the rug before blocking but trust me, the center was all rumpled up and the rug wasn’t laying down flat. I used the same process I did when I blocked a round ripple afghan that was bowl-shaped in the center. My blocking method helped flatten both projects and really saved me a lot of frustration so I wanted to share how I did it. So first I will show how to block a t-shirt yarn rug.
Lay the rug down and stretch it out on a large piece of plastic on the carpet. I used a large trash bag and then just reuse it for the next blocking project. I pin it all around as I stretch the rug and shape it. Use lots of pins and push them down into the carpet to hold the rug in place. Then using a wet rag or wash cloth, press down and wet the rug. Move your cloth around and continue to wet it and as you do, shape and stretch your rug. I laid a wash cloth down as shown and with my hands flat, I move my hands around on top of the cloth. My center was the real problem area so I pressed down and wet this area more as I worked out the rumpled center.
Click on any photo to supersize
Next photo shows after I have been shaping and flattening out the center. Move your pins as needed to get the rug flat and a nice shape. Gently pull on the corners and edges to get it as straight and square as possible. Apply more water on a rag as needed.
Once you have the center flat and the rug shaped, its time to let it dry. I let my rug dry overnight with the pins in place. The next day, I removed the pins and flipped it over gently and let the back dry. The next morning the rug was completely dry and the rug held its shape rather nicely.
Closeup of the t-yarn rug once it was blocked and flatten. As you can see its pretty flat and I can live with how it looks now. I hope you find this t-yarn blocking tutorial useful should you find your rug or other projects need a little flattening.
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My latest recycled crafting project involves these two baby dolls. I got these dolls at my local thrift store. Both dolls just needed a little cleaning and a new outfit. I crocheted both dolls a new dress and hat. Buying these used dolls was very reasonable. One was only 99 cents and the other $1.99 but with new outfits, they have a new life and look great. They both will be going to my local woman’s shelter for some little girls to find joy with a new baby doll.
Here is a closeup of the hat. I worked one round in white yarn and then did white trim by working a slip stitch in the final round. You can click on any of the photos to supersize them.
I used Hooksandknives.blogspot.com doll dress and hat pattern for both outfits. I crocheted using a H (5 mm) hook with worst weight 4 ply yarn. My dolls are 12 inches tall and I did a little modification on the neckline and straps as outlined below. Unfortunately the blog that was hosting the original doll dress and hat patterns is no longer in existence as of 2015. But I was able to find the pattern details and added them to the post below.
**Original Doll and Hat pattern from Hooksandknives.blogspot**
Doll Dress Pattern
Body of dress
Ch 35
Row 1: sc in the 2nd ch from the hook, sc across to end (34 sc)
Row 2: ch 1, turn. sc across
Rows 3 to 9: repeat row 2
Row 10: ch 1, turn. sc in the first st, (2sc in the next st, sc in the next st) repeat to end, ending with sc in the last st
Row 11: ch 3, turn. dc in each st across.
Row 12: ch 3, turn. dc in first st, 2dc in next st, (dc in next 2 sts, 2dc in next st), repeat across, then dc in last st
Row 13: repeat row 11
Row 14: repeat row 11
Row 15: repeat row 12
Row 16: repeat row 11
Row 17: repeat row 12
Row 18: repeat row 11. Finish off, leaving a long tail, about 18 inches. Use this for sewing the back together up to last sc row. Leave the rest of the sc rows unsewn, allowing an opening for dressing the doll easily. Weave in ends.
Straps (make 2)
Ch 15.
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook. sc across to end.
Row 2: ch 1, turn. sc across to end. Fasten off, leaving 10 inch tail for sewing one end. Sew ends to front and back of dress.
Ties (make 2) Used for closing top of back of dress by tying in a bow
Ch 30.
Sl st in 2nd ch from hook. sl ti in each st across to end. Fasten off, leaving tail for sewing. Sew each tie to the top corners of the back of dress.
Hat Pattern
Worked as a spiral without joining. Use stitch markers […]
This week I crocheted a little bucket basket from recycled pink newspaper bags. I created this bucket basket as a gift to my local library for saving all the plastic newspaper bags they receive their newspapers in daily. Each week I pick up these bags and use them in my recycled crafting projects. I feel so fortunate to get these beautiful and uniquely colored bags.
I recycled this jam container for my plastic bag crafting project. As outlined in the pattern below, you insert the plastic jam container inside the crocheted plarn bucket. Once finished, I filled the bucket with candy and presented it to my local library staff. This was their first time really seeing a finished product I crafted from their recycled plastic bags. I think they were happily surprised to see something pretty as well as useful made from their old newspaper bags that I collect from them.
So I hope I have inspired you and you will give this recycled crochet basket project a go. Best wishes and happy green crafting to all!
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Plarn Bucket Basket Pattern
Materials:
One ball of pink plarn (plastic bag yarn) Appox. 20 bags
3 white plastic bags for edging
1 recycled jam container (4 inches wide by 4 inches tall used)
Hook: Metal J (6 mm) US size hook
Description: Crochet basket measures 4 inches wide and 4 inches tall with 8 inch handle
Directions:
Ch 4 and join with a sl st to form a ring.
Here are a few photos I shot today of some hummingbirds that were feeding off my feeder. Don’t worry if it looks empty as I am using clear juice for them and it’s just below the red rim so you can’t see the juice line.
These birds just love my homemade hummingbird juice. This is the second year that I have been making up my own home brew for them. Here is the link to my homemade hummingbird juice recipe that I posted last year.
I actually had 3 birds drinking all at the same time but couldn’t get a picture of them. They move so fast that by the time I try and click the picture, they have moved.
Here is a great shot showing the beautiful back of this hummingbird. She’s just so pretty with her yellow spots.
Another photo of the same bird drinking from my hummingbird feeder.
One last photo of one of the “girls” posing for the camera. They are just such beautiful creatures. Now I am off to make another batch of my brew for them as I’m sure the feeder is nearly empty now.
I’m back to share my latest recycled cassette tape craft project. I crocheted this little sachet bag with two strands of cassette tape along with one strand of ribbon yarn. The ribbon yarn gives the cassette tape a better texture to crochet with and makes the crochet hook move more easier.
I added a sachet liner that I crocheted from some cotton thread so you could remove it from the cassette tape sachet. I filled the liner with some spicy potpourri before closing the end up. Then I just inserted the liner inside the sachet.
This is a quick and easy recycled crafting project which requires just a small amount of materials. The result is a pretty sachet that makes a great gift idea.
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Free Cassette Tape Sachet Pattern
Materials needed:
2 Cassette tapes (only 1/8 of a reel used on each)
1 oz Lion Brand Lion ribbon yarn
One bead for drawstring
Small amount of #10 Cotton thread for liner
Hooks:
J (6 mm) U.S. size metal crochet hook
C (2.75 mm) U.S. size metal crochet hook
Description: Crocheted Sachet Bag –
Bag measures 4-1/2 inches wide and 5 inches long
Directions:
Ch 15
Rnd 1
Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea chain st down to end. Then continue around other side of chain by working a Hdc in ea st to other end.
Need a swiffer duster sock? Well I did for my Unger so I cut up one white t-shirt and a small amount of a blue jersey sheet to crochet my duster cover. I cut my t-yarn 1 inch wide and stretched it gently as shown in my t-yarn making tutorial.
My Unger is a squeegee with a swiffer-like head on the other side. I want to be able to use the other side to dust and clean high areas in my house with the extended handle on the Unger.
I used the Craftstylish crochet reversible swiffer pattern as a basis for my duster cover. Because my tool is narrower than a Swiffer, I had to modify the original pattern. The beauty of the pattern is that it is easily adjustable to fit different sized cleaning tools. The pattern has great pictures and works up really quickly.
Okay now for my modifications:
I used N (9 mm) crochet hook. I chained 19 to begin my cover. I only crocheted 3 rows of ruffles in the middle. Then one round of SC in each stitch and then several decreases of Sc on last round to fit my Unger.
Finished size: Fits a tool head 10 inches long and 1-1/2 inches wide when stretched.
My finished t-yarn cover turned out perfect and I love the ruffles on the duster. It works great and I plan to use the same ruffle design to make a mop cover. Using recycled t-shirts for this project worked wonderfully as the cotton is soft and absorbent. Now I just need to get busy and do some cleaning with my new tool.
This week I present my first pop tab tote bag project. I was asked to create a tote bag using soda pop pull tabs and recycled plastic bags by a member of my Trash to Treasures group on Ravelry. I have been saving soda pop tabs and beer pull tabs so I could complete this project. It took 252 tabs for my bag. I decided that I would alternate rounds so that it didn’t take so many tabs to do this bag. Plus I like the look of the plastic bags by themselves to separate the pull tab rounds.
I used cotton cord on the base of the bag to give it a sturdy bottom and also on the handles. I found if I wrapped the plastic bag yarn (plarn) around the cord as I crocheted around it, it hides the white cord better. As you may see in the closeup pictures of the base, the first few rows I didn’t wrap it as close as I did in later rounds. The later rounds look better and the white cotton cord doesn’t really show through. I found if I wound the plastic around the cord in small sections and then crocheted around the cord, it worked best to keep the plastic tighter and uniform.
Hope you enjoy this free crochet pattern. Happy 4th of July to everyone!
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Free Plarn Pop Tab Bag Pattern
Materials needed:
One ball of plastic bag yarn aka Plarn
(Approx. 50 plastic newspaper bags cut into 1″ strips of plarn)
252 Soda pull-tabs
4 yards – 12/32 (9.5 mm) cotton cord
Hook: J (6 mm)size metal crochet hook
Description: Plastic Bag & Pop Tab Tote Bag
Bag measures 12 inches wide and 10 inches long with 18 inch straps
Directions:
Ch 20 loosely.
Here are some gift tags I made from a pretty Kleenex box I had. The box was just so cute that I wanted to recycled the cardboard into something useful so I got out my tag die cutter. I cut as many tags as I could from the panels of the box and then used a hole punch to put a hole into the top of the tags. I used scrap yarn and some leather strips for ties to finish off my gift tags.
Here is one other set of gift tags I cut from another Kleenex box. The bottom had some plain white so I cut out a few of those to show you that with some pretty yarn, they make great gift tags too. For the other tags, I used pieces of plarn (plastic bag yarn) for my ties.
This is a really quick and easy project that you and the kids can both enjoy. Let the kids cut strips of yarn or other recycled materials for the ties and voilà — you have yourself some cute and free gift tags.
Here is my version of an Altoids tin repurposed into a pincushion and sewing gadget box. The materials used in this project were from an Envelope of Doom (EOD) swap I participated in. If you aren’t familiar with an EOD swap, its where you put some crafting materials into an envelope and mail them off to your partner. The challenge is to use the materials you receive to make things for your partner and then return the finished items back to your swap partner. It was a fun swap and this pincushion sewing box was one of my creations from the materials I received from my partner.
I was inspired by this Altoids project which used a magnetic sheet on the inside of the lid to hold needles and such. There are lots of different crafting versions and great ideas on the web for reusing the tins.
Over at Craftsters Rackycoo’s tutorial is outstanding and has step-by-step photos showing how to decorate your tin. I used a few ideas from the post to finish off my Altoids pincushion box.
I hope my swap partner will enjoy her recycled Altoids tin as much as I did creating the little sewing box. Until next time, happy crafting to all!
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