Earrings Workshop at Film Biz Recycling- April 29th

Need a unique, personalized gift for an environmentally-conscious friend? Or just looking to add a sweet new set of earrings to your collection while upping your eco/crafting cred? Have we got a class for you!

Join us for a 1.5 hour hands-on workshop (ages 13+) at Film Biz Recycling’s RE-Workshop. We’ll be using rescued plastic bags and umbrella frames to make fun, diamond-shaped eco-earrings. All materials provided.

What you’ll get from this class:

* knowledge of “upcycling” or how to use unusual (& often free!) everyday items to create interesting and eco-friendly craft projects.
* your own pair of fashionable earrings that look beautiful and have a low environmental impact.

Event Info

Address: 540 President St, Brooklyn, NY, 11215
Date & Time: Sunday April 29th, 1-2pm
Cost: $30

Please click the "Buy Now" button below to register. See you there! :)

DIY Mother's Day card!

Show some love to all the Mamas in your life!
This card was made from a mac n' cheese box! I made the pin from part of a plastic bag but you could also use sculpey, old buttons, or whatever you want!

First, cut out the front and back panels on your mac n' cheese box. Then put them together, blank sides facing out. Next measure lengthwise to find the middle and score it on both sides with an exacto blade. Next fold it and put a few pieces of double sided tape in between the two layers. Then you trim the sides a little to even it all out. I like to use a corner rounder to finish off the corners.

After the card was made I wrote my message leaving a blank space for the "<3" pin. Then I punched a couple holes in the space to make it easy to take the pin on and off the card.

Have lovely Mother's Day! (in advance ;))

Saturday DIY- Quick Wrap Skirt

Look Ma! No pattern!










I've had this pretty fabulous vintage fabric hanging around for awhile and I finally decided it needed to be put to use. I didn't have any patterns in my size/that I really liked so I made this really simple wrap skirt by trial and error.















First I laid out my fabric on my cardboard project board. This thing is so useful, it has a grid of 1 inch squares all over it which helps simplify rough measurements and you can make your fabric stay in place by pinning it to the board which is AWESOME!





Next I cut my fabric to be a nice even rectangle. Oh, and I ironed it.






















I then measured from where I wanted my skirt to sit on my waist to where I wanted the hem hit. I decided to make it 17" long. To that amount, I added 3/4" + 1/2" on both the top and the bottom. (that's a pretty standard measurement for a hem) This comes to 19.5". So next I cut my big rectangle of fabric across the long way ( I think the length was around 60") so the height was now 19.5"































Next I measured 1/2" from all of the edges, folded them down and pinned them. Then I ironed the folds. from there I folded the edges over again, this time 3/4". Ironed that too and stitched the hem. After this I forgot to take photos, so I'll just describe it.














So at this point I had a big rectangle with hemmed edges. I wrapped it around so it was snug around my hips, knowing I'd be putting in darts to make it taper in at the waist. I marked where it should overlap and where I wanted to put snaps with pins. Then I did some crazy experimenting with darts. I'll skip the ideas that didn't work. ; ) Here's the one that did end up working: hold your "skirt" in front of you, pinned in place using your markings of where it should overlap. Measure the top edge not including the 2nd layer that is overlapped. Then measure your waist where you want the skirt to hit. Subtract the measurement of your waist from the fabric edge measurement. The number you get is going help you figure out your darts.

Say you got 3" difference (I think that's around what I got), if you're making two darts in back like I did, it makes sense that at the top of your darts they should each measure 1 1/2". That way the top edge measurement is equal to your waist. I ended up figuring out the length of my darts by trial and error, but later found out from my sister (she's a fashion designer) that most of the time when you're doing the old two darts in back trick, that they're usually around 4" in length. I made mine 3 3/4" so it was close.

Here's how you figure out the placement. Hold up your skirt, fold it flat so the front is laying face down. measure across the top edge. Take 1/4 of that measurement. whatever # you got, measure in that much from either side and mark it. Those two marks are the center of your darts.




















After sewing my darts, I stitched a couple snaps on for closure. And a few vintage buttons just for looks. And that's it!


feel free to comment or ask questions! : )

Firday DIY- Happy little home for your shoes

....or you could just call it a shoe organizer, but I just think my shoes look all snug and comfy in my new diy shoe holder. They used to be in a big pile at the bottom of my closet- blah!

I wanted to use up some of my fabrics leftover from craft projects ect. to make this so I chose the 2 strongest, largest chunks of fabric I had. The dark grey/black fabric is denim and the green patterned fabric is vintage upholstery fabric my boyfriend's grandma gave me.

Friday DIY- Spring Cleaning!

It's a beautiful spring day today in Brooklyn! : ) and it's my birthday! yay!

anyways, lately I'v been cleaning my apt like crazy, so I felt it was appropriate to to do a DIY cleaning blog. I've been trying out recipes for eco-friendly cleaning substances, because what good does a cleaning spree do ya if your house ends up smelling like clorox in the end? It just seems counter-productive to use something as unhealthy as bleach to "clean" up.

I found this website: http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm and it's full of recipes for eco-friendly cleaning stuff. Here's the recipes I've tried so far:


Drain Declogger
Pour together:
¼ c baking soda down the drain, followed by
½ c. vinegar
Cover drain and let sit for 15 minutes. Follow with 2 qts. boiling water.

Mildew Remover
Dissolve together: ½ c, vinegar
½ c. borax in warm water.
Apply with sponge or spray bottle.

I kept an eye out for borax and didn't happen to find any until I popped into a Met grocery store the other day.

I was most impressed with the the drain declogger. It worked just as well as regular draino and definately better than the CVS-brand rip off of draino I tried awhile ago.

The mildew remover recipe worked pretty well, I tried it on my shower curtain. I think I'll have to give it one more go for it to be really completely clean. On the plus side, it always takes awhile to scrub the whole curtain and I tend to get whatever cleaner I use for that all over myself and the entire bathroom, so it was a much pleasanter experience to be covered in vinegar, borax and water than the usual nasty chemicals.







...and now for something completely different. I cranked out a few new stud earrings, this time using a leftover netted fabric. I like how the yellow ones came out because the texture reminds me of honeycomb.

DIY Friday- the Mac & Cheese Gift Box!

This week's Firday DIY is the Mac & Cheese Gift Box! I often make these boxes to send my earrings or bracelets to my customers on etsy. It's pretty quick and cute!

Here's most of the supplies you'll need: cutting mat, xacto knife, ruler, pencil. You'll also need doublesided tape or rubber cement, whichever you prefer.



















The first thing you do is find the seam on the side of your mac & cheese box and carefully peel it apart.
















Next use the scissors to cut straight down the second side of the box.














So here's what you've got:















Next measure the length of your box. Most Mac& Cheese boxes are 7" long.



















Next you mark a line straight across at the 3.5" point. Score the line by very lightly dragging the xacto across it. The idea is to cut about 1/2 through the cardboard.












Then you cut at an angle slanting away from the closed part of your box, starting at the corner you just scored.



















Next measure the height of the box. Measure and mark a line that distance away from the first line you scored. The newly marked line should be on the side towards the open end of the box.



















Here's what your box looks like unfolded at this stage:

















You'll need to slice off a triangle on each side next to where you cut the angle.

















The tab gets taped down using the doublesided tape.

I like to use the permanent double sided tape because it isn't smelly like rubber cement.





















Here's what your box looks like. But it won't stay closed! So here's what comes next.....














...Find an extra plastic bag or packaging in a color that goes with your box. cut off a few smallish pieces and dress up your box with some recycled "tissue paper"!
















...and here's how you seal the deal...with a nice bow made from the plastic bag/packaging!

Friday DIY- Earrings Update

This week I tried the ol Fabric Covered Stud Earrings project out again. This time I used stetchy fabric and made smaller little fimo circles.






















I think they came out a lot better than the last ones. And I didn't even burn the fimo this time! ; )












Next Friday I'll post a how-to for making a cute gift box out of a mac & cheese box!

DIY Friday- Sweater Skirt Redo!

This is one way to make a pencil skirt out of an old sweater!













Here's what my old sweater looked like:








First thing you wanna do is chop off the collar. I tried to cut as straight across the shoulders as I could. This is going to become the waist.














Next, I measured a 1/2" and folded that over and pinned it,all the way around the top part that was just cut off.
















After the whole waist was pinned, I turned the whole thing under one more time and sewed all the way around.
I set the stitch width at a wide zigzag because that allows the stitching to stretch without breaking.




























Then I tried it on in order to figure out what to do next! I realized it would fit well if I chopped off 1 of the sleeves. I put it on inside out and pinned it so that it would fit.






















Next I sewwed straight down next to the pins. I used a smaller zigzag stitch so it wouldn't stretch quite as much as the waist, but would still stretch without breaking. I'm sure it wouldn't make a huge difference if you use a straight stitch too. After sewing along the pins I cut off the sleeve.


















This next part I wish I had taken better pictures of, but hopefully you'll get the idea. Feel free to ask me questions by the way!



















So next I held up the skirt, right side out, and it had only one sleeve left. This sleeve would be made into the pocket. I tucked it in so the sleeve was hanging on the inside. I pinned the sleeve in place and sewwed around the edges of it so it would stay in place intsead of flopping around. I also sewwed straight across where I wanted the bottom of the pocket to be.




Then all that was left was chopping off the end of the sleeve that poking out from under the skirt.