DIY Friday- Fused Plastic Bags!

So after a good couple years of having a blast playing with plastic bags I finally got around to fusing them! I don't know what took me so long I guess just having too much fun weaving them. The tutorial on the etsy blog is great, you hafta check that out.














This time around I tried a super simple coin purse. It's convenient to use the plastic sleeves newspapers come in if you're making a teeny little bag like this.














Once you cut the sleeves open and lay them flat you can fold it into little rectangles 8 layers of plastic thick. I tried using less layers like 3 or 4 and it ended up shriveling up and getting holes in it so I'd say go with the 6-8 layers they recommend in the etsy labs how-to.















Another possible reason why my first one shriveled up is I had the iron set too high. I changed the setting to nylon, folded it a few more times and voila success! : )

Recycled Art Series- Joel Spivak

I had a booth at Greenfest Philly earlier this month and had the good fortune of being located next to the booth for the Please Take Materials Exchange. Michael from Please Take was manning the booth and he gave me a list of really great artists who have been connected to the whole Please Take project. (It used to be called C.A.R.P. and i totally forgot what that stood for) So I'm going to do a series of posts on all these inspiring artists. I got to meet Joel Spivak at the fest that day so I'll start with him. : )

Here's some of Joel's latest pieces. They were up at the Bike Part Art Show put on by the Spokes People. This piece is called "My Favorite Shirt"















"Boy Meets Girl"

Friday DIY- Yummy Choclate Chip Zucchini Bread!

Wow it's been awhile since my last post! Since then i got a new job, had my booth over at Greenfest Philly and helped out with my friend Tiffany's (she has a company called RePlayGround) recycled crafts booth among other things keeping me super busy. : )

My new part time job is pretty exciting, I'm working for the 400 Showroom. It's a showroom for several really great sustainable clothing and accessories designers including Bahar Shaphar (one of my bosses :) ), Del Forte, Lara Miller and Ashley Watson just to name a few. I mostly work with the materials library so I get to find out about how all these amazing sustainable textiles are made, including some really innovative materials such as Ingeo and Milkofil. This weekend we're getting ready for D&A so it's been ca-razy busy over there.

Oh and in other news, I'm trying make a shift to being vegetarian. It started out as a bet with my boyfriend to see who could go the longest without eating meat. It wasn't quite fair because he went to visit his mom and grandma three days after we started and his grandma (abuelita Goya :) ) cooks some amazing and meaty dishes. So he lost right away. I haven't had the chance to visit them in awhile, I know when I do it'll be tough to pass up her awesome lomo saltado!



So anyway, let's get to this week's Friday DIY: Choclate Chip Zucchini Bread!


I got this recipe through a link on lime.com.





Ingredients

* 3/4 cup sugar
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 2 large eggs
* 1 cup applesauce
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups finely shredded zucchini (about 1 medium)
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
* Cooking spray




Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at low speed until well blended. Stir in applesauce.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture, beating just until moist. Stir in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack, and remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.





































Nutritional Information

Calories: 161 (29% from fat) Fat: 5.1g (sat 1.6g,mono 1.4g,poly 1.7g) Protein: 2.9g
Carbohydrate: 27.3g Fiber: 1.4g Cholesterol: 27mg Iron: 1.2mg Sodium: 145mg Calcium: 12mg

Yield
16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Saturday Inspirations- Light!

Stuart Haygarth has been designing lighting from colleted and repurposed objects since around 2004. It took 1020 pairs of prescription spectacles to make "Spectacle".

And the "Tide" Chandelier was made from man made objects that washed up on a certain bit of coastline in Kent. http://www.stuarthaygarth.com/



























Michael R. Parent makes interesting art pieces involving steel, fiber optics and encaustic paint.
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5683524 Night Sky Fiber optics

Sunday Inspirations- Knit, Crochet, Tat

You can buy a crochet pattern for this fun bento box set from www.amigurumisweet.etsy.com




This skirt is one of my favorite pieces by Juliet Hone of Smith & Hone. I love the color combination and the stripe pattern.











Knitwear as performance art! This piece is by Krelwear.

























Cotton tatting art by Icelandic artist Hildur Bjarnadóttir.

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! : )

Sunday Inspirations- Biking!

ID magazine reviewed this new helmet in their annual design review recently. I love it! I want one! : ) They have two layers: the EPS core and a fabric cover for comfort and washability. yes, washability. I don't know if that word exists but it sounds good right?



They're designed by Yves Behar for the NYC Dept of Health. He has also recently designed the NYC Condoms for them as well.




And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a clip of Judge Judy layin the smack down and defending the rights of a biker.