recycling
Make Your Own Free Swiffer WetJet Refills in Less Time Than It Takes to Find Them at the Grocery Store
The first time I saw a Swiffer, I fell over laughing. Certainly this strange marriage of a broom and a mop wouldn’t catch on, right? Brooms and mops are inexpensive and reusable; for a Swiffer, you’re stuck having to buy refills for the rest of the tool’s life. Clearly, I’m not a natural-born product developer. I’ve since come to accept that Swiffers have … Read more
Figuring out how to mend a tank top
You may remember this awesomely damaged camisole from my post about Lilo, the Amazing Wool-Eating Cat. Draped over the shoulder is a folded sleeve I cut off from another shirt during this project. I bleached the fabric by setting it in a solution of 1 cup hydrogen peroxide, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon washing soda, and a dash of detergent overnight until … Read more
Homemade cat tree from recycled parts
When I first got cats, I swore that I was not going to get any hideous, carpet-covered cat trees for my abode. Then I realized that my cats had no way to see out the upstairs windows. What kind of cruel owner was I? I might as well put them in jail. So I looked for cat tree plans online (warning: … Read more
Mending an old shirt to make it even cuter
Seven years ago, I found this adorable Smartwool shirt on Sierra Trading Post. I immediately fell in love with it and wore it all the time. This shirt has held up to a lot of use and even the occasional accidental wash in hot water. (Wool should always be washed in cold water to prevent shrinkage.) But even the most … Read more
What to do with old dish gloves
My dish gloves sprang a leak this morning, ending their usefulness in this particular incarnation. So I turned them into rubber bands. Since the latex in dish gloves is pretty thin, these aren’t the world’s strongest rubber bands. But they’re pretty handy when I want to bundle something up without leaving marks on it – for example, a poster or … Read more
Crazy quilt back
I finally found the photo of the back of the Seasons quilt I made for my niece’s adoption. It’s composed of whites, near-whites, and light browns from my scrap bins. I think I may like the back more than the front. The scraps with printing on them are leftovers from a cut-and-sew Humpty Dumpty doll fabric panel. My niece has been through … Read more
Brighton Rock quilt
I was going through my downloads today and found these photos of a quilt I made for my youngest niece this summer. The side with the 9 hexagons is the “front” and is based on the Brighton Rock pattern by Australian quilters Sarah Fielke and Kathy Doughty. The back was going to be a series of nestled hexagons (like I … Read more
My first hexagon quilt
I was cleaning up my photos folder today and found these pics of a quilt I made last year for my friends’ baby. I think it’s pretty awesome, myself. The front (top, with the nine small hexagons) was based on the Brighton Rock design by Australian quilters Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke. I loved it so much that I thought, “I … Read more