T-shirt shopping bag for Zero Waste Week

The King of the reusable item is surely has the cloth bag. Here in Scotland we have been charged 5p for plastic bags since 20^th October 2014, and that has dramatically reduced our consumption, as this article via the BBC explains.   Wales has been on board since 1^st October 2011 (go Wales!), and Ireland since 8^th April 2013. England is to follow suit on 5^th October of this year.

I have a lot of cloth bags, which I discuss in this post. I thought I was prepared for the bag charge and, for a while, my supply of bags was more enough. However, what I failed to account for is the plastic bags I used that had nothing to do with shopping. For example, when I passed on clothes, books etc. to family members or friends, I would usually have put these in a bag (guilt free of course as I was reusing the bag). I also used them as bin liners, for separating items in my case when I went on holiday, and for kneeling on when I worked in the garden. The list purposes for these bags went on and on. The other thing I failed to account for was that, although I already refused most of the plastic bags I was offered in shops, I acquired them (whether I liked it or not) – usually from people giving me useful items they were passing on.

My plastic bag collection saw me through a few months but slowly I stopped finding myself in possession of them, meaning that my stash of cloth bags had to be put to good use, as I started using them instead of plastic bags for things other than shopping.

I now have numerous bags around the house which hold knitting and sewing projects. I always use one for the kids’ water bottles when we are out to stop them leaking into my own tote. I now lend them out when I pass things on to the family and, although I get them back eventually, it can take time.

My very favourite cloth bags are the Onya bags which are fantastic for the following reasons:

• They are super strong (some of mine are made out of parachute material)
• They fold up into a tiny pouch so are very easily transportable
• They come in a variety of shapes and sizes so you can pick whichever size best meets your needs
• They are machine washable

I was going to invest in some more (I have about 10 already), when I started thinking about projects that I could blog about during Zero Waste Week. Perhaps I could make some cloth bags! I remembered that Jen from MakedoandMend-able site had made a shopper out of an old t-shirt, so I searched her fantastic blog and found an easy-peasy tutorial.

My other half had a clear out earlier in the week and gave me a whole bunch of weird and wonderful items that had been languishing in his wardrobe. I think that after he saw my shirt to skirt project, he perhaps overestimated my sewing skills and thought I could turn them into a whole wardrobe of loveliness for me 🙂

There was a t-shirt in there that I thought would make a great shopper. (I am still taken aback that this t-shirt exists – we have been together for years and years and I don’t think I’ve ever clapped eyes on it before! Apparently it’s too small so he’s never worn it.)

I pretty much followed Jen’s tutorial to the letter.

Here’s the t-shirt

I chopped the arms off

I took the liberty of also chopping off the bottom seam as thought that would make it easier for me to sew.

I then simply turned it inside out, pinned and sewed along the bottom seam (zig zaging the edge to prevent fraying), turned it back the right way and I had myself a new – if not especially photogenic- shopper.

Here it is in my car boot full of shopping!

I may cut the neck to make it a bit bigger as I found myself stuffing items in the arm hole, but that was okay!

If you like this idea but don’t sew, then I found this tutorial from mommypotamous who offers the same bag, but uses a clever method to join the two sides of the bag at the bottom. She also uses a much prettier t-shirt than mine, which makes the bag look very cute. I reckon making her version would be a good craft project for kids who are able to use scissors.

Happy Zero Waste Week everyone!

Draft excluder for Zero Waste Week

My other half gave me a pair of his old trousers a few months ago that were fraying at the ankle, and were generally looking past their best. In short, they were no longer suitable to wear. In the past I’d have put them into the Rag Bag collection, but now that I’ve got a sewing machine, I’m keen to upcycle anything that I can into something that would be useful.

It struck me that a leg of the trousers could be converted into an effective draft excluder. Our home is very drafty in places, due to poorly fitting doors and original floorboards. I’ve been meaning to attempt this project since I acquired the trousers but, even here in Scotland, the summer weather has meant it wasn’t a priority.

With the theme of Zero Waste Week this year being ‘reuse’ however (and my theme being specifically to reuse fabric), I felt that the time had come to turn those tatty old trousers into something that could help me keep our home warm, as the temperature drops like a stone. This actually turned out to be super simple, and only took me an evening.

Here are the trousers

After ironing them, I decided that the trousers alone were a bit boring, so I found myself some leftover felt from the kids’ craft box and cut some hearts out (as you know from this post, I have a lot of options for heart templates!)

note the zero waste cutting!

Using a craft & fabric glue I have, I glued a heart on to the trousers to check that it would stay in place. Satisfied, I cut the leg off the trousers and chopped down one of the seams to make my trouser leg less leg shaped and more rectangular.

I then pinned and sewed the seam back in, and also closed the fraying ankle hole. All of this was done with right sides facing.

I then glued all of my felt hearts in place. ‘What is it about you and fabric hearts??’ My other half wanted to know. (The answer is that I think they’re sooo pretty!)

I should at this point have let all of the glue on the hearts dry properly, which would have saved me reapplying more later when the hears started slipping about.

I then went to my bag of old clothes, towels and fabric scraps and put as much as I could inside for stuffing *

All that was really left to do now was close the top of the leg. I used the sewing machine which wasn’t the neatest finish (or the easiest, as I had to hold back the bulge of stuffing) but it did the job.

I was pretty delighted at how my draft excluder turned out. I fully expected it to look like the stuffed pair of trousers that it is, but I actually think this little addition to my home is quite delightful. I won’t be hiding it when guests come round.

*It may be wise at this point to check that your stuffing is safe (ie avoid flammable items)

Zero Waste Week 2015

It’s been a while, but I’m bursting back into the Blogosphere – the new school term has started so I now have a little time to call my own (phew!), plus I have my duties to fulfil as a Zero Waste Week Ambassador!

It’s a grand title for a grand task.

Zero Waste Week runs this year from 7 -13 September aka next week! It is oh so aptly named, simply because it is there to help all us ordinary folk reduce the trash we send to landfill. This year’s theme is Reuse which is pretty clever as you can join in simply by pledging something as ridiculously simple as swapping your disposable tissues for reusable ones (thus reducing your waste), or as head-scratchingy challenging as reusing anything that would’ve otherwise been chucked in your bin.

Do check out the website www.zerowaste.co.uk and browse through the ambassador list to find inspiring blogs to read next week (and forever more).

My personal Zero Waste Pledge for the week is to reuse fabric. One of my New Year Resolutions was to learn to sew (you can read more about that here and here) and although I have been pretty poor to date at recording my progress on the blog, I am happy to report that I have been sewing my little heart out during the first 8 months of 2015. I will therefore be sharing some of my ideas and projects for reusing fabric and upcycling clothes in a number of blog posts next week.

Here is a sneak peek at one of the projects I will be posting about:

Spoiler: this skirt used to be a different item of clothing

I would absolutely love it if you could share any posts with me that you’ve written on this subject as I just can’t read enough about upcycling fabric 🙂

This will be the third year that I’ve documented my Zero Waste Week experience, so if you’d like to browse my previous posts on the topics of ‘Reducing Food Waste’ and ‘One More Thing’ please take a look here.

See you back on the blog next week!