But before I show off the photos I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Today I am 39 weeks on in my pregnancy and waiting and waiting for the baby to want to come out. In all likelihood it will happen in January as December is all but over now. I can’t wait to show off all the clothes and other goodies I have been knitting and sewing for the little one. If you are interested in some of the tutorials I have been using have a look at my Pinterest board ” Creating for baby“.

A bag I made for my husband with embroidered (not by me) birds (he is a big bird fan)

A tray my husband and I decoupaged with maps for my little brother who is studying geography.

I made a couple of these porcupine pin cushions for my mother and sister using this wonderful tutorial from Prudent Baby

I made these Christmas stockings for my husband and myself using this free tutorial.

My sister made this vinyl record bowl for my husband. There is a free tutorial for this here.

She also made him this fab pencil case for his art pencils.

For me she made this pretty shawl which I can’t wait to use.

Yesterday I opened the postbox to find a parcel from my friend Elseline. In it I found this wonderful baby blanket that she has woven. If you are on Ravelry you can see the project there. It has been woven with Baby Superwash from Bouton d’Or and Hand-dye Effect by Regia and can be washed in the machine, yeah! Thank you so much Elseline!

I have previously been showing off my sisters baby clothes sewing. Here is a bit more of it because she has recently sent her entire stash of baby clothes with us home. Its kind of a gift and kind of not! We have the agreement that we will use it for now and then she gets it back together with out baby clothes stash when she has a baby. But there is so much wonderful clothes amongst it. Thanks sis!

For the brunkager you need to slice a frozen tubular piece of dough and its normally quite difficult to do by hand so I was so happy when I found a lovely old Eva bread cutting machine at a recycling centre. I have been wanting one for ages and here it was just when I needed it. We used it for the brunkager and it worked wonderfully.

Finally, we had decided to have duck that evening and inspired by the brothers Price I was making duck dough-balls (andeskiver) as a starter. Because who hasn’t got a tin of confit de canard in their fridge (thanks to Cecile). I made a portion of the whole tin so I have enough to make some more andeskiver for Christmas.

And yes it is Christmas soon! We have already bought Lego for our usual Lego advent calender. I have also joined the Crafty Christmas Club again and begun making presents. So if you are from my close family – don’t go looking over there because you might see you present early – and where’s the fun in that.

These two are a stripy variation of Sam Lamb’s Baby Professor Vest. Its such a cool and simple knit and lends itself very nicely to stripes. The bigger one is after the original pattern and the smaller one is one I adapted to what I think is a size newborn. However, I am still scared that it might be too small.

I used the Pebble pattern from The Thrifty Knitter for this one. The pattern suggested homespun so I used some homespun I had made out of pure Jacob’s fleece and some fun yellow buttons from the lovely Cathy’s shop in Kolding.

Finally, an updated picture of the bump, courtesy of my sister-in-law!

I have now had another go at the same trousers, adding a sewn on belly-band and some elastic. They are a lot better and I have been using them the last couple of days. It was also about time as I am beginning to feel much more uncomfortable in the pregnancy.

Maybe this is  a good time to mention the guest-post I did recently on Whip up  about maternity refashioning. if you have been doing any maternity refashioning or want to do it then good places to visit for inspiration is the diy maternity blog or the maternity category on the Refashion Co-op where we are having a Maternity Refashioning Challenge at the moment. I have also added the list of tutorials from the previous post at the end again.

Let me also quickly mention the new Facebook page I added for this blog: Eddie’s room Facebook page. I have been pretty good so far at adding links to tutorials and other fun stuff that I want to share or just want to do for myself so go ahead and follow over there too if you are interested in great craft tips too!

Cutting off the bottom of a t-shirt for the belly band.

The finished trousers – I have been wearing these the last couple of days and they are surprisingly comfortable.

While I was at it I also made another pair of maternity trousers out of a pair of dress trousers. They were pretty bit to begin with but it became too uncomfortable to close them.

Before

I cut off the front part

Added a ribbed piece from the bottom of a sweater

Added extra elastic here too

Finished result with added elastic

Links to tutorials:

• DIY maternity pants by Meg from diy maternity
• Maternity pants tutorial from Grosgrain Fabulous
• Maternity dress pants  conversion tutorial by Ann from Sew Paradise
• Converted Maternity Pants Tutorial by Jodell from Modest Maven
• Easy maternity jeans tutorial by Sarah from Create Studio
• Maternity pants tutorial by Jess from If only they would nap
• How to convert jeans into maternity by Jessica from SewChic
• Maternity Jeans by Mauri from Staker Family Circus

So that you don’t get the idea that I only have babies on my mind at the moment I am just going to show you one of the projects I have been working on recently. I have been making laundry bags for the new flat and you can see them over on Grey Duckling. I am very pleased with them and thinking of putting them on my to-make for Christmas presents list. They are very handy for people who travel a lot.

This is how they turned out:

Danish Wool top

Orange and red striped onesie of the Danish brand Katvig. I didn’t notice the brand when I bought it but according to my sister its quite a popular brand in Denmark.

Red/white striped body from Gap.

A bunch of white onesies bought for £3 altogether, which I want to decorate with stamps and other fun stuff.

Knitted Socks

Blue cord body with an elephant on.

Striped onesie.

Finally a little picture of the bump I took at the sea so I can remember what my feet look like when I get a bit further along.

My first attempt was at making a night suit. I need to finish it off with some push buttons.

My sister made this cute suit first out of some stretchy fabric she had just bought at Cathy’s in Kolding. I think we spent an hour and a half in the shop looking around, deciding on what to get and chatting to Cathy who is a lovely American with a beautiful danish.

These cute overalls were also made by my sis – wanting to try out the overlocker with some less stretchy fabric. The fabric is some stuff I received from different lovely and generous people.

Finally is the thing I’m most proud off. It’s a refashion of some old cushion covers I sewed years ago but didn’t want anymore. I still have enough for another pair. To me they just scream spring!

The old cushion covers

Cutting out the pattern

Detail from the pocket

I also wanted to share this picture of how masses of young birds are having fun in my mothers bird bath. I can’t remember what kind of bird John said it was. Do you know?

Living room - before and after

The rocking chair is an Ercol I thrifted. The picture on the wall of the cat and birds is my morning present from John. To the left you can see the suitcase I refurbished and in the window the globe I refurbished too.

Dining room - before and after

The table was my grandmothers and the chairs were a lucky thrift find. The method of hanging the pictures is one I stumbled across on Pinterest. The photos are some that I have taken mainly in Italy with my Brownie box camera combined with some small prints of London and Southampton (more thrift finds). The copper look lamp was another thrift find and the tea light holder is from Kvindesmedien.

First a little announcement. I’m pregnant – 5 months indeed. Its been good so far. I have been lucky in terms of morning sickness and the likes. Even though I still just look like I have a bit of a muffin top I am starting to have issues with getting trousers on. Even the most generous trousers in my wardrobe won’t fasten anymore. So I had a trawl of the internet to find tutorials and ideas for making/refashioning your own maternity trousers.

Here are some pictures of my first attempt. It was not a success. They fall down all the time. So I have to add some fabric and maybe elastic band to the top of them. But I will let you see them for now.

I have added a list of tutorials at the bottom if you want to try and make your own. Another great site to visit is diy maternity by Megan Nielsen where there is loads of lovely inspiration to have on different diy clothing items. Do go check it out!

Trousers before

Cut the front away

Sew a piece of knit or jersey fabric on

The finished result – so far!

Links to tutorials:

• DIY maternity pants by Meg from diy maternity
• Maternity pants tutorial from Grosgrain Fabulous
• Maternity dress pants  conversion tutorial by Ann from Sew Paradise
• Converted Maternity Pants Tutorial by Jodell from Modest Maven
• Easy maternity jeans tutorial by Sarah from Create Studio
• Maternity pants tutorial by Jess from If only they would nap
• How to convert jeans into maternity by Jessica from SewChic\
• Maternity Jeans by Mauri from Staker Family Circus

Over the next couple of weeks I am hoping to show you some pictures of the new flat and the old furniture that we are refurbishing. There is an extra living room which we are going to use as a studio for the both of us. This will be somewhere John can do all his illustration stuff and I can do all my sewing, knitting, weaving and blogging. Can’t wait to share it!

I could also do with a bit of inspiration for the studio / craft room so if you have any pictures or ideas for how you have / would like to create your own space I would love to see them.

Eddie

I am a being a bit lazy about posting at the moment so here is a couple of pictures of the Attic 24 Hexagonal blanket I am working on – it’s still WIP. The squares are crochet with the sample yarn I dyed together with Cecile in April. The pattern is free on Attic 24′s blog and is super easy – the result speaks for itself! Note the vintage bone crochet hook – it’s lovely to work with.

I also just wanted to mention that while I have been quite lazy here on my blog I have been more active with the family history lately – have a look on my family history blog – now with pretty photos!

Today I want to show you something else that I dyed quite a bit of while we were there. I had some baby-yellow cotton that I wasn’t too pleased with. You could ask why on earth I spend all that time unraveling it from a sweater if I didn’t really like it? But I can’t really answer that one.
We had also collected a lot of yellow onion skins and they turned out such a nice orange that I decided to throw the yellow cotton into it. I read before hand that there was no need to mordant the cotton with onion skin so I didn’t bother and I quite like the result. It is a lot warmer and nicer (to me at least) than the baby-yellow I had before.

This is the yellow cotton before.

The cotton after dyeing with yellow onion skins

The cotton after it is dyed with a sample of undyed to show the contrast

If you are interested in seeing more photos of the yellow onion skin dyeing I have added them to a Flickr set: ‘yellow onion skin‘.
If you are interested you can also have a look at the entire ‘dyeing collection‘ on Flickr.

I stumbled upon this dress a couple of years ago at Hepwrights Vintage shop. They had a bin with £1 clothes that needed refashioning and I fell in love with the colour and the quality of the silk in this dress. OK so there was a serious sweat patch issue that needed to be dealt with. But I got stuck in with my seam ripper and came up with the dress bellow.
Apart from the original dress I have added a few meters of lining from a friends wedding dress to make the bubble effect in the skirt. I also added some new buttons, courtesy of another friends Grandmother. The pearly beads on the skirt are from a necklace I found in a charity shop which I threaded through the finished skirt in a haphazard way. The lace is from my own ever-growing collection.

This dress refashion is a contribution to the ‘Around the World in 80 Dresses‘ Challenge on the Refashion Co-op where I am one of the editors. If you are looking for inspiration for a dress refashion or you just like to look at beautiful clothes why not head over there and have a peak. You are also very welcome to join the challenge.

Take care,
Eddie

For my husbands birthday I decided to knit him his own dog. We are both a fan of English Bulldogs so this became the dog of choice. I had just reviewed the wonderful book ‘Best in Show’ on Historic Crafts and used their pattern for my project. You can read my review from back then below. The other day I got a wonderful email from the publishers telling me that they now have a website for the book: knityourowndog.com and for the launch and coincide with the Royal wedding here in the UK they are giving away a free pattern for you to knit your own Royal Corgi dog. Go on – it’s actually quite a fun challenge.

Take care,
Eddie

Review:

Best in Show: knit your own dog
by Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne, 2010
Collins & Brown

This book is mainly a bit of fun. All knitting doesn’t have to be sweaters and socks as we see here. Why not knit your own dog instead! Sally and Joanna will show you how you do it.
Divided into the breeds of dog there is a pattern for every dog lover. Whether your thing is a utility dog like the Dalmatians or a gun dog like the Labrador, there is something for everyone. Or as the authors suggest, you can also create your own mongrel. Mix the body parts of a Labrador with those of a poodle and get a Labradoodle.
I have always had a thing for English Bulldogs I made this my next project. The thing is, I have been making handmade presents for my husband’s birthday this year. But alas, I already told him about most of them. So this bulldog will be the only surprise.
You can see the finished project on Ravelry (you will need to login to Ravelry). I found it very fun to knit in my own plied, recycled sweater yarn. But I must admit that I am not too impressed with the sewing up instructions. They were quite confusing. On the other hand the bulldog does seem like one of the most confusing dogs in terms of sewing because of the nose. So maybe if I had chosen another dog I wouldn’t have had this problem.

At the moment I have a great fondness for colourwheels and all the colours of the rainbow. You can see it on my Pinterest board – so aptly named ‘Rainbow‘. Check it out on Pinterest!
This also became the theme of my recent holiday in France with my friend Cecile. We decided to do some natural dyeing experiments. And the results were (unintentionally) all the colours of the rainbow. So I made a colourwheel out of them (above).

The first thing we tried dyeing with was black beans and my what a result.

From right
1. Black Turtle Beans – 1st bath, Alum mordant
2. Black Turtle Beans – 1st bath, Alum mordant + vinegar after dip
3. Black Beans – 1st bath, Alum mordant
4. Black Beans – later 1st bath, Alum mordant
5. Black Beans – later 1st bath, Alum mordant + vinegar after dip

Cecile (Ways of the Whorl) has written a great post about how we did this so I am just going to send you on to her if you are interested.

The colour I like the best is the middle one (pure black beans) – it’s kinda teal and I do love teal! In fact we both do, Cecile and I.

Take care,

Eddie

Things to check out:

• ‘Natural Dyeing Take 3: Black Beans‘ Post by Cecile.
• My flickr set of photos of black bean dyeing.

Mannequin

As I now own 4 different sewing machines, all about 100 years old, I decided last autumn that I wanted to do some more sewing with them. A friend came up with the idea of making mannequins, which would be a perfect match of ourselves.
We decided to go with the Gum Tape method. Basically you put on an old t-shirt. Then the other person puts gum tape all over you. You cut it up the back and gum tape it back together again. There are loads of tutorials out there which will give you more detailed instructions (Google: gum tape mannequin). It is also perfectly possible to make it out of Duct Tape.
I decided to stick a hanger up my mannequin so that it would be easier to varnish it (basic furniture varnish). I then decided to close the bottom of the mannequin. I then realised after having done this that I could not get the hanger out. So now my mannequin comes with inbuilt hanger, which is actually quite a nice feature.
I wanted to make my mannequin look pleasing as well as being practical. I used the pages from an old Heidi book to decoupage with. I then added the illustrations on top of the writing. I think it looks quite neat!

Mannequin closeup

Buy it at Amazon:
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Below is a skirt with a funny story. It was bought in a charity store last Halloween by my brother in law. Him and my sister were visiting and we decided to go to a party dressed up as the opposite gender. My sister and I dressed as men and him and John dressed as ladies. It was hilarious, but I don’t dare show pictures so you will just have to imagine it. Sorry! But the point of the story is that this is the skirt my brother-in-law wore. It is a bit too big for me but I like the fabric and the flowy cut of it.

So let me hear what you think. What should I do with it? Have you refashioned a skirt or do you know anyone who has? Why not share the link with me in the comments on Grey Duckling or Wardrobe Refashion or twitter (@EddieDuckling). I promise to consider any ideas and in a weeks time I will give the refashion a go and post the result here.

Please help me out!

Ideas
I am not done collecting ideas, so if you have anymore feel free to write a comment or tweet (@EddieDuckling) me about it. But here is the list of ideas so far:

• ‘Bring the skirt under the bust and put a black top on it.’ From Nat on the Grey Duckling Post
• ‘Maybe you could turn it into a a short little number which you can wear over your swimmers?‘ From Stephanie (MooBear Designs) on the Grey Duckling Post
• ‘I like the pulling this up to bodice height idea. I might add a zipper to the side and make it fitted to waist. The flounces would look really cute at knee!’ From Jenni (Pagoda DesignWorks) on the Grey Duckling Post
• ‘If it has an elastic waist you might either like to unpick it further than you need by a bit or just cut it all off and sew on a new one.’ From Cherrie (Willy Wagtail) on the Wardrobe Refashion post
• Jennifer mentioned that she had a refashion ready to go that was very similar - go and have a look – the result is great! From Jennifer (twobutterflies) on the Wardrobe Refashion post
• ‘Either a dress, or you could make it into a wrap skirt?‘ From Christiane (aka @xiane_3ravens) on twitter
• ‘Those flounces made me wonder if you could somehow turn it into a ruffly, flouncy dress – maybe a tiny top out of a compatible solid or some straps‘ From Linda Wardrobe Refashion post
• ‘…bringing the skirt up to under my arms, add wide elastic on the inside to what was originally the waist line.’ From Betty on the Grey Duckling Post

I did a little research into refashions that turn a skirt into something new and cool and here are some of my favorites:

• Jennifer from twobutterflies‘ Skirt to Dress Refashion
• Michelle from Someday Crafts’ Tiered Skirt Refashion
• Jill W’s Frankenskirt
• The Sewing Dork’s 45 minute wool skirt refashion
• km-17′s Skirt to summerdress epilogue
• Bytes & Bobbins’ Skirt to dress refashion
• Tilly from Tilly and the Button’s Granny chic skirt : ‘”You never can tell what someone is going to choose…”, muttered the young and trendy lady at the till in Oxfam, as I presented my haul of grandma skirts and handed over my £3.’

Have you refashioned a skirt in a fun and interesting way – leave a link in the comments section or tell me about it on twitter (@EddieDuckling) and I will add you to the list.

Share your links and ideas with me in the comments on Grey Duckling or Wardrobe Refashion or twitter (@EddieDuckling) and I will include them into the post together with some of my favourite jeans refashions.

This was also posted on Wardrobe Refashion where you can check out other refashionista’s lovely refashions too.

Ideas
Let’s have a look at all the ideas for jeans refashioning that were contributed from Wardrobe Refashion and Grey Duckling:

• “As you’ve got a lot of pairs, have you thought about a chair cover?” says Fiona from The Eco Stitcher
• “My first-ever refashion was a throw blanket made from all of my old pairs of jeans. I used the different washes to make a “round the world” pattern, then used other bits of leftover fabric around the edges. On top of those non-denim sections, I sewed on the back pockets from the jeans I had cut up. The pockets hung over the edge of the bed and were great for storing things like a tv remote, a small paperback, or my glasses.” says Jilly Bean from Knit Like a Rock Star
• “I cut up a stack of old jeans and made a quilt“ says Maggie from Pearl Schell
• “I once used a pair of jeans to make a onesy for myself” says Victoria Clark
• “You should call past the Ecouterre recycled denim challenge Hun. There is so much inspiration there” says Stephanie from moobeardesigns
• “Maybe use a yoke (like what you did for the black linen pants convert) and make gores from the other jeans, providing they aren’t too heavy weight. I’ve made jeans quilts and placemats, totes, music stand carriers from jeans, too” says Wendy
• “I like the idea of turning the top part into a short skirt and adding layered frills to the bottom. The overall skirt should be above the knee.” says Cherrie from willywagtail
• “The last issue of Marie-Claire Idees (a French magazine) had an example of strips of cut off jeans and woven onto a peg loom to create a rug.
  A previous issue was focusing on denim, and there was a few nice ideas. For instance a denim covered board on which back pockets, lighter pockets and belt loops from different jeans had been sewn to create a kind of desk organiser board.” says Cecile
• “I made my dog a pillowcase and I want to make a blanket next” says Bethany from MrsMulticraft

That’s all the ideas you sent me for now. But if you have anymore keep them coming in the comments and I will add them to the post.I am loving all the ideas and I will make something from my pile of jeans asap.

Now for the ideas I found:

• Matching Pairs Game for kids – as seen on Recycled Sewing
• Jeans craft bucket or basket – as seen on Whip-up
• Jeans Tote Bag – as seen on // Between the Lines //
• Recycled jeans corset or dress – as seen on ecouterre
• Jeans Seat Cushions – as seen on ecouterre
• Woven Demin for a bag or basket – as seen on ecouterre
• Baby bibs and shoes – as seen on ecouterre recycled demin challenge
• Work belt for all your bits and bobs – as seen on ecouterre

This is a follow on from the ‘How would you refashion it? (purple skirt)‘ post from last week which has been updated to include a list of comments and ideas for refashioning skirts into new and exciting clothes items. I made my own refashion this weekend which I will reveal at the end of the week. So keep tuned for that!

A couple of weeks ago I asked you how you would refashion jeans. I got quite a few comments with your ideas and I have added them to the post. This post is what I have made from my stack of jeans. Project bags! I made 10 in total and I am using them for all the different projects I am working on at the moment. Have a look at the tutorial and the finished bags and why not try and make your own. If you have – I would love to hear about it!

Eddie

Materials before

Reversable jeans/sweater project bag

Reversable jeans/sweater project bag

Drawing of trouser/skirt fusion - by Eddie

What is all this about you might wonder. Well inspired by Oxfam’s new DIY fashion shop I decided to have a go myself.
My first project is the “polka dot skirt and linen trouser fusion”. I don’t know about you but linen trousers seem to me always to have this wonderful ability to completely disintegrate certain places. I had this wonderful brown pair that I had bought at Monsoon that were amazingly comfortable and there was nothing wrong with the top of the trousers.
I also happened to have this very nice skirt, red with white polka dots, which I was also very fond of. Unfortunately, I have not really been able to fit it the last 4 years and the zipper never did work. So I decided to fuse the two together and I am rather chuffed with the result.
Another added benefit of DIY fashion I found is that people tend to notice what you are wearing more. They ask questions because they are intrigued. Of course they could also be horrified, but if so they keep quiet about it because I have only ever had very positive remarks when wearing this skirt.

Polka-dot skirt/linen trouser fusion

Instructions

1. As this is assembled in triangular shapes you need to first cat the skirt into 4 trapezoid / triangular shapes. If you want to reuse the bottom of the original skirt as a hem then cut this of first in one piece.
2. With the trousers you basically cut the sewed bits away on either side of the leg as far up as you want to add the skirt pieces depending on the original length of the skirt and the intended length of the new skirt you are making.
3. Decide where you want the triangular skirt material to sit with pins.
4. Pin the hem / bottom skirt piece and decide if you want want to adjust this. I originally wanted to make the skirt less flowy to accommodate for the rather narrowing hem piece. But when I pinned it on I liked the way it gathered the otherwise loose new skirt in – which gave it a whole new look!
5. Sew pieces together. You can easily do this on a sewing machine but if you don’t have one or are fast with your hand-sewing, you can like me use a coloured thread to add a hand sewn detail.

Polka-dot skirt/linen trouser fusion

A Wardrobe Refashion item!

I was going to do a bit of dyeing with elderberries for Historic Crafts and decided to try it out on this piece of raw silk I had lying around. It was a pink shade that I don’t personally fancy too much so I decided that any shade of purple would be an improvement. Dyeing successfully over with I cut the skirt into trapezoid pieces and sewed them together. I then did the same to some white cotton fabric. I wanted to make a bubble effect so I sewed the liner in a couple of inches further up the skirt and at an angle. I am planning to make a more detailed tutorial on this later so let me know if you are interested? I would also love to hear from others who have tried dyeing with natural dyes – especially berries.

Before and after dyeing raw silk fabric with Elderberry

Front of Elderberry dyed bubble skirt

Back of Elderberry dyed bubble skirt

Detail of Elderberry dyed skirt refashion

Black linen trousers turned into a skirt

This was one of my first refashions – I just never got around to sharing it. I am forever trying to find clever ways of refashioning those linen trousers that I love to buy but which inevitably end up with holes everywhere. If you like the idea – which is quite simple – let me know and I might make it into a tutorial.

Also if you have some ideas for refashions of old linen/cotton trousers feel free to post them in the comments and I will add them to a future post about this sort of thing.

I would love to hear what you think about this refashion. If you have a skirt you want to refashion you are welcome to use these instructions or you can visit the ‘How would you refashion it (purple skirt)?‘ post where I have added all the ideas I received and some extra ones I found myself.

Jane Austen dress made with purple skirt

Close-up of Jane Austen Dress

Do you want to help me out with ideas to my next refashion conundrum: ‘How would you refashion jeans?“. Next week I will update the post with all the wonderful suggestions and some ideas of my own.

E: So Zoe, when and how did you get into refashioning clothes?

Z: My mum used to be a dressmaker and has always done lots of alterations to clothing (plus my mum is only 5 ft so needed to do lots of alterations for herself!) so altering and changing clothing was something I guess I always knew was possible. She taught me some sewing skills when I was little, and I started making myself clothes whilst at University where I was studying Fashion Design. Altering and refashioning clothing kind of came from that.

Dress with mustard yellow detailing from the Self-Stitch-September challenge

E: If you were already making clothes from scratch what then motivated you to begin refashioning?

Z: Refashioning is a way to get a finished creation quicker and often cheaper than starting from scratch, but I think refashioning actually needs a slightly different mindset and skills set than sewing garments from scratch. You have to learn to look at things differently and this is something I am still learning, especially in this job.

E: Yes, do tell me a bit more about your new job?

Z: I work for the charity Traid which runs charity shops around London. Specifically, I work on Traidremade, a range of clothing which is created from some of the donated clothing and fabric. The Traidremade garments and accessories are sold in the Camden branch of Traid and online. The Traid shops get their stock from peoples’ donations collected in clothing banks around England. Some of the clothing they receive cannot be sold as they are for various reasons, so much of that plus donated lengths of fabric and sometimes seconds from some retail stores get sent to our workshop to be refashioned and created into new, hopefully desirable pieces.

I find it so shocking how much perfectly good, often unworn, clothing gets discarded in the West, and making something special from mounds of it all is a real challenge. I think what we do at Traidremade is really important and could also be inspirational for those at home. If people interested in refashioning see that there is a business producing 40+ refashioned pieces a week for charity, those people might be motivated into doing it at home for themselves and their friends and family.

E: Where do you get your inspiration for refashions?

Z: Well personally, I get lots of ideas from blogs and sites like Modcloth, Anthropologie, and Built By Wendy as well as my hoard of vintage dress patterns. They all give me ideas for silhouettes, details or fabrication. I’m obsessed with the Make Do and Mend era, and the post-hippie ecological movement. Their ideas of sustainability inspire me conceptually. I love to see the various ways individuals today are responding to the same issues.

For Traidremade, my boss recently decided to adopt a slightly new spirit for the collection now. I guess it is in part inspired by my joining the team (there are only two of us!), but we are going for a more vintage theme now, which is obviously where I am at personally. Most of the silhouettes or detailing we are aiming for are inspired by 1930′s to 1980′s. A lot of my vintage patterns that I get sent to the workshop inspire shapes and silhouettes. The garments and fabric we receive from the warehouse obviously suggest what our refashioning options are. We think about colors that work together, and how fabric textures and prints can be combined in new and fun ways, like using plain sweatshirts with striped mens’ shirting or using argyle knitwear with solids.

E: What’s your favourite refashions at the moment?

Z: Cardi refashioning is massively on my mind right now, as it’s so cold and I can’t knit! Just the other week I made a big horrible jumper into a 50′s style cardi. I’m really into reshaping cardi’s and changing the buttons. It’s amazing how simply adding different buttons to a garment changes it’s ‘personality’. I’ve also commissioned my mum to crochet some collars for more refashioned knitwear.

Beautiful grey dress with lovely sleaves from the Me-Made-May challenge

E: I love the idea of getting your mom involved, but where do you source all these clothes to refashion? Do you use charity shops?

Z: At the moment I get a lot of stuff from work, but before I would definitely go to charity shops, flea markets and boot sales. However, I’m finding recently charity shops are changing, becoming more sanitised and generic, probably to compete with other high street shops. I think they are getting prohibitively expensive for many refashioners. Gone are the smelly cheap ones where lots of bargains could be discovered. It worries me because people might be less likely to take refashioning chances if second-hand garments cost as much as some new high street garments.

When I lived in Barcelona I got stuff from a flea market called Encants, or stuff that was left on the street. That’s generally how people get rid of their unwanted things there; just leave them on the street.

E: Really, in bags or just thrown on the street?

Z: Sometimes in bags, usually just in piles. It’s a bit weird at first sifting through crap on the street, but you get used to it!

E: You don’t say! So do you have any great tips for the budding refashioner?

Z: My piece of advice has been learnt the hard way! I guess, I would say, do some research on the Internet or shops or magazines and figure out the kind of looks you are into and think about how you can achieve that. In the past I have definitely been guilty of making stuff for the sake of it, getting carried away with the simple desire actually and not spending enough time planning, resulting in garments that are totally not my style which subsequently never got worn. I don’t think there’s any point of sewing or refashioning just for the sake of it. Refashioning can be such a creative activity, coming away with something you actually enjoy wearing will spur you on to do more, and therefore encourage others to try too. These days, I have a HUGE file on my laptop where I keep inspirational images and I refer back to them a lot when I’m feeling low on creative spark. You can start to see trends in your own style that way.

E: I think we are all victims of just refashioning for the sake of it at some time or another – I know I have been. Let’s round off by talking about some of the initiatives you have come up with this year.

Warm winter coat challenge finished just in time for this cold winter

Z: Back in January, I came up with Stash Bustin’ which is basically an attempt to encourage myself and others to use up the fabric, notions, patterns, wool etc. that crafty people tend to have stashed away. Stash Bustin’ really comes from the same mentality as refashioning. Making the most of what we have rather than being on this never-ending quest for more stuff, you know? Just taking a break, assessing what we have, thinking creatively of how we can make the best from it. I realised that by signing up to the Wardrobe Refashion ‘Life’ pledge and choosing to no longer shop for new clothes, it could be very easy to simply transfer that shopping instinct to fabric and notions instead of new mass-produced clothing. I needed to do something to stop myself. I feel more accountable for my crafty shopping now, and definitely make more considered purchases. Trying to stem my addiction to vintage patterns has been the biggest challenge, one that’s evidently only been a part-success!

2010 also saw the Me-Made-May and Self-Stitch-September challenges. They evolved from my initial personal challenge, Me-Made-March, in which I spent an entire month wearing only clothing I had made myself (excluding bras, socks, tights and shoes). It was a success but felt I wanted to try again with more flare and garment variety, hence coming up with Me-Made-May, which I offered up to the online sewing community to see if anyone wanted to join me. I was expecting maybe a handful of participants, but the interest in the challenge was incredible! We created a flickr group in which to post our daily pictures of our handmade garments and/or outfits. It became a really supportive community. Most of us had such an awesome time in May, that I decided to repeat the challenge again, which became Self-Stitched-September, with another, even more popular flickr group. The aim behind these challenges is to become more forgiving of our self-stitched items, to see that we can rely on them as fully-functioning parts of our wardrobes. To show us that our handmade creations are just as good as, if not better than, mass-produced store bought garments. Keep an eye on my blog in 2011 for news on more challenges along this theme!

E: Well I don’t know about everyone else but I am ready to sign up for stash bustin’ as I already try to keep the buying to a minimum. I have actually just created a new stash of all my own clothes that I have not worn for months. I have had great fun chatting to Zoe and I hope everyone else will enjoy what she had to say.

So I am going to ask you all for your help. Do you have any ideas? Have you given this a try yourself? Please, please comment and let me know and do feel free to include a link to your own or others projects and tutorials. As before I will include them as an inspiration list at the end of the post. I have also make a Pinterest board with some of the ideas. As and when I collect ideas I will post them here on my Refashion ideas board.

Here are some of my ideas so far:

• How to turn a coffee bag into a hanging planter by Olyveoil (Instructables) – have a look at this one pinned by Sara Myers on Pinterest.
• Tutorial on weaving a bag by Når Genbrug Bliver Guld (the site is in Danish but has really good images)
• Tutorial on weaving a basket by Når Genbrug Bliver Guld (the site is in Danish but has really good images)

Like the last couple of times (Jeans, purple skirt, coffee bags) I will summarise your ideas in a couple of weeks and then I will follow it up with a shirt refashion of my own. I can’t wait to hear your ideas.

How would you refashion this men's shirt?

The finished Echo Flower shawl

The shawl was the first I have ever knitted. I joined Historic Crafts Echo Flower Shawl Knit-along where we were all knitting the same Estonian Lace pattern by Jenny Johnson Johnen. This has been my most successful knitting project so far and I love the result. I have already started my next lace shawl project, which if you are on Ravelry you can see here.

I posted about the green merino yarn and my other yarn making project too. If you are interested in making yarn from recycled sweaters I have written an introduction for this here on Grey Duckling.

It all started with a sweater like this one

The sweater is taken apart

Yarn is frogged from the sweater and 3-plied

The shawl was knitted

and blocked/stretched

and finally ready to be worn

Today I am very busy with my first ever shift as editor on the new Refashion Co-op blog so instead of showing you what I did today I will instead show you the Valentines card my dear husband made and gave me the other day.

Are you interested in refashioning clothes? Here is an extract from a post I wrote about the launch of Refashion Co-op this morning:

“This Monday (Valentines day for an easy to remember blog anniversary) I and 6 other wonderful women launched the Refashion Co-op. I want to share with you today a little about each of these women and their blogs but first I want to tell you that: WE NEED YOU! Ok that was more yelling than telling. But it’s true. We started the Refashion Co-op as a network and a place to get inspiration. But without YOU contributing your refashions or commenting and encouraging others in their refashions, well, it’s just not going to work.”

Join me on Twitter (@EddieDuckling) or on the Grey Duckling blog

In the last couple of weeks of the TAD challenge I have been doing quite a bit of sweater recycling. Over the last two days I decided to use some of those bits of sweater that were left over from the yarn making to make some sweater beads. I originally wanted to felt them – which I tried. But sadly some of the wool knit just doesn’t want to felt. But I will continue to try – next stop the tumble dryer!

Today the weather was aweful and this did put a damper on my plan to make a Valentines decoration outside. So I had to run out in the rain to get the budding branches and buying the daphodiles from the farmers market in the rain wasn’t as fun either. But I wanted to do this to have somewhere to hang my hearts.

If you have made hearts for Valentines how about sharing them on ‘A World in Love’ too!

Yesterday I had a go with this pink/green colour mix yarn and I really liked it. Today I decided to try out Judy’s magic cast-on for toe-up socks (from Knitty) on this same yarn.

I have made the toe’s so far and it worked wonderfully. No more short-row toes for me, my friend. I’m hooked. Thanks Judy!

Today I’m just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

If you are interested in details catch me on twitter/facebook or have a peek at my blog.

Eddie

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Twitter: @EddieDuckling

Facebook: Eddie Roued

Blog: Grey Duckling

So what have I been up to today craft wise. Well I tell you – life is catching up on me so I didn’t really have time for much, but I did sit down for 15 min and have a look at a new fun little idea of something to do with all this yarn I have been making. 

As you may have notices of over the last couple of weeks – I do frog a lot of sweaters to get to the yarn so that I can reuse it. But today I finally got to some of the less fun colours. I already have some colours that I plan to dye but some are too dark for this. So I thought how about mixing two colours. 1) I get a thicker yarn and 2) I get more fun yarn. Because let’s face it most sweaters/blouses these days are not exactly made out of fun yarn. Also, since I go through all this trouble of making recycled yarn I might as well add my own little stamp on it. 

So today I mixed two types of red cotton that I had and knit a sample square and I did the same to a light teal cashmere and a light blue Ramie/Silk mix. In a way this mixing of colours and fibres reminds me of some experimental yarns I made last year under the name of Rare Breed yarns on Grey Duckling. I really liked the Green merino / undyed soya mix and the red silk / khaki cashmere mix. 

I really like the result and I may have some more fun with this tomorrow. 

On day 2 I was blocking my Echo Flower lace shawl. 

Today I want to show you some pictures of the finished and stretched shawl. 

I wrote a post on Historic Crafts about Estonian lace shawls that might interest. There is also some help over there if you are up for giving lace knitting a try yourself. 

Today I decided to give this pink lambswool blouse a go to make some yarn out of it. The thing is though that this makes for very thin yarn once it is unravelled – 24 st pr inch. So it will have to be 3-plied using the Navaho technique to make it a sports weight yarn that I can use. But I don’t have a spinning wheel at my disposal at the moment so this final step will have to wait. If you are interested in spinning and plying have a look at Historic Crafts.

I have great plans for this yarn though – I want to make a toy pig! Yes you heard me. A pig! I adore pigs.

See my other yarns on Grey Duckling where I am also writing a post on making yarn from sweaters. This post is still a work in progress and if you have any questions or suggestions – feel free to add them in the comments. 

I also wanted to share with you a picture from my first day in the garden in 2011. I brought down this new knitting project I just began. It is a lace shawl using the AeRang pattern. If you are on Ravelry come on over and have a look at the pattern.

I began my heart garland about a week ago on the first TAD day and today I made a couple more and I now have 5 all together. I only have 7 days left to make some more for the A World in Love project (described below). 

Are you making a heart or two for Valentines too. If so you are so very welcome to share it with us on the flickr group. 

The hearts i am making here are crochet with a magenta wool (see it on Grey Duckling) that I ripped from a sweater and 3-plyed last year. On TAD day four and six I did some more sweater unravelling. 

The pattern for the heart garland can be found free here on Skip to my Lou!

The idea behind A World in Love is really simple:

1. Handcraft a heart (anything goes!)
2. Take a picture of this heart in front of a place that means a lot to you
3. Share the image (flickr group, or post in in the Ravelry or the facebook group and it will be uploaded for you onto flickr) and us know where the place is!
4. Tell us about your handcrafted heart and why you took the photo where you did (optional)

The best bit is that all the hearts will be geo-tagged on flickr so that we can see how the love has spread across the world.

So are you going to join us. We hope you will. As of today you have 7 days to craft a heart in one way or another and share it with us.

Today I have been rather busy tidying my recycled sweater yarn on Ravelry and adding yarn to Grey Duckling. I have also been preparing this yellow yarn today. The yellow yarn is form a cotton sweater and I am planning to dye it with onion peel to get a more powerful yellow.

I also began writing this post on Grey Duckling about how to make yarn from recycled sweaters. The idea with the post is that it should contain a load of good links that you can use if you want to make or use recycled yarn. if you have any other suggestions or links do let me know. The post is still a work in process.

I have also been doing some more on the green sweater from the other day (TAD day 4). The bit’s that can be unraveled into yarn can be cut up and felted.

Today I decided to use some of the jars I have been saving by making some Rosemary Jelly to put in them. I have posted before on Roued is... about making Jelly. For me it is most definitely not a precise science. 

When it was all done and poured into the jars I wanted to make some labelled cloth tops. I had some left over fabric from a pair of trousers that I had used in other refashions last year. The top and zip were used in my berry skirt and parts of the legs were used in this blouse. 

I then used my much beloved alphabet stamp set to type out Rosemary Jelly on the top. I think they will make good gifts in the months to come. 

Today I finally got started on a pair of tester socks I am knitting with the help of Priscilla Gibson-Roberts book ‘Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy‘ (reviewed by Dee on Historic Crafts). 

Then as I was walking home I spotted through the door of a charity shop this green sweater. I fell for the colour at once and went straight in to check whether 1) it had the right stitches for unravelling and 2) it was pure wool. It did have the right stitches but it was only 80% lambs wool and 20% Nylon. Any other day I would have walked right away but today I was thinking in terms of socks and people keep telling me that socks wear better if they have a little Nylon mixed in the wool. So I though, why not?

I brought it home and started to take the sweater apart. While pulling it apart I wind it up into a ball on my ball winder. This makes it much easier to use later. 

If you are interested in more of my recycling sweater to make yarn projects you can have a look here on the Grey Duckling yarn page. I will write a post on how you do this in the next couple of days so stay tuned and let me know if you are interested. 

Also I am very interested in seeing other peoples similar projects so do share. 

Today I have been continuing on a rather long-winded project. In the autumn I decided to recycle all these many pairs of jeans I had lying around that didn’t fit any more. It all started with a post on Grey Duckling asking ‘how would you refashion jeans?‘. This gave some great ideas and I went ahead and made 9 project bags out of the top of the jeans and the bottom of sweaters.

The current project uses the legs of the jeans cut into strips. I am weaving these strips together with a twill weave of 2 over and 1 under. The jeans are all different shades of blue so I am using this to create a rug that will varigate from lighter to darker blues.

Oh and happy spring – the snowdrops our out in my garden.

So I finished the Echo Flower shawl I was knitting for the Historic Crafts knit along (KAL) on Ravelry.

It has really been the most amazing journey. it’s the second time I have knitted lace and the first time I have made a shawl and I loved every minute of it. Obviously I didn’t knit the whole shawl today – I just finished it off and blocked it today. The thing with lace shawls is that (as you can see in the gallery) when you knit it seems kind of small and scrunched up. But then you block it quite heavily and you get to see all the beautiful patterns.

The Echo flower shawl pattern is a free pattern by Jenny Johnson Johnen. It’s on ravelry but you can also download it here.

As my theme for this TAD is recycling I better tell you how this project fits in:

The yarn I used is 100% merino that I salvaged from an old sweater and 3-plied on the spinning wheel (meet the yarn on Grey Duckling)

Now it’s the waiting game. The shawl has to dry out while blocked and it should hopefully stay this way. But will I have the patience to wait for it.

I’m gonna begin this TAD challenge on a hearty note. My theme for TAD this february is going to be recycling. I will be using recycled materials and trying to find new and ingenious ways of making them into fun creative objects.

This heart I just made is crochet with a magenta wool (see it on Grey Duckling) that I ripped from a sweater and 3-plyed last year. Later in february I think I will do some more of this yarn making from old sweaters.

The pattern for the heart garland can be found free here on Skip to my Lou!

But why am I making these hearts you may ask? Well let me tell you.

In january my friend Cecile and I came up with this idea to spread the love a bit for Valentines. Actually we want to spreaad it across the world – hence: A World in Love.

The idea behind A World in Love is really simple:

1. Handcraft a heart (anything goes!)
2. Take a picture of this heart in front of a place that means a lot to you
3. Share the image (flickr group, or post in in the Ravelry or the facebook group and it will be uploaded for you onto flickr) and us know where the place is!
4. Tell us about your handcrafted heart and why you took the photo where you did (optional)

The best bit is that all the hearts will be geo-tagged on flickr so that we can see how the love has spread across the world.

So are you going to join us. We hope you will. As of today you have 14 days to craft a heart in one way or another and share it with us.

Happy crafting,

Eddie

Knitted heart in front of Winchester Cathedral

I am also going to share a little knitting project I did the other week for the ‘A World in Love’ project over on Flickr.

The wool I used is called ‘Pure wool from Hampshire’ and was bought at the Winchester farmers marker (how appropriate). It has been dyed naturally with Brazil wood and has the greatest deep red colour. I must get some more.

The pattern is Heartfelt by Norah Gaughan. If was such an easy little pattern and it took no time at all to make. If you are not on Ravelry you can also find the pattern for free here!

I would also like to encourage YOU to join ‘A World in Love’, craft a heart and share a photo of it in front of a place that is special to you.

Love Eddie

Before test blocking

During test blocking

After test blocking

Join the Historic Crafts Echo Flower Shawl KAL on Ravelry!

I just finished Mr. Owl for John yesterday. The pattern is for ‘The Owl’ by Laura Long from Knitted Toy Tales.

Check out the project on Ravelry!

These Mens Gloves by Jaeger Knits are made with a wonderful 1940s pattern free from the Victoria and Albert Knitting Collection. They are from the collection: Essentials for the Forces. The V&A hold a nice collection of 1940s patterns to knit which can be downloaded and used for free.

See the project on Ravelry!