Crafting can be great. But beware:
crafting can also go spectacularly wrong. Fortunately for the benefit of those of us who might become so proud of having made something, anything,
all by ourselves, that we are oblivious that the result is an aesthetic travesty, there are websites making a valiant attempt to document the legion of ways in which crafting can get totally out of hand. Before you pick up those needles or scissors or fire up the kiln or soldering iron, check out:
Glitter Gone Bad;
Handmade Gone Wrong;
What Not To Craft,
Homemade Hilarity; and
Kraftomatic. The sturdy souls at
CraftFail (previously) deserve special credit for documenting their own crafting mishaps, and
Regretsy (also previously) and
Etsy WTF will help you choose wisely from among Etsy’s hand-crafted wares.
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posted by orange swan
on Nov 22, 2009 -
65 comments
Does your linen closet runneth over? Yes, you say, you have a stack of towels you regularly use in the bathroom and for
swan origami, but you have others that are getting worn. You have tablecloths and aprons you never use, your dish towels seem to breed in their drawer, and you have pillowcases which have outlasted their matching sheets, king-sized bed sheets for the bed your ex took when you split, and your linen closet contains a selection of linens that are faded or torn or leftover from former decorating colour schemes. What are you to do with them?
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posted by orange swan
on Mar 4, 2009 -
23 comments
What can be done with worn, outgrown or single socks? Well, if you want to wear those favourite socks awhile longer, you can
darn them. If your baby’s feet are no longer so tiny, make a
baby sock purse or
sachet,
baby sock reindeer, or
baby sock corsage or
bouquet decorations for a friend’s baby shower. You can
make a hat out of your child’s outgrown socks, or your kids can make
Barbie clothes. You can use single socks to make a
foot massager,
potholders,
slippers, a
dog rug, a
snowman,
sock puppets or
cute critters. Or
sock art installations.
See these articles for more pedestrian ways to use socks.
posted by orange swan
on Jan 15, 2009 -
18 comments
Got some old leather articles lying around that have become dated, worn, or too small? Well,
happy days are here again for your old leather goods, because here are some ideas on how to make old leather items into new items you can use.
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posted by orange swan
on Nov 16, 2008 -
4 comments
Got a stack of bras you don't know what to do with? Charities will accept secondhand bras in good condition, but if you're in the mood to be creative there are bra crafting ideas on the net. You could make a
bra wristlet, and then make a
sleep mask out of the rest of the bra fabric,
earrings out of the hardware, and a
toy out of inserts. You could make a lavender
sachet out of a bra and use it to perfume your lingerie drawer. One seemingly popular idea is to make a
cute and
feminine evening bag or, as one woman who wears a 36F quipped in a comment, luggage. If you're an especially sassy member of the Red Hat Society, you could make a
purse that matches your hat. Some people even make
hats out of the bras, though perhaps not every woman would care to
so obviously wear a
bra on her head. If you're a breast cancer survivor and want to avoid buying expensive and uncomfortably heavy prosthetics, you could
knit yourself a pair of tits and go right on wearing your favourite bras. You could also make an art installation:
a 5' bra ball. Here's
a list of 28 things to do with old bras.
And yes, I realize this post will make many of the men of MeFi want to get a lot of puns/juvenile comments off their chests, but titter away. You're probably just jealous you can't make such cool crafts out of your jock straps.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 28, 2008 -
49 comments
You've been getting your sweaters out for the cold season, and finding that moths have been picknicking on them all summer. Or your significant other did the laundry and threw your favourite handwash-only sweaters into a hot water wash and/or the dryer. Or your children have outgrown the sweaters Grandma made them. However your sweaters became unwearable, it's time to make like a surgeon and do some cosmetic reconstruction. (If the old sweaters are at least 50% wool, you may be able to
felt the material first.) You can make
extra long gloves from sweater sleeves,
mittens, a
scarf, or
slippers,
legwarmers, a
tote bag, a
few handbags, or a
coin purse. If the kids don't want to let go of their favourite sweaters, they can be pacified with
building blocks, a
bunny,
snail, or
seahorse, or
diaper-coverup pants. If the cat feels left out, make it a
pet bed. Or you can make things the whole family can enjoy:
throw pillows, a
quilt, or
felted bowls. Since Christmas is approaching,
Christmas stockings or a
wreath might come in handy. If you want to
get into needle felting and start sculpting with the felted fabric, you could make virtually anything, including, oh, say, a
robin in a nest,
Anne of Green Gables, a
zebra, or
art for the wall. And best of all, by the time you're done you no longer want to throttle your laundry-challenged significant other!
As much.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 19, 2008 -
11 comments
Maybe you've left the corporate world and
its dress code behind, you've decided you're not the
Avril Lavigne type after all, or you're
soon to be unemployed. Whatever the reason, you've got a lot of neckties you no longer wear. What can you do with them? Well, if you still want to wear them in some form, you can make
daisy pins, a
wrist cuff, a
belt or
two, a
shoulder bag, a
wallet or cellphone pouch, a skirt (
long or
short), a
dress, or
thong underwear. If you want to have the best dressed dog in your suburb, you can make a
dog collar or
leash. If you have kids, you can make a
snake or
cravat cats for them, or teach them
how to use old silk ties to dye eggs. If you'd rather decorate the house, you can make
baskets, a
photo frame, a
lampshade, a
new chair seat, a
floor mat,
some throw pillows or
some cool quilts. If you want to start getting ready for Christmas, you could make a
Christmas stocking, a
tree skirt, or an
angel. In fact, there are so many ways to make things out of old neckties
there's a blog devoted to the topic. Whatever your choice, your days as a corporate peon will be memorialized.
As will the peanut butter and jam sandwiches you used to have for lunch.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 5, 2008 -
23 comments
Your favourite jeans are giving out on you, but you don't want to let them go. These are the jeans you were wearing when you met your partner/got your all-time best score on Frogger/performed at your garage band's only ever paying gig/whenever you move out of, then back into, your mother's basement. They're not just jeans — they're your history. But since you can't wear them anymore, you think you could reincarnate them. You have many options, especially if you've got more than one pair due for retirement. You could make
journal or photo album covers so your jeans can truly be part of your historical record. You could make a
quilt or
two or
three, or a
wall hanging, or some
woven rugs. Or a
Christmas tree. You could make
a slipcover for a chair,
pillows or
placemats, or
an apron or
two.
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posted by orange swan
on Oct 2, 2008 -
14 comments
As most women know, nylon stockings don't last. They run, they snag, they rip, and they can't be mended. And they take 40 to 50 years to decompose in a landfill. I was sure as I began researching this post that there must be some great pantyhose crafting and art ideas out there. But the results were, um, mixed. If you are into
weaving, you can make some wall hangings or rugs from nylons. If you're a
Klondike Kate type who sews, you can make a skirt. If you work in a corporate environment but want to keep your edge, you can abide by your company's dress code AND sport
temporary tattoos. If you're a crafty bride-to-be,
you can make flowers or
dragonflies for wedding decorations. If you're into the less practical kind of art, you can create
semi-wearable pantyhose art, or construct
pantyhose art installations like artist Mary Nicollet. You can even make
pantyhose dolls, and
stick them in a jar if you want to.
Just be prepared for the fact that most people will never understand why you'd want to. But beware, because pantyhose arts and crafts are either underexplored or instrinsically strange, and can go from “interesting” or “kind of cute” to “bizarre” and “kind of disturbing” faster than a run can make its way from your thigh to your toes.
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posted by orange swan
on Oct 1, 2008 -
38 comments
Like so many other people, you have a stack of old t-shirts you never wear. Perhaps you've gotten beyond wearing obscene slogans or Strawberry Shortcake logos. Or you feel it's time to retire that “Team Hillary” shirt. Or your favourite old shirt no longer fits over the impressive pecs/food hump you've acquired since high school. Or you've had it with MeFi and you want a way to repurpose/savage your MeFi blue t-shirt. No need to be at a loss! You might just settle for making a
different style of
t-shirt, but you can also use those t-shirts to make
diapers for your baby,
clothes for your
toddler, or adult-sized
undies,
skirts or
dresses. Or a
bikini. Just beware of saggage.
I mean, of the bikini, after it gets water-logged. You also might make tote bags or pillows, car seat covers, baby wipes, or dusters. If you get really ambitious, you can
make a t-shirt quilt, taking inspiration from the
many examples on the net. If I haven't given you enough ideas, you can turn to the ever
authoritative and
exhaustive AskMe, or you can do some
further reading on the
topic. Just don't get so carried away that you wind up having to go to work topless tomorrow.
Unless, of course, your career path requires that anyway.
posted by orange swan
on Sep 1, 2008 -
25 comments
