Love this idea at City Bag Trade. Downloadable pattern to sew a bag from recycled fabric. Old Nylon jackets work well apparently. You can also send a jacket in to be converted into a bag.
Nicky at Monster Munch has a great poster with instructions for making a sock monster plushie.
At the Craftacular, I saw quite a few vendors that made use of recycled materials to create their products. One of the vendors who produced the nicest of these was Katherine Rasmussen of reiter8 (prounounced like reiterate). She "upcycles" sailboat sails, that is to say she recycles them and turns them into fine tote and messenger bags, wallets, and tags. I loved the way the bags looked, and really wanted to buy one of the totes or messengers, but it was a little pricey for me. They're not at all over-priced, for the quality of the product and considering that they're hand made. I'm just in extreme saving mode lately.
I didn't get to talk to Rasmussen while I was there, but I spent a little while looking at her stuff. On her site she also talks about her fabrication process, and how she came to start making these great products.
Excellent stuff, and from Brooklyn maker! I hope to get one of these sooner or later.
Recycled Kid Robot bag for cover.
As a librarian (yes, I still consider myself one), designer, and craftmaker, I was really excited to hear about Design*Sponge's collaboration with Brooklyn artists and the New York Public Library to create work inspired by materials in the libraries. This first episode introduces us to the artists and kicks off what looks to be a very exciting project. Can't wait for more.
Thought it was time for a new art project. I'm calling this one the Weekly Notebook. The idea behind this project is to create a notebook a week. I'm going to use recycled papers for the covers, and various papers for the text block.
This is the first one in progress. It's got a page recycled from the Lomo book. It hasn't been bound yet, but I'm going to bind it with Wire-O double rings.
Plushie is a pretty incredible useful looking piece of software for craftsters. Users sketch a 3D model for a plush toy (plushie/softie) and the software generates all the patterns for sewing together a plush toy. Print out the patterns and cut fabric, and begin sewing.
Via Making Time
Ahhhh yeah. Instructables user englighted shared her process for making the light suits worn by Daft Punk in the Alive 2007 shows. From her intro...
As a lighted costume designer, I get a lot of questions from people who want to know how to make their own EL wire costumes (many of them seeking to mimic the immensely popular Daft Punk red robot suits, which I illuminated for their Alive 2007 tour). I don't have time to help everyone individually, so I thought I'd consolidate my advice into one instructable. Hopefully this will help you understand the steps involved in this labor-intensive process, and get you started with your own lighted clothing projects.
Rather than describe how to make a single specific design, I am trying to make these instructions fairly general so you can create your own EL wire layout for almost any type of clothing, although many of my example photos refer to lighted coats. Also, since EL wire is very fragile in situations where it is flexed repeatedly, a lot of these tips will focus on methods for improving durability and getting the longest possible life out of the garment
Looks pretty damned time consuming, but I'll bet I'll see one of these walking around in October.
Am going to try real hard to make it to the Renegade Craft Fair with my son this weekend.