Tag Archives: reclaiming

January 14, 2015 · 10:22 pm

Upcycling a little box into a band loom

I absolutely love weaving Scandinavian style woven bands, using different styles of rigid heddles.

A few weeks ago, as we were cleaning and clearing in preparation for our big move, we found some sweet little drawers that my father in law had made many decades ago.

He had reclaimed some tiny little wooden butter boxes and made wee drawers for his workshop with them:

copyright Noreen Crone-Findlay www.tottietalkscrafts.com

And, since then, the idea for building a tiny, oh so portable band weaving box loom has been gestating in my mind….

After much trial and error, I have built the little loom, and absolutely adore it!

I have made a small video that shows what I did to build this little charmer:

This is the ratchet and pawl that I designed for my loom.

I made them from a scrap of marine plywood, which allowed me to curve the pawl.

I am going to make the next one from a piece of purpleheart that we’ve been saving, so I am going to make the pawl straight, to make it stronger and not risk breaking it by cutting a curve against the grain.

If you are interested in learning more about weaving Scandinavian style narrow bands, definitely seek out the work of the marvelous weaver extraordinaire, Susan Foulkes:

http://durhamweaver64.blogspot.co.uk/

And, if you’d like to see some of the ways that I use narrow bands please click:

https://tottietalkscrafts.com/2014/08/08/woven-women-small-bird-sang-and-all-was-forgiven/

Note: I have upgraded the little box loom…. it’s even better!

Here’s a link to how the little band loom has evolved: LINK

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Filed under band loom, eco crafts & green projects, Loom & looms & small loom weaving, tutorial & how to, video tutorial, weaving & handwoven, woodwork

Tagged as hand weaving, hand woven, how to build a box loom, how to make a band loom, loom, narrow band weaving, Noreen Crone-Findlay, reclaiming, recycling, Scandinavian style, upcycled box loom, upcycling, video tutorial, vintage butter box, woodworking

June 17, 2010 · 3:31 pm

Upcycled tunic new life for old clothes

Last summer, I bought a really frumpy skirt and a too small dress at the thrift shop.

Why on earth would anyone in their right mind do that?

Because I intended to ‘harvest’ the fabric

from both the garments and

upcycle them into something new and oh so much fun for myself.

The skirt was long enough,

and full enough

to be able to provide the body for this fun tunic.

And, the skimpy dress provided the pockets,

lower bands, and upper neck band-

and I just love it!

I wear it with leggings, and a t shirt

underneath, because my days of wearing

shortish dresses with bare legs are long gone.

As I was taking the pic of the tunic,

I remembered another upcycling

project that I did recently:

I took a favorite old dress and cut it up

and turned it into a fun and floatie

overshirt…..

it just hit me that they would work well together!!!

Hurrah!

So, think twice before you toss old clothes,

and don’t let the frumpiness or too smallish-ness

of a garment put you off…

cut them up and re-configure them into something

that you will enjoy!

Hurrah for re-purposing, reclaiming, recycling, re-fashioning, re-using, re-creating, restoring, renewing and upcycling!

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Filed under eco crafts & green projects

Tagged as re-creating, re-fashioning, re-purposing, re-using, reclaiming, recycling, renewing, restoring, sewing, upcycling

November 14, 2008 · 9:11 pm

Green crafts- hand made book with spool knitted binding cords

Oh my.

This week….. winter arrived…..

So, it’s time to get to work on Christmas presents.

I love green and eco crafts – recycling and re-using things to up-cycle new treasures…

I am making my sister-in-law a hand made book with wooden covers.

The wood has been hanging around our barn for more than 20 years.

It was part of an old stage set from my days as a theater set designer.

I cut out the covers and and sanded the edges and scuffed up some layers of the paint.

I then painted gold around the edges.

I drew a Celtic Interlace then drew a tree over top of that. I connected the tree into the interlace and erased the bits I didn’t want. I painted and etched and drew, until I was satisfied with my version of the Celtic Tree of Life.

I tatted 2 butterflies and a dragonfly, and glued them to the inside cover.

Then I spool knitted 3 cords for the binding.

I folded some recycled/reclaimed pages that had been used on one side and punched 3 holes in them.