Green Options

I thrift a lot, and I sew a lot. When I sew, I try to use primarily thrifted or recycled or otherwise unwanted materials, and when I thrift, a large part of what I’m searching for is material to sew with–T-shirts, button-down shirts, pants, sweaters, pillowcases, curtains, sheets, etc. If I find any of these items in good shape and at a good price, and if they sport an especially appealing pattern or image, then I add them to my fabric stash for later crafting.

One of the trickier components of sewing using these thrifted items, however, is knowing how much fabric there actually is there, and therefore what you can sew with it. I know from experience that I can sew one skirt and and one pair of matching leggings for my three-year-old from one adult-sized stretchy cotton or acrylic sweater, but is the queen-sized sheet that I picked up at a yard sale last summer enough to make matching pajama pants for me, my husband, and both our girls?

Questions like that are much easier to answer when you know the standard yardages for standard-sized sheets.

The nice thing about sewing for kids is that their clothes take so little fabric. A shirt or pair of pants for a five-year-old, a dress for a three-year-old, matching bloomers for both–you could sew any of these things using less than a yard of fabric.

For that reason, kids’ clothes are very well-suited for sewing with recycled materials. I’ve sewed smocked sundresses for my girls out of pillowcases, a pants and kimono shirt outfit for a newborn out of one blouse, two sturdy diaper covers out of a felted wool sweater.

I was afraid of sewing from a pattern when I was a novice seamster, ironically, but now that I sew well, I enjoy using patterns to create more complicated clothing with attractive detailing and sophisticated elements. And so, although they’re pricey, I do buy some of the children’s clothing patterns from Oliver + S each season.

Nevermind that I couldn’t draw a lifelike picture to save my life–I bought the whole family little sketchbooks for Christmas, including myself (don’t you love presents that you buy for yourself? Of course, you could also make a book, if you’ve a mind to). A sturdy black cover, an elastic band to hold it shut, and pages and pages wonderfully blank.

At first I wasn’t terribly certain what I would do with my sketchbook. But working beside my little girls, as they sat down to draw pictures in their books, I had to do something with my hands, so I started to make a list.

It’s the best thing that ever happened to my craft work.

A little sketchbook that you can carry around, and a little roll of colored pens: this is all you need to record inspiration as it happens.

Here’s what you can write in one:

I think it’s the stubborn in me, but at this time of year, instead of getting a jump on the Christmas season and having, oh, I don’t know, a RELAXED holiday for a change, I feel the urge to really dig down into the autumn leaves and embrace the glories of this season. I live in the north, and so the trees are a treasure to behold, the temperature is blissfully breezy and crisp, and I look dang cute in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. So celebrate with me the apple harvest and my casual cuteness with these thematically-appropriate projects taken from some of my favorite Web sites: