Green Options

Do you know how much energy and cotton it takes to make just one pair of jeans? Instead of buying new denim every few months, consider recycling your old jeans into a new pair.

There’s nothing better than broken-in jeans that you love anyway, right? One Buenos Aires designer is taking recycling to the next level. Give the company any pair of your old jeans and they’ll redesign them and send [...]

What do you do with your old jeans when you’re done with them? If you’re one American manufacturing company (Bonded Logic), you make household insulation out of them.

You totally know that a bunting makes a party more festive, right? There’s nothing happier than those little triangular flags, gaily waving in the breeze.  But do you know what would make a happy little bunting even happier? If it was made from your skinny jeans. Live in the moment, my friends; love your body, and I’ll show you how to upcycle your old jeans into some party flags.

You will need: a pair of jeans; double-fold bias tape (or you can make your own!); cardboard; rotary cutter and mat; sewing machine and thread

Welcome to the Third Carnival of Green Crafts!

Before we begin, let me just thank all of the crafters who participated in this month’s carnival for taking a weight off my mind. After reading all of these posts, I now have NO worries at all about landfill space anywhere in America. Seriously, y’all, crafters are obviously the solution to the trash problem. Go us!

Before we begin, a few administrative notes: We’re pleased as punch to announce that the fourth Carnival will be September 4th at Whip Up. Send in your posts via the carnival submission form today! For background information about the Carnival, please see the Carnival of Green Crafts home page. And in case you missed the previous editions, here are the first Carnival, here at Crafting A Green World, and the second Carnival, at BlogHer.

Thanks so much to all the crafters who shared their posts with us for this edition of the Carnival. Let’s dig in!

Eco-Friendly Materials

Tiny Decor gathered a list of the Top 10 Modern and Eco-friendly Fabric Sources on Etsy. You HAVE to see what she’s collected, there are some real knockouts.

Healthy Child Healthy World contributor, Stop Global Warming campaigner, breast cancer survivor, new single mom, and now fashion designer, Sheryl Crow is teaming up with Western Glove Works (aka Silver Jeans) to create casual eco-chic looks that are both eco-friendly and affordable. It comes as no surprise that this country-girl-at-heart will focus the line around denim, while integrating organic cotton and fair trade materials.

The collection is said to be vintage-inspired and will be named “Bootheel Trading Co. by Sheryl Crow”. No launch date has been announced, but rumor has it she’s flying to Australia this October to meet with her partners about the line.

Last week I was in Florence to visit the fifth edition of Terra Futura, the national meeting-exhibition of the “good practices” of sustainability. The goal of this event is to bring the whole society towards a process of global sensitization. 500 expositive areas and more than 4000 companies showed visitors a lot of products and services, which have been made according to the sustainability’s principles. A free exhibition with a calendar of cultural events including conferences, seminars, workshops and laboratories focused on many themes: energy, water, pollution, recycling, architecture, and economics.

Among others, interior design and fashion departments were on show in Terra Futura.
Where better than in Florence? Fashion and clothing have been representing a must for centuries here and the city hosts the world`s biggest men`s fashion event: Pitti Immagine Uomo. Every year in January and June, many Italian and foreign designers arrive in Florence to participate to this cool show, calling a very big attention on the city.

I know, I know, it’s like we’re obsessed with denim around here. Gavin showed us how to patch our jeans if we’re not ready to let them go, then Leslie showed us how to recycle a pair into a sexy miniskirt and use the leftovers to make a shopping bag. (Personally, I’m waiting for Gavin to upcycle HIS jeans into a miniskirt…)

My favorite jeans have finally died, and before I saw Gavin’s post I was planning to start a denim quilt. Denim quilts are heavy duty for picnics and playing on at the park, and I was just at Goodwill this past weekend so I’m inspired by the availability of cheap denim that needs a second chance at life.

Then I started to think about my “dead” jeans from a green point of view. The mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle doesn’t include the word “repair,” but it probably should. Reducing is best, reusing or repairing is good, recycling is a last resort. I had decided to recycle my jeans rather than repair them because I had this notion that patched jeans look “run down.” It’s like I’ve been trained by society that if a repair is visible, it makes the garment worthless.

Let’s get serious, people. I am a stay-at-home / work-at-home mother of an eight month old baby. I spend most of my waking hours in my own house. I get spit up on a lot. I crawl around on the floor to retrieve pacifiers and toys. Who the heck is going to put me on What Not To Wear for sporting a pair of patched jeans? I thrifted a “new” pair to replace them for going out, but if I can get more life out of the old ones, why not do it? Also, that way the new ones won’t be worn every day and they’ll last longer for occasions nicer than than cleaning pureed sweet potato out of someone’s hair.

I’m not saying that I’m going to spend all day in clothes I hate in order to be green, but I think it’s time for me to fight my way out of the trap that equates repaired with flawed.

At this point you may be thinking “Um, excuse me, wasn’t the title of this post DENIM QUILTS?”

Yes! Even though my favorite jeans aren’t going to be included, I still want to make a denim quilt.

This is a fabulous fun mini skirt project that will leave you some left over scraps for a DIY ‘bring your own bag’ project after. Don’t fret, it’s quite easy to make those jeans into a denim mini!

Supplies Needed

:

• Funky jeans past their prime (beyond patching or your style threshold)
• Scissors
• Sewing machine or mad hand sewing skills
• Thread of any color you enjoy

Step one: Choosing

Use either old jeans, or thrift jeans that you really love the color of but you just don’t wear that MC Hammer style anymore. Just make sure the jeans fit your hip or waist where you plan to wear the skirt.

Step two: Length

I like mine short, and I measure it against a skirt I already own that is the length I like by laying them flat on top one another. It’s a good idea to start with a longer length, since you can always go back and cut it shorter. Decide whether you want it to hit your knee, mid thigh, or super high.

Step three: Cutting

Once you know the length, cutting will be easy. Cut straight across both the legs at the length measured and wa-la, now you have some jean shorts! But you want a sexy mini, so take the scissors and begin cutting the inner seam line and cut open the crotch of the jeans. Then cut along the front seam up to the zipper. (If you made your skirt longer you may want to cut along the back seam 2-3 inches, so it doesn’t pucker in the back when you sew it back together.)

We all have a favorite pair of jeans. The ones that look great and fit just right.

Unfortunately, well-loved jeans don’t age gracefully. The culprit: holes in the knees, pockets, or back. If your favorite jeans start to look “holier than thou,” don’t despair.

With a needle, some thread, and a little love, you can turn dying jeans into designer jeans. (DIY difficulty level: Easy)

I have never met a woman who loves shopping for jeans. Finding a pair of jeans that fits can involve endless shopping trips, trying on pair after pair in the unflattering light of dressing rooms. Even in low-rise styles, finding the right hip to waist ratio can be maddening. But if rips or patches don’t really fit into your personal style and your current jeans are falling apart, at some point you have to bite the bullet and shop.

Once you replace the well-worn pair of jeans, though, what’s next? Since I’m currently facing the demise of my favorite (and only) pair of jeans, I thought I would take a spin around the web and see what I could do with them.

First up is this recycled blue jean organizer, perfect for craft supplies.

The world’s most imperative fashion invention of all time (or at least one of the top five) has to be denim jeans. Somehow, since its nearly 200 years of being invented, manufacturers have made it unthinkably difficult to find that "just right" fit. Once you begin adding in the factors of sustainable fabrics and Fair Trade practices, your brand options become even more limited, in turn restricting your chances of finding

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