Corrugated Leaves

textilefusion Corrugated Leaves

Well, fall is coming.
The leaves look still beautiful outside, but soon they will be gone and then you can fall back on your own – if you like even evergreen – leaves.
There’s something to be said for that ;-))

By the way I imagine them also nice as pin.
Made e.g. with some stash yarn matching your purse.


Links:
Corrugated Leaf Tutorial

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tag ‘purse’

Woven Plastic Bag

instructables Woven Plastic Bag

I presented already the tote which is crocheted from plastic bags which were cut in stripes and the makeup bag made from fused plastic bags, this is yet another bag that uses nevertheless both techniques.

I find it great but won’t make it because here all plastic bags look the same and frankly, I find that it would look boring, then.

 


Links:
Woven Plastic Bag (Tone twister bag)

Here at unikatissima:
Plastic Bag Tote
Fabric from Plastic Bags

Furoshiki

unikatissima Furoshiki

Once when I took a look at instructables I found the instruction Paper, Plastic, or Furoshiki? which fascinated me: Japanese use since a long time a cloth to wrap all sorts of things, as well to transport as to decorate them. And the Japanese Minister for Environment created an initiative to reduce waste to propagate Furoshiki as an ecological wrapping.
When making a little research I found even more Furoshiki folding instructions.

 

unikatissima Furoshiki
On the photos I wrapped four apples in a dishcloth – I just didn’t have a bandana or an old pillow case ;-) at hand.
In principle the dish cloth can be used but the knots get too big and it’s simply not the real McCoy.
Wikipedia says that the ‘real’ Furoshiki cloth are from cottom, rayon, nylon, a fabric called ‘chirimen’ or silk, in either case they are thinner and thus better to be knotted.
Also the sizes seem to be of a great variety, sure, you’ve always something different to wrap ;-)

Anyhow, I will try this more often :)

When researching I found also a nice idea: to wrap a gift for someone into an interesting cloth and include a printout of the diagram of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.
I like this ;-)


Links:
At instructables: Paper, Plastic, or Furoshiki?

Furoshiki Techniques

Wikipedia entry for ‘Furoshiki’ (English) (I haven’t found a German entry)

Initiative for waste reduction (‘Mottainai Furoshiki’) of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment
Furoshiki folding diagram of the Japanese Ministry of the Environment

Blog entry with the nice idea about wrapping a gift

Google search result for ‘Furoshiki’
Google image search result for ‘Furoshiki’

Clothesline Knitting or Filled I-cord

unikatissima Clothesline Knitting

Recently I thought about how to make low-priced purse handles. I wanted to make them from the same yarn that I will use for my purse but I didn’t want to have a simple I-cord because I’m always knitting very loose and the cord gets much to flexible for a purse handle.

Then I thought about the Clothesline Crochet and thought that this must be possible with knitting, too.
It is ;-))

Note: If you don’t know how to knit an I-cord you can find instructions in my Actinia entry in the English tutorial under ‘I-cord’.

 

That’s what you do:
I choose a thick ready-made cord to cover with knitting.
The number of stitches to cast-on depends on the size of the cord, the yarn and the needles (try it!), in this case I used five stitches.

 

unikatissima Clothesline Knitting
So, cast-on the stitches, lay the inner cord in (see photo) and knit the first stitch over the inner cord.
The inner cord will be trapped in the stitch.

 

unikatissima Clothesline Knitting
Then knit simply the rest of the stitches, lay the inner cord a little beside (see photo).

 

unikatissima Clothesline Knitting
In the next row lay the inner cord again over the left needle to the right of the thread just as in the first photo, knit the first stitch over the inner cord and knit then the other stitches.

Knit in the same way until you reach the desired length.

 

unikatissima Clothesline Knitting
Somewhere (and I really don’t remember, where) I saw a tutorial where they glued on hairbands to make the purse handles.
I thought that I should be able to knit around the hairbands just as I knitted the inner cord, but it didn’t work.
What however worked was knitting an I-cord and threading the hairband into, so that the hairband is covered and I even have threads to sew the handles onto the purse.


Links:
Here at unikatissima:
Tutorial on how to knit an I-cord in the English tutorial in the Actinia entry under ‘I-cord’

Gourd Purses

allfreecrafts Gourd Purses

I don’t remember what I was searching for, but then I found the tips and hints for making gourd purses.
Wow!
A little more research showed more gourd crafts at the same site and even a site only dedicated to the subject of making your own gourd purse making your own gourd purse.
There you can find more instructions, for coiled rims from seagrass coiled rims from seagrass or pine needles pine needles e.g.

I find them all most beautiful but (fortunately?!) ;-)) I can’t get no gourds, otherwise I could be tempted to try this, too ;-)


Links:
At All Free Crafts:

At Southeast Texas Gourd Patch (see left navigation bar there):

Tutorial moved:
At Southeast Texas Gourd Patch (see left navigation bar there):

Google search result for ‘gourd purse’
Google image search result for ‘gourd purse’

Here at unikatissima: Coil a Basket

Plastic Bottle Box

greenupgrader Soda Bottle Coin Purse

Yesterday we cut a plastic bottle to make a knitting loom, today we can make a box from the cut off bottom of the bottle.
It’s not a real instruction, but when you look closely at the photos you can see that the plastic bottoms are perforated at the edge and that a zipper is sewn into the holes.
Fantastic!

Addendum: There are instructions now, you can find the English ones here (thanks, Nina).


Links:
Plastic Bottle Box (recycled box/Recycling Box)
English instructions
German instructions

I’ve seen the photo and found it time-consuming to find the source:
I found the link to the plastic bottle box:
via Need More Fiber,
via Dollar Store Crafts (they have more great ideas!),
via greenUPGRADER,
via Superuse.org
I thought that I’d never reach an end ;-))

By the way I suggest to take a look a the flickr group TRASHION NATION, they also have great ideas!

Cassette Tape Coin Purse

craftster Cassette Tape Coin Purse

I stll have some old cassettes I don’t listen to anymore. But because I’m always reluctant to throw anything away I’m thinking of making some purses from the cassettes by following the tutorial at craftster ;-)


Links:
At craftster: Cassette Tape Coin Purse
The description how she made the purse is somewhere in the thread.

Gift Bagalopes

unikatissima Gift Bagalopes

I found an instruction on how to make easy gift bags from envelopes. The result looks really nice and I already arranged my envelopes and stamps

 

 

Links:
Very Easy Gift Bagalopes

Here at unikatissima:
Eraser Stamps
More entries with the tag ‘stamping’

Shoulder Pad Purse

dianefitzgerald Shoulder Pad Purse

I find bags, purses and totes somehow interesting, especially when made from unusual materials (although I think that I will always stick to my knapsack ;-)).
That is the reason why I like the shoulder pad purse (scroll down to “Shoulder Pad Mini-Purses,”) so much!
Unfortunately I have only found boring white shoulder pads.
Well, they’d never make a knapsack ;-))


Links:
Shoulder Pad Purse (scroll down to “Shoulder Pad Mini-Purses,”)
Note: When I downloaded the PDF file, it had about 2.5 MB.