Tea Bag Envelopes

unikatissima Tea Bag Envelopes

I’m collecting nearly everything (and that’s how it looks here, too ;-)) and from now on I will collect used tea bags, too, to make beautiful envelopes from.
I’m really curious about it. ;-))
On the photo you see my Rooibosh tea bags. I find that the Rooibosh tea gives the most beautiful colour, a very warm red-brown :)

By the way it must look great, too, if the tea bags are sewn together and/or if they are embellished after assembly, e.g. by embroidering, painting or stamping them.


Links:
Recycling Tea Bags into Art Projects: How to Create Tea Bag Envelopes

“Tea Ceremony” – sewn tea bags
(via Wewer Keohane)
Sas Colby Teabag Art Discourse – stamped tea bags
T-Bag – Tea Bag Designs – painted tea bags

Here at unikatissima: Paper Crazy Quilt – embroidered paper

Paper Shopping Bag

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag

 

At craftster started the ‘Craft Challenge #47 – Reusable Shopping Bag Challenge 2’ and I had the idea of making a shopping bag from paper (see also the other entries).
In principle I really like it, but some things didn’t work the way I wanted them to (see also below) so that I didn’t finish the handle but only show how it can be made.

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
That’s how my shopping bag looks from one side…

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
… and so from the other.
I used clippings from a travel brochure, so my bag is not only multicoloured but gives me even wanderlust ;-)

 

That’s what you do:

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
That’s what you need:

  • paper to strengthen (here an old TV guide)
  • paper for the outside (here clippings from a travel brochure)
  • plastic bag to strengthen the inside and make it possible to wipe it with a damp cloth (right top in picture)
  • some tape and a glue stick (which I forgot to take a photo from ;-))
  • scissors
  • sewing thread and best a sewing machine
  • possibly transparent plastic foil or plastic bag (non-adhesive or you can get bad problems with your sewing machine!)
 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
First I layered three layers of my TV guide pages.
I used them askew as shown in the graphic so that they don’t always touch in the same place (every large rectangle is a page from the TV guide, the smaller ones are pages cut into halves in one or the other direction).
I taped them rarely so that the whole doesn’t fall apart.

On the future outside I laid on the clippings from the travel brochure and glued them on rarely to fix them slightly.

Note: Don’t use too much tape or glue because you can get bad problems with your sewing machine.

I laid the cut white plastic bag on the backside of my large paper rectangle with meanwhile four layers and begun to sew.

Note: It pays to fix the plastic bag somehow, too ;-)

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
Then I just started sewing (did I mention that I’m completely unexperienced in sewing? ;-))).

I wanted to sew (and have somehow sewn ;-)) lines but it was much more difficult than I thought.
Therefore I made a mental note of some points for the next bag:

  1. The paper for the outside should be better joined.
    I think it even best to lay and sew on a layer of transparent (non-adhesive!) foil or plastic bag, then it is also possible to wipe it on the outside with a damp cloth.
  2. Practise sewing before, so that 1st my thread doesn’t tear and I’ll be 2nd hopefully able to sew straight lines ;-)
  3. The crinkling happened when I rolled up my large paper rectangle several times this way and the other to be able to sew it.
    Paper that is crinkled often get fabric-liker, so I didn’t find it bad.
  4. I laid the clippings from the travel brochure so that they all meet on the underside of the bag – with the effect that it looks scruffy.
    Next time I’d put a broad stripe of coloured paper over the folding line of the bag.
  • I’ve sewn the side seams on the wrong side because I wanted to turn it after just like a fabric bag.
    Next time I will sew them from the right side because the turning was incredibly difficult and I simply couldn’t turn the corners completely.
    That’s why it has these chic rounded corners ;-))
 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
That’s how my bag looks at the inside.

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
Actually I wanted to make a shoulder-long black with plastic bags filled I-cord as handle (I post-worked the photo to show you the knitting, originally it’s been completely black just as in the next photo ;-)) …

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
…but I don’t want to make it for a bag with lots of defects.
You can see here anyhow how I knotted the plastic bags together and knitted a little bit already.

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
The bag seems to be quite robust and I wanted to try out what it can carry.
Therefore I stuffed 1 l juice, half a kilo of bread, 2 appels, an orange and 5 tangerines in – in short a little shopping ;-)

 

unikatissima Paper Shopping Bag
Here I’m holding the bag with the content of the previous picture – no problems at all ;-)


Links:
Craft Challenge #47 – Reusable Shopping Bag Challenge 2
Entries for the Craft Challenge #47

Here at unikatissima:
Clothesline Knitting or Filled I-cord

Coffee Filter Bowl

POPSUGAR Coffee Filter Bowl

The coffee filter bowl is made the same way than papermaché bowls, just from coffee filters.
Doesn’t it look great!?
And if you are rather a tea drinker you may want to look at the suggestions for used tea bags :)

 


Links:
Coffee Filter Bowl (Upcycle It! Coffee Filter Catchall Bowl)
via: 20 Beautiful Coffee Filter Crafts – Used Coffee Filter Bowl via POP Sugar

Here at unikatissima:
Entries with the tags‘paper mache’ and ‘bowl’
Tea Bag Envelopes

Sturdy Mail Envelopes

Cornflower Blue Sturdy Mail Envelopes

I showed before how to make mail envelopes from gift wrapping or the like, but sometimes mail envelopes are too flimsy (sometimes much too flimsy ;-)) and one needs something sturdier.
Then you simply make mail envelopes from cardboard.
Cereal box seems to look nice ;-))
(By the way: we had a TetraPak CD case before).

However I doubt that you then can make a gift bagalope from your sturdy mail envelopes ;-)


Links:
Sturdy Mail Envelopes (Recycled Cereal Box Envelope Tutorial)

Here at unikatissima:
Self-made Envelopes
Tea Bag Envelopes
TetraPak CD Case
Gift Bagalopes

YouKnits designer

Although the YouKnits designer is far from perfect (mostly due to my photos), I think its a great tool to help you when you design your personal lace pattern with YouKnits.
So: enjoy :)
Note: You can get the YouKnits designer now as Android app! (see YouKnits designer and YouKnits designer C)

(The YouKnits designer does not work anymore because Adobe discontinued the flash player.)


 

English:

Frequently asked questions

  • Question: What about property rights?
    Answer:
    By using my patterns you agree to my terms of use which you can find here on my website and in my PDF files.
  • Question: What do I get here?
    Answer:

      Use the YouKnits designer to make lace patterns by simply combining YouKnits to your personal and probably unique pattern.
      When you have finished your personal design, press the button ‘make PDF’ to let generate a PDF file and to save it on your harddisk.
      The file contains:

    1. an overview picture of your personal YouKnits design,
    2. for large patterns a page reference chart (shows which part of the YouKnits distribution chart is printed on which page),
    3. the YouKnits distribution chart (shows the order in which YouKnits have to be worked) and
    4. a list of all the YouKnits you used in your personal pattern with links to the appropriate ravelry pages.
  • Question: How does the YouKnits designer work?
    Answer:
    Please see the YouKnits designer description here on my website or the help in the YouKnits designer to find out more about how it works.
  • Question: Is it free?
    Answer:
    The use of the YouKnits designer is free, some of the YouKnits are free, too, others must be purchased by you.
    When you use the YouKnits designer you will always see whether a YouKnit is free.
  • Question: Where do I get the YouKnits?
    Answer:
    You can download/purchase them at ravelry.
    Note: You don’t have to be a ravelry member.
    I asked to open my ravelry shop for the public, and the links from the PDF mentioned above will bring you there.
    There you can also get the free downloads without going through paypal.
  • Question: I got the YouKnits, how do I use them?
    Answer:
    You can download at ravelry the how-to (for free), there I tried to describe in full detail how to knit patterns of combined YouKnits.
    Note: You don’t have to be a ravelry member.
    I asked to open my ravelry shop for the public, and the links from the PDF mentioned above will bring you there.
    There you can also get the free downloads without going through paypal.
  • Question: There are strange notches when I’m using triangle YouKnits. Is it supposed to look like that?
    Answer:
    Please read the answer in the YouKnits description.
  • Question: You said that YouKnits can be deleted from or copied on the grid and deleted from or reordered on the subset.
    Why doesn’t it work for me?

    Answer:
    Sorry, it’s a bug that we haven’t found yet. But we’re still working on it, hoping that we can fix it.
  • Question: I can’t scroll down to the lowest slide. What can I do?
    Answer:
    How much of the YouKnits designer is shown on the screen depends on the resolution of your computer screen.
    If you don’t get the whole YouKnits designer on the screen, you must work with both scrollbars: the one of the YouKnits designer and the one of your browser window.
  • Question: Why does it take so long to load the YouKnits designer?
    Answer:
    If you have a fast connection it takes approximately 10 seconds.
    Sorry, but it takes its time to load all the pictures of the beautiful Youknit patterns ;-)
  • Question: Why does the YouKnits designer doesn’t work for me?
    Answer:
    I think that you have the wrong Flash Player version, you must use a Flash Player Version 10 or greater.
    If you don’t have it, click this button: Get Adobe Flash player

 

Examples

Oh, you’ve knitted enough shawls and scarves already?
No problem, I thought about what else to knit with the YouKnits and that’s what I came up with:

 

Credits

We lace knitters wouldn’t have a YouKnits designer if RIAmore.eu wouldn’t have helped again (as for the other generators).
It is powered by AS3, Robotlegs, AS3 Signals, MinimalComps and AlivePDF and the font was designed by Yusuke Kamiyamane (Ronda Seven).
Thanks to everybody involved!