Earth Day Upcycling Project
April 22, 2009
100% Upcycled
It’s Earth Day people! We are continuing our pursuit of finding new materials and new ideas for those new materials. As per a couple posts ago, we have gathered lots of discarded triathlon materials from our local triathlon shop, Jack and Adams. This bag is made from an event banner and discarded inner tubes. The way Kathie wrapped the handles all the way around really adds to the strength of the whole thing. It’s not just upcycling either, it’s usable upcycling with a good aesthetic to boot. We are all about form meeting function.
Messenger style
This other bag made by Kathie is messenger style and was pretty labor intensive but is a pretty sweet bag for hauling all your race equipment. It’s also got the inner tube handles which are riveted onto the side. It’s got some sweet stamping too and pockets galore. Kathie’s quite the sportsman herself so she knows the needs of the triathlete far better than me.
Though we’ve loved using these materials, sewing the inner tubes is really a bit of a pain. We had to use interfacing to get them through the machine which is not only a pain in the neck but it feels wasteful as well. Jen Arntson told us about a silicon product that could be applied to the rubber before sewing which we might try. She also suggested talc but we’re thinking that the talc would be a mess and probably not so great for the machine. So, if anyone has any other good ideas about sewing with rubber, we’d sure appreciate it if you let us know.
So, this Earth Day, what are you going to do today to celebrate?
I’m going to look for birds in the yard – especially the migrants that are stopping in for a day or two after their trans-Gulf journey. So far a few warblers have stopped in and Orioles, Buntings, and Tanagers. It’s a mighty colorful display.
We’ve also submitted our Future Craft Book Proposal which seems quite auspicious in its timing. Don’t you think? We have the same literary agent that Diane Gilleland of Craftypod had so we’re feeling hopeful about that connection. Our book is about creating sustainable family connection through sustainable crafting.
Happy Earth Day folks! We hope you have a good one. And we hope too you find some time to make some stuff.
Posted in studio life
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:25 am
Awesome ideas.
Awesome bags.
Awesome Friends.
Awesome Inspiration!
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:27 pm
sweeeeet!
April 29th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Saw your question on CRAFT…. thought I’d shoot you an answer. The easiest thing I’ve found is to purchase a teflon sheet, and a cut a hole in it the same size as the feed dogs on your sewing machine…. use double sided tape to stick it to the machine’s bed.
The second part is to go and find a teflon coated foot for your machine, the two of these together are AMAZING.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
What if you use rivets instead of sewing?
April 30th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Like the last poster, I too saw your question on CRAFT. I’m not exactly an expert on modern sewing machines, but if all else fails, you might consider wiping the machine down with some fine-grade steel wool. It’d be a bit much if you only worked with rubber now and again, but since you all seem to be doing it a great deal, increasing the surface porosity (erm, sanding the thing) might be worth a go. I like sewing with rubber too, but since my sewing machine has a wooden base (antique), I hadn’t really given the whole sticking-thing much though. 0__o; Anyway, best of luck! Let us all know how things work out, m’kay?
P.s. The bags are beautiful! :3
April 30th, 2009 at 10:22 am
We could use rivets but we’re top sewing the tube to give it a nice flattened look. I’m going to try the teflon sheet and I’ll post here about how it goes.
May 4th, 2009 at 10:24 am
You guys are an inspiration as usual. This stuff rocks.