Make Your Own No-Sew Eco-Friendly T-Shirt Tissues

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MYO no sew t-shirt tissues

Tissues made from old t-shirts work really well and they are soft on the nose. Kids will like the fun colorful fabrics and you will like the part about saving money and resources.

Make Your Own T-Shirt Tissues

Make your own tissues from t-shirt

I set aside some children’s t-shirts that were too worn or too stained to pass on.

How to:
Gather some old t-shirts. Thin, uber soft t-shirts are best. Use a salad plate (whatever size you like) and a rotary cutter with a cutting matt. Cut around the plate. The beauty of this project is that the edges do not need to be hemmed.

Alternatively, you can cut square pieces.

t-shirt tissues and home-made bear

Keep these eco-friendly tissues on bedside tables for use on little noses.

recycled wool sweater bear and hankie hamper

Hankie Hamper: find something around the house or at the thrift store to be your hankie hamper.

Recycle Worn-Out Shirts Into Handkerchiefs
When choosing old shirts to be made into hankies; the softer the better. Pick an appealing fabric if that matters to you. You want it to also have a bit of absorbency. Obviously, stiff fabric is no good for this project.

How to:

Cut strips 7 inches wide (or your preference) with a pair of pinking shears. Next, cut the strips into squares and you’re done. Using pinking shears will help to prevent fraying.

make your own no-sew hankies

To take with you, fold in half then fold in thirds: it fits nicely in your purse or pocket.

recycled fabric hankies
Hankies in a variety of fabrics: My husband’s favorite shirt (blue plaid cotton) was eventually turned into little hankies. It was a soft fabric to begin with but repeated washing only made it better. The kitty fabric was made out of worn-out flannel pj’s.

eco-friendly tissues and hankie hamper
Be sure to provide a place to put the used tissues or your kids will leave them all around the house.

Save Money And Time: Make Your Own Vintage Inspired Apron From Second-hand Dress

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green crafter hester jane in recycled dress apron

vintage inspired dress apron - back view

Altering a dress into an apron requires less work than making an apron from scratch. If you shop wisely, you can easily spend less for the dress than you would pay for new fabric. That isn’t even the best part. The best part is all the really unique styles you could work with. You can be really creative with these. Start looking at second-hand dresses in a new way. The result: a one-of-a-kind apron.
I love vintage clothing and aprons are no exception. I designed this apron to look like an apron from the 1930′s. After removing a stain, I transformed this simple dress into a vintage looking full bib over the head apron.
How to:
MYO dress apron step 1

Find a dress that inspires you. Search yard sales, thrift stores or even your own closet. You don’t even need to find your own size; it just needs to be big enough to do the job. Keep in mind that you will be wearing your apron on top of your regular clothing. Picking a dress with a print rather than a solid color fabric has the benefit of hiding stains better. The first thing you will probably want to do is wash the dress and iron it. Next, cut up the back of the dress. Remove the zipper (if there is one) and save for another project.

dressapronbo

Cut strips from the back center of the dress to use as the apron ties. I cut my strips 3 ½ inches wide which resulted in 1 ½ inch wide ties. (Sometimes it is better and/or necessary to cut a strip of fabric off the bottom of the dress to make the ties.)
Fold each strip with right sides facing and sew along two sides leaving one end open. Turn the resulting tube right side out.

MYO dress apron image C

Use scrap cardboard such as from a cereal box or brown paper bag to trace the shape of the top of the dress. Cut out this shape.

MYO dress apron image D

Now put the cardboard on top of the dress and sketch on it the desired shape you want the apron. This is your chance to be creative. When you have the shape drawn out the way you want it, cut out the shape. Trace the stencil you have just made. Flip the stencil over and trace on the other side of the dress. Remember to make it ¼ inch larger (for a seam allowance).

MYO dress apron image F

Turn inside out (if the dress you are using has a liner) and sew the back edges. If there is no liner you can turn over the raw edges and machine sew.

MYO dress apron image G

With the apron right side out, top stitch along the edges; stitch the apron ties on as you go.
Embellish with buttons from your salvaged button jar. If you don’t have one, start one today. Whenever you have a piece of clothing that is ready for the rag pile, remove the buttons. Store all these salvaged buttons in a jar or other designated spot.
On the top of the back of the apron, I attached the sides together by sewing on buttons. If you want, you can make button holes- so the buttons really work. Make sure that your head can get in and out of the apron before permanently attaching.
Sweet!
Now you are ready to go bake something.

My daughter came up with the idea to use a dress to make an apron first. If you would like to see her handy work click here.

Repurpose White Waste Paper Into Doves For A Beautifully Wrapped Wedding Gift

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dove gift wrapping

Be creative and make your own dove embellished wedding gift wrapping. This white gift wrap is really “green.”
You can find supplies for this project in a surprising variety of sources. Bumper stickers often have a really nice glossy white side and the back is often white paper that you can trace a stencil on. Another thing works well if you come across any is thin white plastic that is stiff yet thin enough to cut. I found a white plastic tray from a game. You can also find white cardboard in packaging from dress shirts to toys. You could go out and buy some white paper/ cardstock but that wouldn’t be a challenge and you would miss the point. I save all kinds of white product packaging and other waste materials and used the best pieces for doves.
dove gift wrapping detail

The paper I used for this dove was stiff: I wanted it to stand up for a 3D effect that would take the place of a bow. To hold the dove in place: I cut out a rectangle, folded it in half and glued half onto the back of the dove. The other half of the rectangle can be slipped under the ribbon and discreetly glued or taped to the wrapping paper.
I wrapped this gift in discarded office paper (poster size). The other side had last month’s office presentation on it. It was too good to waste.

dove gift card on box
Use a nice quality ribbon to add a touch of color. It can later be used on another gift or reused in some other project.

dove gift card
Dove gift tags
To make a gift tag, you will need to fold scrap paper and place the stencil along the fold so that the top of the head and part of the wing will be on the fold. Write a message of love and peace. Use salvaged paper that is about the thickness of card stock. I’ve provided stencils of two different doves that I sketched.

dove gift card with message of love

This is far from looking like trash.

view of dove A stencil

dove A stencil

view of dove B stencil
dove B stencil

Easy To Make License Plate Bookend

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license plate bookends

They say necessity is the mother of invention: that is true. My daughter needed a bookend so I did a little brain storming and dug through the house/garage for inspiration. I easily transformed these license plates into bookends.

bookends made from license plates

How to:

Recycle a license plate by making it into a bookend. All you have to do is bend a license plate over the edge of a table. Easy.

I like the vintage look of these plates left as is but you could be creative and paint them for a modern look.

How To Make A Bird Nester: Like A Bird Feeder But Contains Nesting Materials

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home-style bird nester

I call this a bird nester because it is like a bird feeder but with nesting materials instead of bird seeds. I designed it out of recycled materials and made it look like a charming cottage complete with a chimney that has a wisp of smoke coming out.
How to:

You will need to save a plastic berry basket, a box type milk carton, scrap yarn or salvaged twist ties, and nesting material (see below).

milk carton roof for bird nester

Use a box type milk container to make the roof: cut out two adjoining sides as shown in image.

chimney for home-style bird nester

If you want to make a chimney, print out the chimney stencil I provided. Use the stencil to make a chimney out of the left over piece of milk carton or another scrap piece of cardboard. Add a small piece of white stuffing extending out of the chimney to simulate smoke rising. The chimney stencil makes a nicer chimney than the experimental one in the photo. Use the bottom tabs to glue the chimney to the roof or make two slits (with an exacto knife) in the roof and insert the tabs through.

Fill your bird nester with left-over odds and ends.
Suggestions: bits of left-over yarn, sheep’s wool , wool roving (ask a spinner), dryer lint (especially when you are drying a wool blanket or are felting a wool sweater ; but I wouldn’t recommend using fabric softeners, because the birds don’t need the added chemicals.) You can also use: fur, human hair, horse hair, snake skins(sure why not), leaves, feathers, plant fluff from a cattail plant or from a milkweed pod, straw, tree bark, pine needles, moss… For fun add: small colorful pieces of scrap yarn (4 inches more or less), strips of cloth, shredded paper… Experiment and see what happens.
Use a hole punch to make a few holes in the roof along the edge. Attach roof with a bit of scrap yarn or twist ties (salvaged from toy packaging etc. or from produce).
You may also be interested in checking out a similar post at FunInTheMaking : Bag Of Nest Building Material, Great Gift For Birds Or Bird Lovers
The following is a note I received:
“I’m not sure if you know or not, but dryer lint is not a suitable product for bird nests.
If it becomes wet it is dense and takes a really long time to dry out thus keeping fragile babies cold and wet.
If conditions are not fixed in time, they will perish.
My vet has confirmed and if you search long and hard on the Internet you may also find a stray post or two.
Better materials would be soft WHITE feathers, human, cat, dog or better yet horse hair, thread only 2″ long at most, 100% cotton 3″ long by 1/4″ wide etc...”
-Debra
(Thank you for your input Debra.)