African Dashiki Dress to Wrap Skirt

I love wrap skirts and recently had one essentially disintegrate (I wore it too much for many years) and have been trying to replace it. I found a large mu mu like dress with a great pattern at a thrift store and knew that it was destined to be my new favorite wrap skirt. Of course I forgot a before picture but imagine it looked similar to this picture but longer. I've already worn this a lot and am looking forward to ditching the boots and wearing it with sandals. The action picture if from my recent trip to New Orleans where the weather was amazing.

Knitted Ottoman

Inspired by these stools that I first discovered on the blog decor8 I set out to make my own version. I found some cheap and mostly ugly stools at my local thrift store for $5 each. The tops were ugly particle board, but at least the legs were real wood.

I used two old throw pillows I hated as the cushioned part. I cut a piece of red fabric and draped it across the pillow on the stool, stapling it underneath. The knitted part is from an XL sweater also found at a thrift store. (I've been saving/buying/acquiring sweaters for another project I'm working on.) Then I stapled the sweater over the red cushioned part. I love my new staple gun, I think it's my favorite new tool.

Now I have some great new ottomans that match my new (to me) couch. Next I need to figure out how to make my chairs match my couch, but that's likely going to be a much bigger project.

Wine Cork Mat

Sick of making cork boards and trivets from recycled wine corks? How about using them for a bath or kitchen mat? Inspired my this, I wanted to make my own version of the wine cork bath mat. I cut all the corks lengthwise using my regular kitchen knife (and only cut myself once). The corks are then hot glued to a non-slip mat which I had sewed the fabric border on the edge. I had originally made this mat without the border but it didn't quite look right so I added the edging. This isn't the sturdiest thing ever so using it as a welcome mat may not be the best idea (unless you want corks disappearing as people trample over it and ending up all over your house) but I think it'd work great in a kitchen or bathroom.

Recycled Sweater Cat Bed

So Audrey loves to sleep on my sweaters. It seems if its wool and warm it belongs to her. So I felted some thrift store sweaters (washed them and shrunk them). Then cut them and assembled them into this kitty bed. She has slept on it, but it seems that now that I want to post this on here she refuses to like it. I have been unable to take a picture of her napping on it. Please notice the picture without the cat, the picture with the cat after being bribed with cat treats, and the picture of the cat sleeping next to the cat bed. Oh well, I suppose one can't win every time.

Plastic Bag Rug

This is a rug made out of plastic grocery bags (plastic bag yarn or Plarn!). The first step is making the yarn. This is crochet using only the crochet stitch. I am still a newbie crocheter that doesn't like to follow patterns so I made this "pattern" up as I crocheted. This is a work in progress that I've been crocheting off and on for a few months now. At one point I ran out of grocery bags (we try to mostly use cloth but forget fairly often) so I had to put this project on hiatus for awhile. My goal is to make it dining room rug sized (such as under your table), but I may get sick of working on it before I actually get this far. (please note skinny cat used for size reference) Due to the nature of the plastic material this rug will flatten if books are placed on top of it, so if my crocheting curls a bit it doesn't really matter.

Magazine Bowl

I recently turned some unused air miles that were going to expire into magazine subscriptions. Now I have a few too many magazines hanging around. I do recycle them, but it still seemed like a waste. Inspired by some coasters my sister made me awhile back I used the magazine pages to create this bowl. It has a slightly oval shape and is pretty large. I don't really need anymore catchall fruit bowls so this will probably be some lucky persons Christmas present this year, but I'm not telling you whom.