Recycling clothes

In our increasingly consumerist society we seem to buy an awful lot of clothes, especially when it comes to our children. Before clothes became so cheap and easy to get hold of it was natural to keep clothes from one child to the next. Dresses and trousers were made with large hems which could be lowered when the children grew, socks were darned and rips and tears were mended with patches. Now it is much easier for many people to go out and buy new ones, especially for families with larger disposable incomes and little spare time to do the mending. There was a question posted on a parenting forum recently asking how many people kept the clothes from their first child for the next one. I was astounded to see that most of the respondents bought a whole new set of clothes for their next baby. Even if the first set were sold it would still mean a considerable outlay to clothe the next child from scratch. Plus we have to consider the energy, water and raw materials used to make all of these new clothes. This all adds up to create waste of one sort or another.

Whether you make do and mend or buy new clothes, there will come a point when even the youngest child outgrows them, or they become too stained or too full of holes to be wearable any more. You cannot sell these ones or give them away to charity, but there are some things that you can do with them.

• Duvet covers and sheets: if you are replacing these big items there are many things that you can do with them. Often the fabric at the edges will be the best preserved even if the centre is wearing very thin, and because the items are so big you will be able to make an outfit or two from them for children. Even with very little sewing experience you can make great elasticated skirts and trousers.
  
• Jeans: jeans and other trousers are great because they are made with thick material. I have two pairs which are just wearing through on the bum and crotch, but the material on the legs is still in very good condition. This sort of fabric lends itself very well to bags which need to be quite sturdy. For a small bag simply cut off a section of leg and sew one end together, turn the edge under on the other end and then add handles. For a larger one use pieces from two legs. Cut each piece open down the outside leg seam, lay them on top of each other (right sides together) and sew them together at the raw edges down three sides. Turn the seam down at the top and sew in place. Add handles. When you turn it the right way round you will have the inside leg seam running down the middle of the bag which looks quite funky.
  
• Tops and shirts: a large man's shirt will give you enough fabric to make something for a young child if you are careful with cutting out. Alternatively mix and match fabrics from two or more shirts to make some really funky clothes for little ones. Either make each piece of your pattern from a different fabric (four colour trousers!) or if you have time cut into squares and sew together to make on big piece of patchwork fabric and use this to cut your pattern from. Unless you spend a long time zig-zagging all the edges though you would be best to make something with a lining to prevent the raw edges from fraying.
• Stained baby clothes: these will be small and light fabrics can have some nasty looking brown stains on. You can either turn these into little toys and sew the eyes and mouth over the worst of the stains or cut them up to use as bottom wipes if you have a child in nappies or general cleaning cloths for around the house or kitchen. Have a look at my How to Make a Monster page on Pogglers for instructions on making a toy.
• Other bits and pieces of fabric: you can make little draw string bags for gym or dancing shoes or party bags. Instructions here on Pogglers. Pencil cases out of an oblong of fabric with a zip to close. Even the smallest baby clothes can be turned into even smaller doll's clothes and your children will still be thrilled if your sewing skills only allow you to make a scarf for their favourite toy. I made a teeny tiny hat out of a couple of very small offcuts for my daughter's favoured Eeyore nearly two years ago and he still gets to wear it to bed from time to time!
• Off cuts: you can use your off cuts from various projects to add details to bigger items. Cut out simple motifs like flowers or stars to sew on to bags or even the middle of a childs top to cover up the stains!
  
• Fleece jackets: cut out the best bits to make children's mittens. To make a template simply draw around their hands leaving a gap of about 1-2 cms all around in order to give their hands room to move inside the glove. Make sure to draw right down to their wrist or else they will be too short. Use the template to cut out four pieces from your fabric leaving another 1.5 cms all around for your seam allowance. Sew two pieces together for each mitten, stopping short of the edge on the thumb side so that they can get their hand in.
  

If you have a favourite item of clothing that you want to keep but know will not get used again then turning it into a toy is a great way to preserve the fabric and give continued joy and fun to the child who receives it. If you are not confident with doing this yourself then I can do it for you. Simply send me the item/s of clothing and I will contact you to discuss what sort of toy, doll or monster you would like before proceeding. This is a really great way of preserving those precious items without leaving them languishing in the cupboard or a box in the attic. To order a Pogglers Recycled Doll click here.

I hope you find these suggestions useful. If you have any of your own ideas then please add a comment.

Fairytale Wool Fairies

I went to the bookshop yesterday to get some crafty books. I saw some nice ones on the German Amazon site to make things out of natural materials and another one with fantastic reviews. I thought I would support the proper bookshop though so took the whole family down with me. Not so bad as it sounds as they have a play area with a tunnel in the children's section. It turned out the craft section just didn't have anything I was looking for but I still came away with three books: one on stuffed animals; one on felting; and one on making fairies and elves with Fairytale Wool.

My mum gave us some Fairytale Wool about three years ago and I am afraid we haven't done anything with it until now. I got as far as finding a bit of hessian and thinking of pinning it to the wall to stick the wool onto, but didn't actually get as far as putting it up. When I was wee we had one wall of our kitchen covered in hessian so we could use bits of the coloured wool to stick on (it just clings by itself) and make scenes and pictures. It was such a wonderful idea.

So this afternoon when my youngest was asleep we got out the wool and made the fairy. It occurred to me half way through that I should have been taking pictures but it was too late really, so I will do that another time and post a tutorial on how to do it. There were some wonderful examples in the book and although it was a bit tricky at times, not as hard as I expected. And I think she turned out quite well. Do you like her?

These fairies make great Christmas tree decorations. I might make some for next Christmas. Would this be something you might buy for your Christmas tree or a present?



Happy poggling!

Waldorf Dolls

I have a number of different dolls on my site but most of the ones I make myself are Waldorf inspired dolls. Waldorf dolls are made from all natural materials, usually cotton knit fabric and stuffed with sheep's wool. Their hair is often made from mohair, although any mixture of wool and mohair is quite normal. I found some wonderfully soft Alpaca wool for one of my latest dolls.

The idea of a Waldorf doll is that, because of the natural materials and wool stuffing, it is soft to cuddle and will absorb the heat from the child, becoming warm like a real baby. The faces are very simple so the child can easily project which ever feeling they want onto the doll. If a doll already has a smile and open eyes it is more difficult to imagine it crying, for instance. Some dolls have little noses, some not. I like to make mine with a little nose, but it is easy to leave it without if a customer prefers. Because they have well rounded heads just about any sort of hair style is possible. Hair embroidered flat onto the head is great for babies at there is nothing to pull at, and long hair is wonderful for older children who will love styling and playing with it. I offer a number of different hair styles on my Cherish Dolls and all colours too including white and grey for a Granny or Grandpa doll or perhaps an old gnome. My custom made Cherish Dolls can be fully personalised so you could choose to have one made to look like your child. Skin, hair and eye colours can all be chosen as well as the hair style and type of clothes. And if there is something you would like that is not on the website I am more than happy to chat with you and source something different to create the doll you wish for. I make my doll's clothes from Fair trade certified organic cotton.

I have recently added some Ready Made Cherish Dolls to the site. This is one Oriental boy that I made recently with a funky endearing hair style. I was very happy with his cross over kimono style top as I made the pattern up myself and got it right on the second go. It fastens with Velcro as this is much the easiest for little fingers to manage. We have some doll's clothes that fasten with buttons or clasps and my children are always asking me to help them.

I will go into the making of Waldorf dolls in another post as I always wondered how they were made before I started making them myself. They do take quite a long time to make and the head is the most tricky, but they look great in the end, and there is a real sense of achievement when one is finished.

In addition to my Cherish Dolls I have Cuddle Dolls, organic and non organic, which are perfect for a toddler as there are no fiddly clothes to take off. My toddlers were always taking the clothes off, but never seemed to be bothered about putting them back on again, so they were often traipsing around with a naked dolly in tow! I also sew a bell into the hat which children love.

My Comforter Dolls are the perfect baby comforter. They also have a bell sewn securely inside the hat and little knotted hands which are great to chew on. And they are small enough to stuff away in a pocket when you are out and about. If you choose one of these for a new baby then the mother can carry it around with her or have it in bed with her before the baby is born so that the doll absorbs her scent to give familiar comfort to the newborn.

How did Pogglers come about?

When my second child was born I had heard that it might be a good idea to give the new big sister a present from the new baby. I had a couple of knitting books which I had already used to knit some clothes for my first daughter from and they had some toy designs in too. So I decided to knit her a rabbit from the new baby. The instructions were for a family of rabbits and I managed to knit the biggest one and a pair of trousers and a tiny baby one too before time ran away from me.

My daughter was delighted with it and at age 5 is still quite protective of her rabbit. She was even more delighted with her baby sister and when she came downstairs the morning after the birth.

"It's a baby! It's a baby, its a baby, its a baby!" she cried over and over again, pausing only to look at another person to direct her excitement to. She said this over and over again for a full ten minutes non stop. And every morning for the next few weeks, the duration diminishing slightly every day.

I digress. Rabbit was a great hit and was carried around in her own child size 'Tragetuch', a baby carrying wrap.

We live in Switzerland, so a few German words might creep in here and there!

So when I was pregnant with my third I decided I had to make the older two something from the new baby again. This time I decided to make them each a large doll so they could 'look after' their own baby too. I bought a book and some supplies and set to work making my first Waldorf dolls. I really enjoyed making them and the girls were delighted with them when their baby brother arrived.

So thinking that I would like to earn some money somehow, preferably without leaving the house, and therefore the children, I thought doll making was something I could do. It also filled my need to be doing something creative as I haven't really done much of worth since leaving art college with a degree in Sculpture.

So I asked my Dad, who is an Actinic web site design wiz, how I would go about setting up my own site, and before I knew it I had managed to design one and get it online. I bought more material and started making stock, and four months later started taking orders online. Here we are coming up for 6 months later. I am always thinking of ways I can improve or change my products and there are never ending plans for new things to make.

Happy poggling!