Handmade in Germany by artist Sandra Monat, these cuddly fabric toys are patched together from new, vintage, and organic-cotton fabrics, including designs from Harmony Art.

I can’t get enough of the Vikings. Those horns! That nose! When Harmony and Dave Susalla showed them to me at the Green Products Expo last month, I was tempted to stuff a Viking under my shirt and bolt for the exit. Dave is about 10 times bigger than I am, though, so I changed my mind.

Photo by Cakehouse

Just look at that face! These four double-layer cloth napkins by Cakehouse were refashioned from preloved pillowcases and then hand-printed with water-based inks. Odysseus, a cat belonging to the designer’s sister-in-law, served as the model in exchange for a few months’ lodging—fair-enough, don’t you think?

Because Cakehouse works with recycled fabrics—the Brooklyn-based designer gravitates towards secondhand sheets, bedspreads, curtains, and the occasional house dress—every item is limited edition. I was tickled by the disclaimer she puts at the bottom of each page to indicate why you’ll find slight variations in each napkin: “I am a woman, not a womachine.” I might have to start using that as my e-mail signature. ($40 for four, Etsy)

Photo by Shop with Love

I saw these plush birdie cages at ABC Carpet & Home yesterday and became instantly besotted—they look much cuter in person, too. The bars of the cage are made from wire wrapped in fabric tubes to give it that structured, sculpted look.

The gears instantly went whirring, of course, which I’m sure is almost instinctual with crafty types. (It made me feel naughty, though.)

By the same artist, these magnificent oysters and the most-exquisite peacocks, ever! Green with envy, I tell you. Absolutely GREEN.

Here’s a bed I sewed for Mir—he’s a boy kitty, for those who’ve asked—last night, following a great tutorial I found online. I used leftover fabrics from previous projects, as well as fiberfill salvaged from a couple of discarded pillows. I’m no big whiz with the sewing machine, but this was an easy-enough project that took under an hour. Considering how pricey pet beds can be (upwards of $60, I believe), this was a low-impact and zero-cost endeavor that—according to my sister, anyway—looks store-bought.

99 Ways to Cut, Sew & Deck Out Your Denim by Faith Blakeney, Justina Blakeney, and Ellen Schultz; illustrated by Kira Lillie

Packed with—count ‘em—99 solutions to restyling a pair of worn, retired jeans, 99 Ways to Cut, Sew & Deck Out Your Denim by Faith Blakeney, Justina Blakeney, and Ellen Schultz is a ripping powerhouse of inspiration, especially if you think (like I used to) that old denim can only be remade into A-line skirts and hobo bags. Well, those are in here, too, but so is the gorgeous wrap skirt pictured below the fold, along with clear, easy-to-follow instructions on how to put together a baby dress, a sun hat, a dog jacket, and several styles of purses.

Click here for more »

Photo by Elvis Robertson

With a name like Elvis, how can you not aspire to fabulousness? Ms. Robertson has it in sheets. After studying graphics and illustration at St. Martins School of Art, and stints at various ad agencies and design companies, Elvis decided to fly solo with her bespoke textile company, Lovely, producing delicately handcrafted pieces she says are inspired by “English eccentricity, handicrafts, and a celebration of people coming together to share skills and produce pieces.”

Her primary ethos: Community and loveliness. A believer in recycling—she mostly works with vintage fabrics—and working within the community, Elvis uses textiles to “bring people together with the emotional and deeply intimate links that we all share with fabrics and stitch.”

Look below the fold for more in her own words. (You can find more of her gorgeous textile work on her Web site.)

Click here for more »

Photo by Neither Paper Nor Plastic (not to be confused by the reusable-bag company of the same name).

Guerrilla art, meet eco-activism. On Earth Day this year, CalArts student Roman Jaster parked himself and his sewing machine outside a Ralph’s supermarket in Valencia, Calif., and began to stitch together totes from fabric he screenprinted by hand earlier. The bags were handed out, at no cost, to shoppers headed inside. Just one catch: They had to pledge to use them for every shopping excursion for at least six months.

I think it would have even more rad if Jaster had used surplus, vintage or preloved fabric for his totes, but considering that our love affair with disposables has bred a swirling vortex of plastic trash the size of Texas in the North Pacific Ocean (view an animated map here), among other evils, I’d just be splitting hairs.

[via Green LA Girl]

Related article:
1. Plastic Bag Ban: Friend or Faux Pas

Photo by BurdaStyle

Mouse your cursor over to BurdaStyle, where you can download and print its “open-source” sewing patterns (on recycled paper, natch) for assembly at home. Amount of fuel it takes to get the patterns into your eager little mitts? Zero. Plus, the patterns are free, so it really doesn’t get better than this.

Well, okay, it can. Prepare to be blinded by the unbearable hotness of this dress and then glower reproachfully at your sewing machine for never giving you anything like THAT.

Art by Amy Butler

This news is actually almost a year old, but it’s new to me, at least. Amy Butler’s fabulous sewing patterns are now printed on non-chlorine-bleached, 100-percent post-consumer recycled paper from American and Canadian mills.

Amy says:

Both insides and covers will be done on the new stocks. It’s all a part of our continuing effort to improve the lives of our friends, families, and communities.

As if I needed another reason to adore her. (I’ve also heard that she’s investigating organic-cotton options.)

P.S. Have you seen her free lavender eye pillow pattern (PDF)?

Photo by The Farm Chicks

My favorite Farm Chicks (the hub bought me one of their vintage-wallpaper pendants for our first, “paper” wedding anniversary) have an easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy tutorial on how to make a tres-country-chic fabric-scrap flower pin. Simply use their template to cut out petal shapes in varying sizes (four of each), then fasten with a vintage button in front and a safety pin round back. The Chicks used salvaged fabric and ribbons from an old chicken coop about to be burned down; I’m bowled over by the fabulousness of that corn-meal sack.

I’m also crushing on Posie’s recycled wool flower pins in a major way. If I were ever to Single White Female anyone, it’d be her (except no puppies would be hurt because I’m a big ol’ softie like that).

Cartoon by C. Covert Darbyshire/The New Yorker

(For Siel.)

Photo by Spare Cloth at Etsy.com

I’ve been running the feed dogs of my trusty sewing machine ragged making reusable fabric gift bags from vintage Christmas fabric I found on Etsy for about a buck per yard. They’ll be going to family members who want a waste-free Yule.

Today on the Martha Stewart 12-month calender: Make apple and pumpkin pies. Um, I ATE a slice of apple pie last night, does that count? We’ll be offsetting our way to California to celebrate the slaughter of the natives, bearing gifts of organic potatoes and squash (for our pantry overfloweth). See you on Monday, my freaky darlings.

Related article:
1. Flying the Eco-Friendly Skies

Photos by Martha Stewart Living

The November 2006 issue of Martha Stewart Living (shaddup) has a plump feature stuffed with easy projects you can make from unintentionally felted sweaters or thrifted woolen sweaters you’ve shrunk for that purpose, including mittens, stuffed animals, a patchwork blanket—even a knitting basket.

Complete instructions for the woolly gifts—get a headstart on your anticonsumerist yule holiday of choice—can be found online here.

The Craft: blog has even more sweateriffic ideas.

Chekhov poses with his new summer bed, which I whipped up last evening using repurposed materials: corduroy from an old ankle-grazing skirt of mine I shortened considerably, upholstery remnants I snagged for cheap a few years ago, and foam padding someone at my office threw out but screamed “POTENTIAL” at me.

(I used an overlapping envelope-style closure on the back so it’s easy to throw the cover into the wash.)

Photo by See Jane Work

WhipUp.net has a great tutorial on how to embellish a boring ol’ tape measure, something I’ve been meaning to do with a couple of freebies I have lying around. These scrumptious wool-felt boxes by Hable Construction have kickstarted my creative juices and launched them into high gear.

More inspiration from Down Under over here and here. Craftapalooza’s handstitched pincushions are also SO very delectable. (She graciously provided a tutorial, too!) A few of my in-laws sew and quilt, so these might just be what Kris Kringle ordered for my anti-consumerist Christmas. Any excuse, really, to go thrifting for fabric and felted sweaters.

You’ll find another tutorial for a cake pincushion here, and one for a heartachingly twee one fashioned with a bottlecap here.

I can’t even begin to describe the pure deliciousness of Denyse Schmidt’s new Flea Market Fancy line for FreeSpirit Fabric. Where is their elusive New Jersey warehouse located so I can break in? The cops would find me the next morning, clutching bolts of fabric to my chest, passed out from sheer delirium.

(I don’t even quilt.)

Somehow, I plan on turning this:

Pucci-esque fabric purchased two years ago at a discount fabric store’s closing-down sale—a steal at $1/yard. (I ended up buying the 9 or 10 yards that was left on the bolt.) Vogue sewing pattern from SewingPatterns.com.

into this:

Click on screenshot for the actual Web page.

I’ve sewn bags and pillowcases, and hemmed the occasional curtain, but have never before attempted any kind of garment. (I don’t think badly stitched stuffed animals count.) While I’m not the type to make New Year’s resolutions, I’d really like to better my sewing skills this year, especially since I see so much that’s out of my reach financially, but I know I can put together myself with just a bit of crafty ingenuity. I guess that old chestnut is true, after all, even though I hate to lapse into stereotypes—necessity truly is the mother of invention. And how.

One Jaywalker sock down, one more to go. I love how the colors pool to form stripes.

I also made some Christmas stockings out of a couple of old sweaters that were long past their prime. The leftover fabric, married with some ribbon and buttons from my stash, found new life as floral embellishments.