The EcoChic

In honor of Trash to Treasure Thursday, this week I’m super excited to bring you the latest and greatest news from TERRACYCLE!  In April, TerraCycle debuted Garbage Moguls on the National Geograpic Channel – a series of television shows that documented the zany antics of the TerraCycle crew as they develop new products from our garbage.

This Saturday, National Geographic will be airing the pilot along with three brand new episodes!  Set your DVR’s – plan a night in with friends – but don’t forget to watch Garbage Moguls this Saturday night.  The fun begins at 7pm ET as they replay the original pilot episode, followed at 8pm’s Pet Project, 9pm’s Fishy Business, and at 10pm pull an All-Nighter with the TerraCycle crew. 

Below is a clip from the 9pm Fishy Business episode where they Tom and Alby visit a plant in Ohio that turns 500 chip bags into a brand new trash can and pitch the idea to the Home Depot team in Atlanta. 

Be sure to join the TerraCycle preview party LIVE on Twitter from 8-11pm to win some great prizes.  Follow @TerraCycle and #GarbageMoguls to be a part of the live fun.  You can also follow along on Facebook and answer some trashy trivia questions.  www.facebook.com/terracycle

It’s my best friends birthday celebration so I may have to sneak onto my iPhone a few times to catch the action live – but shhhhh – don’t let her know!

Giveaway alert! Two lucky readers will win one of the Generation T books by Megan Nicolay – details at the end of this post.  ECO-ngratulations Alanna & Shirtee.

As you know I’ve been better and better at actually completing eco-crafty projects each week for you. This week is the jackpot of all Trash to Treasure Thursdays with a collection of projects and a giveaway! I’ve been infatuated with finding ways to reuse or upcycle old t-shirts – I scour the blogosphere, YouTube, Etsy, and other crafty websites looking for innovative ways to use t-shirts. In one of my searches I came across Generation T and Megan Nicolay.

Who is Megan Nicolay? Much like myself Megan has had the crafty bug since she was a child – always looking for the next great project. We also share a common statement – “I could so do that!” My friends and family are always telling me – “You could do that!” when they see anything. Megan began her website www.Generation-T.com back in 2005 and by 2006 she published her first instructional book – “Generation T – 180 ways to transform a T-shirt.” In her first book she includes many punk inspired projects to transform that plain boring t-shirt into halter tops, bodices, skirts, leg warmers and more! My favorite is the Grand Finale – “Tying the Knot” – a wedding dress made from old t-shirts. I have a co-worker of mine who is getting married next year and this would be PERFECT for her – she’s a little bit of an eco-junkie like myself.

Megan’s second book – “Generation T – Beyond Fashion – 120 new ways to transform a T-shirt” – was published in 2009 and include projects for the home, kids, pets, and men! Having a tot running around the house my favorite chapter is Kid Rock and I can’t wait to make The Little Empress for my own little princess. There is literally a project for everything you could possibly need around the home.

While I have a list a mile long of projects I WANT to complete – here are pictures of projects I’ve already completed. I don’t follow directions well so many of them have been altered from Megan’s directions to fit my own style. That’s the great part of crafting – you are the designer – and you can decide what you like!

My husbands old Little League T-Shirt

My husbands old High School T-shirt

A collection of Counting Crows concert t-shirts

More on Generation-T and Megan -
Blog: www.generation-t.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Generation-T/95374461988
Twitter: http://twitter.com/generationtee

WIN IT! I have one copy of each of the Generation-T books to giveaway. I’m going to split the set and offer this giveaway to two (2) lucky readers – I pick which book you receive. To enter visit the Generation-T website and tell me two things – 1) what are you most excited to make, and 2) what t-shirt do you plan on cutting up first? Leave your comments below and be sure to leave your email address in the comments.

Extra Entries: Earn up to 5 extra entries each day until the close of the giveaway (August 15, 2010) – leave a comment for each task completed (along with a link if applicable).

1 – Follow @Generationtee, @TheEcoChic, and @EcoChicParties on Twitter – 1 entry for following all 3 combined.
2 – Like all three (3) on Facebook – 1 entry for Liking all 3 combined.
3 – Blog about your own Trash to Treasure project and include a link back to this giveaway. Leave your own link in the comments below. – 1 entry for each project.
4 – Tweet about this giveaway – include @Generationtee, @TheEcoChic, and a link back here in your tweet. – 1 entry for each tweet.

Rules: Winner will be randomly selected at the close of the giveaway period from all entrants over the age of 18 who are residents of the US & Canada – however Canadian residents will be asked to pay shipping if selected. Giveaway ends midnight (ET) on August 15, 2010.

Disclosure: Thank you to Megan Nicolay for sending my copies of each of her books for review (and inspiration). Megan also supplied the copies for the giveaway. Images in this post are original creations by The Eco Chic and vary from the actual projects featured in Generation – T slightly.

I have been sewing lots lately and decided to use the fabrics that I have on hand instead of going back to the store to buy brand new, fancy fabrics.  Most of my on-hand fabrics are old, retired t-shirts.  I’ve seen many different varieties of a t-shirt scarf and here is my own version.

Supplies:  2 adult t-shirts, a sewing machine, pins, needle, thread, and scissors

Directions:

-Decide how wide you want your scarf to be.  I used a scarf I had on hand as a guide.
-Cut strips from your shirts.  I cut about 8″ wide strips starting from the bottom of the shirt (cute through both sides).  Remove arms and neck pieces.
-After I cut the width strips I cut those strips into 12″ lengths (approx. size only – all sizes can vary).
-Decide on a pattern and color scheme by laying the strips out the way you would like them on your scarf.
-Pin the front sides of two (2) pieces – continue this process all the way down the length of your scarf.  My length was about five (5) pieces – well over 6 ft total.
-Repeat these steps for the back side of scarf.  *My version has two (2) sides and at the end will look like a tube before it’s turned to the right side.
-Begin sewing where your pins are leaving about 1/4-1/2″ seam allowance.
-After you have the desired lengths sewn then you can begin sewing the front and back sides together.
-I sewed down one long side, one short side, and the other long side – leaving the final short side open – right sides facing (inside out).
-On the final short side sew 2/3 of the way across (still with right sides facing).
-Turn your scarf so right sides are facing out.  You may choose to iron the back side before flipping to allow the seams to lay nicely.
-Hand stitch the remaining hole closed using a blind stitch (which I’m not sure I’ve really learned or mastered but it looks good to me).
-You are now ready to wear your scarf!

The wilder the print on the t-shirt the more unique your scarf will be.  As you can see in the pictures above mine were pretty simple – but depending on how you wrap your scarf you can see different parts of the pattern.  I have plans to make a smaller version for my tot to use in her dress up box since she apparently likes mine.  I also have plans to make one for this falls football season to match our teams colors!

Did you make anything this week?  Add your link in the comments and I’ll come check it out!

Want me to make you a scarf using your favorite t-shirts?  Send me an email and we can coordinate the details.  I’m thinking of opening an Etsy store with some of my sewing projects – am I crazy?

I usually save these posts for Thursdays but I had to share my latest project with you today.  My sewing machine has been quite busy lately but I’ve put myself on a fabric buying ban!  Seems that I get a little carried away at the fabric store with all the pretty prints.  If you remember my last Trash to Treasure Thursday (tie-dyed ruffle skirt) I still had parts of that the tie-dyed t-shirt in my fabric box.  My sweet (mischievous) pug decided recently to attack (and destroy) his pet bed – or should I say he redecorated the house with stuffing!  I decided it was time for him to have a new bed – but I refuse to buy him a new one!  Afterall it will only be a matter of weeks before it’s used to redecorate the house too.

For this project I measured the size of the crate to determine the dimensions of the doggy bed.  From that I cut the t-shirt into the outer dimensions (plus a few extra inches for seam allowance).  Since the t-shirt wasn’t quite large enough for the entire bed I cut two smaller pieces (front and back of t-shirt) so that they would add up to the final dimensions I needed.  Just for asthetics – I cut them again in half so they would form the checker board pattern you see in the final pictures.  Essentially – I had 8 pieces the same size when I began. 

I simply sewed the pieces together in the pattern of my choosing and then sewed the fronts and backs together (right sides facing) -leaving a few inches open on one end.  I then turned the fabric so the right sides were out and began stuffing.  I used polyfill but I also added some fabric scraps to the inside as well.  You could reuse the stuffing from old pillows or old doggy beds if you have them. 

After the pillow was stuffed I simply sewed up the remaining hole and gave it to Champ!  He’s carrying it around with him all day today so I’m pretty sure he likes it.  But then again – he tries to steal the sofa pillows too. 

What have you made this week?  Any fun upcycling projects?  Leave me a link below in the comments and I’ll come check it out.

My husband cleaned out his drawers a few months back and gave me some of his old t-shirts to experiment with.  I got a sewing machine for Christmas (for myself) and have been learning as I go.  I took a sewing class in High School but that was YEARS ago…so I’ve become friends of YouTube to re-teach me how to sew. 

This use to be a concert t-shirt that he probably wore only a few times.  Now it’s a cute toddler skirt.  I didn’t have a pattern to follow – but I did look closely at a skirt that she already has in her wardrobe as a reference.  I forgot to take pictures along the way but I promise to make it again and provide you with a tutorial. 

Have you made any Trash to Treasure projects this week?  I’d love to see them – leave a comment with a link to your pictures.

Now before you start leaving me funny comments about how Earth Day was LAST week let me begin by saying that Earth Day in our house is celebrated 365 days a year.  Since I was out of town on business last week I didn’t get a chance to write what was on my mind about Earth Day.  So today you are all going to celebrate Earth Day again…with me! 

When the very first Earth Day was celebrated I was still safely nestled inside an egg in my mothers body.  It wasn’t until a few years later that I would be welcomed onto the Earth and begin leaving my footprints on her.  I remember as a child having passion for projects – the homeless, the hungry children in Africa, the stray dogs in the neighborhood – you name it, I had to be involved.  As I got older this passion for projects turned into a career and I am now one of many who claim to be a protector of the planet.  

While I may not lead the perfect green lifestyle I do make a difference with my small changes.  I am fortunate to be able to make milke naturally for my babies and never had to feed them that fancy stuff from the cans – thus reducing their environmental footprints as well as my own.  With the birth of number two I leapt backwards into the world of cloth diapers.  What I like to look at as an archaic lifestyle has suddenly turned modern once again.  With this leap I have personally saved thousands of diapers from a lifetime sentence in the local landfill and have encouraged others to do the same.  I guess we can learn something from our parents; after all my mom used cloth on both my brother and I. 

But what more can we do today (and everyday)?  As I reflect on Earth Day 2010 and how I reached out to a few thousand employees to make small changes in the workplace; I wonder what else I can do in my own life.  So I began making a list of 40 things I can do to live a more sustainable life.  (*40 since it is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day) 

In no specific order here is my list: 

1. Reduce my paper towel dependance at home.

2. Eat more local grown foods.

3. Eat less meats and seafood.

4. Be more attentive to my families recycling.

5. Use less plastic in our lives (thanks Beth Terry for always making me cringe when I use or trash plastic!)

6. Make more homemade toys for my children.

7. Purchase less STUFF.

8. Get outside more.

9. Watch less TV (and computer, phones, etc).

10. Consider the amount of toxins that are in our families skincare products (thanks #ecowed crowd for making me cringe when I put on lotion!)

11. Attempt to garden more. (I’m a huge failure here!)

12. Compost more (again, another failure!)

13. Find a local environmental project to volunteer for. (Beach erosion or cleanup sound interesting!)

14. Reuse more of our waste products. 

15. Create a weekly trash to treasure project.

16. Blog every Thursday with a new trash to treasure project (one of my original goals of this blog).

17. Involve my family more in our green ideas around the house.

18. Take my water bottle with me more places. (Especially when I travel)

19. Use my To-Go-Ware more and carry it with me when we go out! (reusable silverware)

20. Throw away less food.  Have you ever looked at how much food we waste?

21. Recycle more paper at home. I’m bad about trashing junk mail which is probably one of our biggest wastes.

22. Spend one day a month removing myself from mailing lists; I hardly have time to read it all and never make any purchases from them.

23. Use only real and local soaps. Now more bottled bath wash.

24. Line dry more clothes.  I wonder if I could talk hubby into hanging an old fashion clothes line?

25. TRY the Diva Cup instead of tampons.

26.  Find a local farmers market and start shopping there.

27.  Pick up 40 pieces of trash each time I go to the local beach. (or anywhere really)

28.  Travel with our cloth diapers more.  I’m good on short trips but the longer trips become challenging!

29.   Watch Food, Inc (the movie) or read the book! (CHECK!)

30.  After watching Food, Inc…decide on how to change what my family eats!

31.  After watching Food, Inc…do not eat at McDonalds again!

32.  Green our bathroom renovations…if and when we get off our keesters and actually begin the projects!

33.  Buy and install a rain barrell.

34.  Replace the windows on our house to be more energy efficient.  This may be saved for next year due to the cost of the bathroom renovations.

35.  Take my son to see Disney Nature’s OCEANS! (CHECK – 5/16)

36.  Do something to help the Gulf oil spill.

37.  Get cloth diapers on The Ellen Show. #OperationFluffy!!!

38.  Convince at least one more person to use cloth diapers.

39.  Work to green my sons school and implement a recycling program on campus.

40.  Stop using dryer sheets – try wool dryer balls instead. (STARTED 5/16)

As you can see this is a work in progress.  I can’t even complete the list by thinking of 40 things.  What about you?  Could you think of 40 small things you could do to be more sustainable?  

EARTH DAY 365 PROJECT:  Create your list of 40 small changes and link to it using McLinky below.  Check back montly as I give you an update on my 40 things! 

This is the first year that I’ve actually tried not to buy new gift wrap, ribbons, and tags for our holiday gift wrapping.  We still have several rolls of wrapping paper (I doubt we will ever run out!) but I really wanted to make some of our wrappings a little more eco-friendly in nature. 

One of our gifts to wrap was a cute little tutu (3 actually) for some of Big B’s girlfriends.  How on earth do you wrap a tutu anyways?  I decided to take use some old t-shirts for the wrapping and tie them with tulle that was left over from the tutus (yes, I made the tutus as well).  For the tags I cut out shapes from food boxes that were in our recycling box and tied them on.  I’m sure if I had taken my time I could have made them even prettier but those who know me know that my time is limited these days!  Here is the final product…not too bad!

And remember all those magazinesI told you I received in the mail?  I decided to make some upcycled ribbons from them.  I found a simple tutorial here and made them my own.  Here is how I made mine:

Step 1:  Retrieve all those old magazines and sale flyers from your recycle bin.

Step 2:  Cut strips of varying lengths and widths depending on how large or uniform you want your ribbons to be.

Step 3:  Fold and tape each strip into a figure 8 (as shown below).  You could also sew or staple the stips to hold them. 

Step 4:  Arrange your strips to form a layer of ribbon.  Staple (sew or tape) each layer together.

Step 5:  Stack the layers to form one large ribbon.  Don’t forget to add a small piece in the center and a tail.

Step 6:  Attach to your package!

Step 7:  Recycle after the holidays!!

I know you want to learn how to make this cute upcycled Christmas Tree from magazines and mail catalogs….

…but you’ll have to visit The Mommy Blogfor complete directions.  I’m a featured guest blogger over there…thanks to the kind invitation from Cinella.  Please visit and leave comments both here and there about your ideas on turning trash into useful Holiday decorations. 

I’ll be featuring more trash to treasure ideas here in the next few days so be sure to subscribe or follow The Eco Chic blog so you don’t miss a single post!

Tis’ the season for our children to WANT, WANT, WANT!  I struggle each year around this time to remind my 6 year old that it’s not all about presents and Santa.  He had a homework project this week to talk about the holiday that we celebrate (Christmas) and why it’s important to him.  His teacher is including Winter Holidays in her lesson plan and each child gets to contribute with the holiday that they celebrate.  While working on his project I realized that he still doesn’t ‘get it’ with the reason we celebrate Christmas. 

Christmas of course is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion.  One way that people help celebrate the holiday is with Advent Calendars.  You can find them in most retail stores filled with candy hiding behind little cardboard doors.  The last two years I’ve made our Advent Calendar.  Last year I had a different part of the Christmas Story from the bible to read each day…leading up to the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.  I really enjoyed that version because in addition to counting down to the big day Big B got to learn a little each day. 

This year I finally broke down and purchased an actual Advent Calendar (I fell in love with one shaped like Mickey Mouse from Disney World) but I still want to make it special.  I just caught up reading some of my favorite blogs and I just had to share these ideas with you all.  One of our family friends is Genie who writes a great family and Christian blog The Blazi Gang had a wonderful idea on how to make the Advent Calendar a little more special.  She decided to make a list of 24 activities for her family to complete like 2) Build a fort and have dinner in it, Make a Christmas craft, and 22) Go downtown and look at lights.  You can see the full list on her blog or you can make up your own list.  I’m going to try to start this tomorrow because I think it’s a fabulous idea to show that giving is not only about giving gifts….but also about giving of yourself and your time. 

Another blog I like to skim each day is the Crafty Crowbecause they collect great craft ideas from around the blogosphere and share them.  They always have great holiday ideas and I found one today from a blog called Maya Made on making an Advent Calendar from toilet tissue tubes.  Last year Maya made a similar Advent Calendar and she had a ticket in each tube with a special activity for the family members. 

So then I decided to search the web for some other Advent Calendar ideas using scraps and trash.  How about these:

Cookie Sheet Advent Calendar

Mini Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

Bottle Cap Advent Calendar Magnets

Recycle Bin Advent Calendar

Altoid Tin Advent Calendar

I could probably search all night but the truth is I don’t have a ton of time to make something new for this year AND Lil’ B just woke up with a horrible hacking cough.  I guess I’ll go snuggle up to her before I drift off to sleep.  What are your family traditions around the holidays?  Do you have an Advent Calendar that is unique…I’d love for you to share it with me.

Here are some cute projects that I saw while visiting Epcot’s Flower and Garden festival at Disney World a few weeks ago.  With a little time and imagination you can create some really cute projects for your garden.  I wonder which one will be my first project?

Cute bird feeders from beverage bottle or milk jugs.

Windchimes from old kitchen utensils.

Or the cup and saucer bird baths?