Zombie Feltie Kitty

Zombie Kitty

How Cute is this little cat? Ok, so she is supposed to be dead which is a little disturbing. You have to check out this book, Zombie Felties. There is even a Michael Jackson zombie feltie named Thrilla! The kids and I are hooked.

dead duckies

As far as easy crafts for kids go, these guys are definitely on the difficult side. Even the single skull difficulty level (which means easiest) zombies are a challenge for little hands that haven't sewn before. I was frustrated teaching the kids to tie knots and constantly reminding them which stitch they were working with, but, they loved it.

They are very proud of their little "dead ducky" creations. Not bad for a 8 and 9 year old who have never sewn before. They think they are totally ready to move on to a two skull difficulty level zombie (actually they are convinced they are ready to tackle the four star zombie surfer). I'm not so sure... I better do some yoga and practice deep breathing to prepare!

I didn't realize how small these little zombies were going to be. They are only about 2 inches tall. I had a lot of felt left over. Can't let that go to waste! I'm hosting a Meetup in Menlo Park, CA (San Francisco Bay Area) to make more of these little critters. The felt was the only supply I had to buy for this project. I already had the rest of the bits and bobs in my abundant stash of crafty goodness. I love that there is part of a bracelet that I made in high school around my zombie kitty's neck. (The black and white beads are supposed to represent an eyeball. Did you see that when you looked at the picture? Neither did I.)

Stay tuned, there are more zombie felties to come...

Making an Asian Inspired Quilt

I'm making an Asian inspired quilt. I swore I would never, ever, not in a million years make a quilt. Well... I lied. Although technically I haven't lied yet, the quilt isn't done.

color squares

I really don't know how this happened. OK, that isn't true, I know whose fault it is. Keri Aragon, from String Bean Studios, she is to blame! All I said was that I needed to raise some money and the next thing I knew I was rummaging through my fabric and cutting out squares.

Keri use to make quilts with her grandma. They sold for a pretty penny, which sounds pretty good to me since I am suddenly in the market for a new car and scrambling to figure out how I am going to afford to move in April.

This is a major work in progress. I'm pretty excited about it though. I managed to find a lot of freecycle fabrics that fit together for the project. The majority of the quilt will have to be made from new materials though.

Of course after I got started I couldn't help thinking about all the denim jeans friends have sent me to Upcycle. Now that might make a pretty cool and almost entirely upcycled quilt! I have to focus on one project at a time or I start to go crazy, right now I think I have about four going. Wait no, make that five.

playing with the layout

V-day Goodies

Life has been a scramble lately but I did manage to get some designs done for Valentines Day. If you haven't seen them yet you can find them all on my Etsy- http://etsy.me/i0wq3C

Here is a little sample of my "Love" creations. I was super excited to find that I had so many perfect materials to upcycle and freecycle this little collection. 

100% upcycled love

100% Freecycled

freecycled and upcycled

Find it all on Etsy- http://etsy.me/i0wq3C

Lyme Time

Flower Lyme Bracelet

I spent some time over the past few weeks working on mew designs for Lyme awareness jewelry. I got a bunch of new freecycle green beads and went to town!

Everything here is available for purchase at my Etsy store- http://www.etsy.com/shop/upcycledbyash
The original Knotted Lyme Awareness bracelet is also still available. Lymenaide has the rubber awareness wristbands too. No excuse for not being stylishly Lyme this year!

4 strand Lyme Awareness Bracelet

Lyme Awareness Garden Ring

There are more pictures and items posted in my Etsy store! A portion of all Lyme Green items I sell goes to Lymenaide as a donation for Lyme disease awareness projects.

What is in a Name

I am sure I am not the only crafter who has found themself facing this question. Does my name still accurately describe my business?

This summer I had an idea to make pants into messenger bags. I was just starting to learn about upcycling and freecycling and I totally loved the concept. I wanted to get my business started online which meant I needed to decide on a name. I love Upcycled by Ash and all the graphics I have created to go along with it.

Almost everything I sew still has at least some upcycled and/or freecycled materials. I quickly learned that making appealing items out of completely upcycled materials wasn't so easy. New fabrics have so much more color and they make it much easier to pick out a color pallet with patterns that complement each other.

Freecycling helps for sure. Between my friend Ginger, Mom, Grandma, and the project that my sister and I started a few years back that never got off the ground, I have a pretty good supply of fun fabrics and other materials. It has never been enough though.

Now I've also discovered jewelry making and I love it. A lot of what I am making still has freecycled components, but it is getting less and less as I use up the supplies. The thing I am liking the most about the jewelry is that it doesn't consume as much time.

Items I sew take up a lot of time. I honestly don't make enough from the sales to really say it worth the effort. Jewelry on the other hand is worth the effort. Don't misunderstand, I don't intend to stop sewing but it would be nice to make enough money to cover the cost of the project and have a little left over to help with the bills.

So back to the title of this post. I would say that about 60% of the items I currently have for sale are made of at least some upcycled or freecycled parts. The rest are made from new materials that I bought specifically for the project. Six month ago when I chose the name for my blog and business, I had no intentions of starting to make jewelry or of buying fabric specifically for projects.

I have evolved. Have I evolved away from my original roots too far? Is calling myself Upcycled by Ash misleading? Am I now just Ash who does some upcycling as well? Do I need to separate the sewing and the jewelry since it is the jewelry that is really pulling me away from the upcycled theme? At the same time though, I have made some purely upcycled jewelry too.

I have all these questions now because I am about to open an Etsy store. I only want to open one but I have two completely different crafts. Neither is completely upcycled, but neither is completely new material based either.

Is it a realistic compromise to create an upcycled/frecycled icon to denote which items are in fact made with upcycled/freecycled components?

Upcycled Button Necklaces

 

Brown Buttons

I've been having a lot of fun the past few weeks playing around with jewelry making. A few days ago my bag of random buttons was sitting right next to my box of random beads and strings/ribbons. Suddenly inspiration struck. Could I make a necklace out of buttons? YEP, and I love it!

My favorite thing is that these are really upcycled. I didn't have to buy anything. I've had some of these buttons forever. Most are from clothes that fell apart or they are that extra button they always give you but you rarely use. Some of the buttons in my bag are freecycled and others are pretty things I collected somewhere back in time.

These necklaces are simple and they look great. Not to mention being very unique. I hope you like them as much as I do!!!

More and bigger pic of the necklaces can be found on the Upcycled by Ash facebook page- http://on.fb.me/9e6iaO

To make a purchase contact me at: 
ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card or Personal Check 

additional charge for international shipping

Green Buttons $14

Wood Button

Eco Dolly

Eco Dollies 

price varies by doll

Without internet this past week I have had a lot more time to play around with designs and ideas. My sister recently sent me a photo of a simple doll and asked if I could make something like it. I liked the bright colors of the doll and the free-form style, but she was a little ugly for my tastes.

For my design I wanted to make something that was a cross between a child’s drawing and a hand-made doll that a pioneer girl might have had. Mine are of course a lot more colorful than pioneer mother would have been able to manage.

Meet the first of my Eco Dollies. They are 100% upcycled and freecycled. Every part of them is made form clothing or fabric and scrapes that I already have, nothing was purchased to make them. They are even stuffed with scrapes of fabric from other projects. I knew there was a reason I was saving all those strips of fabric!

I name everything I make to make it easy for people to tell me which item it is they want to buy. Please welcome Regan, Cindy and Brenda. Their names are totally random, the first name that comes to my head is the one they get.

To make a purchase visit my Etsy Store at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card

reduce-reuse-recycle!

Regan

Cindy

Brenda

Fancy More?

Fancy More Clutch

$60 includes shipping

I mean more literally. I increased the size of the original design to make the pouch a bit roomier. The original is big enough to hold the bare essentials including your phone, my iPhone just fits. The Fancy More clutch can easily hold the phone and more. 

Clutch Details- 

The Fancy More clutch is roughly 4.5 x 8 inches. I tried something new on this one and used a colorful fabric underneath the white lacy dress material. I used the same batique fabric for the lining. The batique is a freecycled material from my mom and the white dress is a upcycled dress. 

I actually made two of these but the second is being donated to my friend Candice of Infectiously Optimistic to help her fundraise for her Lyme disease treatment. 

Add caption

Like my Lyme green dress? I froze my butt off taking these photos this morning! As for the dress... I'm actually just safety pinned into a couple of yards of fabric.

My "dress"

Orange Bamboo Wallets

I got some fabulous fabric from mom when I was visiting this past week. These four prints just kept calling to me screaming, I WANT TO BE A WALLET! So I made it into three.

I've also settled on using a stiffer interfacing for my wallets from now on. I feel it gives them a better more sturdy form than my originals.

The Orange Bamboo I and Orange Bamboo II have eight credit card pockets and two deep pockets for bills. The Orange Bamboo III has six credit card pockets, one deep pocket for bills and one zippered pocket. All three wallets close with a single snap closure.

To make a purchase contact me at:
ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card or Personal Check 

additional charge for international shipping

Orange Bamboo I
$55 includes shipping 

The darker of the three wallets with lots of the orange bamboo. I love that material!!!

_________________________________________________________________________ 

Orange Bamboo II
$55 includes shipping

I seriously called this one the boring one as I was making them. In the end it turn out to be my favorite!

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Orange Bamboo III with zip
$45 includes shipping

This one has a lot more diagonal motion than the others and an interior zippered pocket.

Slight defect... I didn't know my own strength and punch right through a corner. Not to fear, I darned her up real nice! This is such a minor defect that I decided to post it anyway at a discounted price. After all this is upcycling/freecycling and to waste it would just not seem right!

the booboo

Nesting

Painting the drawers and what the desk looked like before upcycling.

I was away from home for about two weeks. I left here with two regular sized bags, my sewing machine and my dog. By the time my husband came to pick me up from my parents house I had collected enough to fill the entire car. Remember my Garage Sale Score in Santa Cruz? Mom and Grandma took me to Joann Fabric for some bits and bobs, then there was the trip to TJ Max, and dad gave me an old desk plus all the fabric my mom decided to give me since she wasn't using it.

My husband was thrilled (please note the sarcasm). He obediently packed it all into the car for me. We had to squish the dog up on top of the softer items, but the stuff the dog, He and I all fit!

I spent Friday reorganizing my new craft space upstairs and upcycling the ugly little chest of drawers from the garage sale and the old desk from my dad.

Click to see Nook's bite marks

The drawers started out white, well mostly white, it was a pretty dirty little unit. My color choices are more representative of the paints I had verses the colors I would have ideally liked to have used. It's now bright and exciting!

The desk was super dirty. My dad had to scrape some goober off it that none of us had any idea what was. It was also very nostalgic; this is the desk my dad had when I was growing up. Our old Texas Instrument computer use to sit on it, the first computer I ever used. I loved those TI games. Yes, I am older than Nintendo and super Mario brothers.

My dad made the desk himself so even though it is super simple, it's also very special. To top it off our last family dog seems to have gone to town on the front leg side of the thing. The dog, Nanook, died a few years ago but his memory lives on. I made sure to accent those chew marks to honor his memory.

The desk and the drawers don't match at all. I chose to antique the desk. I antiqued an old chest I found on the side of the road last year and I had plenty of paint left over to do the desk.

I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out. It definitely feels like my space. I still need a bookshelf or regular size dresser to complete my little sewing area, if I'm lucky maybe I will find one on the side of the road when I go out today!

Matching is overrated, upcycling ROCKS!

Guitar Hero Wallet

  Guitar Hero

$50 Includes Shipping

My husband plays guitar and as a tribute to music lovers everywhere, enter the Guitar Hero wallet!
I'm happy that all but one of the materials of this wallet are freecycled!

Wallet Details-
I tried something fun with the stitching; what started as a zig zag turned into a pretty unique funky stretched stitch. Each panel has stitch detail and so do certain key prints on the guitar material. This wallet screams a good, fun life!

The interior has eight credit card pockets and two deep pockets for bills/checks/receipts. A simple snap closure keeps your valuables secure inside.

To make a purchase contact me at:
ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card or Personal Check 

additional charge for international shipping

 

Geisha Girl Wallet

 Geisha Girl 

SOLD

My mom has a lot of Asian inspired fabric. She has had it for a long time with the intention of doing something with it. So far all she has done is collect more! Most of it has now been freecycled onto me. YAY!

I am still playing with ways to add a zip to wallets since I've had a few requests for them. I didn't even think about the lack of a zippered pocket when I sent a Victorious Vixen wallet to my mother-in-law last Christmas. For me not having a zipper is not a big deal. I put all my coins in a jar. My in-laws live in Australia where the smallest bill is a $5 note. The $1 and $2 are coins. I can see why my mum needs a coin pocket!

Wallet Details-

I pieced together four different coordinating fabrics to make this wallet. There is a lot of embroidered embellishment on the face of the wallet. I love the one red zigzag stitch for visual appeal.

The interior has six credit card pockets, one deep pockets for bills/checks/receipts and one reinforced zip pocket. A simple snap closure keeps your valuables secure inside.

To make a purchase contact me at:
ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card or Personal Check

Hope Tote & Donation from Amy Paffrath

 Hope Tote $150 

Lyme Project

Anyone who has Lyme disease knows that at times it all just seems so hopeless. We feel ignored, overlooked and dismissed because our illness in not always recognized as a legitimate health condition. It can be hard to stay positive and hopeful.

There are people out their listening and fighting for us though. Amy Paffrath is one of those people. Amy donated her time and lent her voice to Lyme disease awareness this past May. She also recently donated the pair of jeans I used to make this bag to my Lyme project here on Upcycled by Ash.

Amy is an actress and a host on E! News Now. Here is a link to her site- http://amypaffrath.com/ be sure to stop by and send her a thank you message or a tweet to- @amypaffrath 

About the Bag-

The outer of the bag is upcylcled from the jeans Amy sent to me. The HOPE is reverse appliqued into the flap and decoratively embroidered on with a combination of zigzag and straight stitching. The lining and interior pocket are from freecycle donations. The pocket on the back of the bag is one of the pockets from the jeans. I added a snap to help keep the pocket closed.

The bag is roughly eleven inches across, nine inches deep and three inches wide.

This Hope Tote is part of my Lyme disease awareness project.  50% of the proceeds will be divided between Lymenaide and the Turn the Corner Foundation.

Inside

Back Pocket

To make a purchase visit my Etsy Store at:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card

Amy Paffrath's Lyme Disease PSA for Paint May Lyme Green

 

Paisley Clutch

  Paisley Clutch 

SOLD

Lyme Project

Cute medium sized paisley clutch. Measures roughly nine inches across, seven inches deep and one and a half inches wide. Lots of freemotion detail on the paisley print. Bag lining is the same paisley minus the freemotion. Interior includes one pocket. Wrist strap is long enough to double loop over the average wrist. Bag closes with with a turquoise zip.

This clutch is part of my Lyme disease awareness project.  50% of the proceeds will be divided between Lymenaide and the Turn the Corner Foundation.

To make a purchase contact me at:
ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

Payments are via PayPal, Credit Card or Personal Check

Pin-Up Girls Tote

 Pin-Up Girls

$55 includes shipping

I love the way this bag turned out! I wasn't sure what to do with the Pin-Up Girls fabric when I first got it but now I am inspired. They are so bold and beautiful! 

Bag Details

Big enough to carry magazines and all your personal goodies. The tote is roughly 9 inches deep 14 inches long and has a 2 inch wide bottom. The two straps are 19 inches around, long enough to sling over your elbow or hitch up over your shoulder. There is a full zip across the top of the bag allowing for easy access.

I have plenty of these fabrics thanks to my fantastic freecycle friend Ginger! If you like the bag but you want it in a different size let me know and I'd be happy to whip it up for you.

To make a purchase contact me at: ashvantol@gmail.com or send me a tweet @upcycledbyash

 

Click on the Photos to Enlarge