Turn Jeans into Denim Yarn

 

I was determined to make denim yarn last year. I wanted to crochet a denim hammock, but I didn’t have the patience to cut up that many jeans. Turns out, you’ll need tons of jeans for that.

Instead, you might try crocheting the denim yarn into a granny square to make a small rug. Or something like that.

Any other ideas? Let me know! I’d love to test more things out with this yarn. Plus, it’s extremely easy to make!

How to make denim yarn, you ask? Well, here you go:

1. Find a pair of old jeans to cut up
   
2. Cut along the smaller outer seam of one leg of the jeans. Then, cut horizontally across one leg of the jeans starting at the thick seam and stop about 1/2 an inch before the end of the fabric. See photo below.

   

3. Unfold the fabric, and it should look like the photo below.
   
4. Next, pick one side and cut through to the seam from the middle cut. Rotate extending the cut from each side, as shown in the photo below.
   
5. And now you have the denim yarn!!

 

Upcycled Greenhouse

No money or space for a greenhouse? Flip a plastic storage bin upside down. It’s kitten-proof and it works great. One week into my seedlings and my sunflowers are growing so fast!

It gets enough sunlight from the window and heat from being inside. It’s perfect to start baby seeds!

Top 10 Favorite Wine Crafts

While your New Years Resolution may be to drink less wine, mine is exactly the opposite. Seeing all the awesome things you can do with leftover corks and wine bottles inspires my crafty side to drink more. I think Pinterest has turned me into an aspiring alcoholic. But, as popular as my “Wine Crafts” board is on Pinterest, I can’t be the only one.

I guess my wine obsession started earlier than Pinterest (Shh… I may not have been 21). In college, my friends and I would bring a bottle of wine to a party instead of a fifth of Burnetts. My obsession with corks started around then, too.  We were so set on saving corks, we’d wake up with corks in the back pocket of our jeans all the time.

We found lots of really creative uses for our wine bottle, too.

Example #1. My friend had a sunburn. We’re in a dorm room, so the only logical thing to do was to cool it with a wine bottle. Obviously.

Wine therapy for sunburns

At least Pinterest has helped steer my wine obsession toward classy. But, it’s still not classy to walk into a house and see evidence that this person drinks way too much wine. The solution is not to drink less, it’s just to give all these neat crafts as gifts instead of keeping them all for yourself. And, that brings me to example #2.

Example #2: Decorate wine glasses and give them as cheap birthday gifts. Another friend gave this to me for my birthday a few years ago. I still have it and love it! Perfect birthday gift for the wino in your life. Decorating the actual cup part of a wine glass is a big no-no though. The paint rubs off or falls off as soon as condensation forms on the outside of the glass (Oh, there’s that college degree talking: condensation.).

Birthday wine glass

Or, you could try one of these prettier crafts found on Pinterest. Here are my Top 10 Favorite Wine Bottle and Cork Crafts, in no particular order.

I love this wine bottle fountain using a recycled wine rack. Prefect garden decoration.

These wine bottles are just epsom salt and spray painted white. Easy, easy.

This is cute and doesn’t take many corks. Cut them in half to make the corks last even longer (unless you have way too many already).

What a great welcome to party goers. This is so cute! Click to see lots more wreaths on etsy

Essential for every college wino, but probably not acceptable in the workplace.

Now, this is a wine cork chandelier. I would love one of these!

It can be a little difficult to glue them together, so take your time and make sure not to be drinking too much wine.

Who can survive the holidays without wine?

Leftover yarn is always such a pain to get rid of. This is the perfect low-cost solution.

Spray paint, glitter and stencils is all you need for this one.

There’s my list for now. Stay tuned for a challenge accepted post… Much more wine crafts to come! After all, it is my new years resolution.

How To Dry Lavender: 3 Easy Steps

I saw a recipe for creamy lavender celery bisque this morning. I thought, how cool would it be if I could use my homegrown lavender? I looked into how to dry lavender and found a tutorial on wikihow. Of course, I’ve decided to make this a much more straight forward photo tutorial. See my photo tutorial below about how to dry lavender in three easy steps!

Supplies: Shears/scissors and ball of string
Time Needed: 20 minutes
Until Dry: 1 month

1. Cut lavender just above the leaves, so you have a long stem.

   
   

2. Tie each stem separately, close to the cut end with a long piece of string and loop the ends. Tie all the loops together.

   

3. With the loop, hang the lavender to dry. It should be in a dark, dry place. Let sit for one month.
   

Now you can have dried lavender in three easy steps! Also, in one month, stay tuned for my trial of that creamy celery bisque with my homegrown dried lavender.

June Garden Update

I just graduated from college, and I am more than excited. I have been so busy with everything that my college craft blog has kind of fallen off in posts. Now that it is summer, and I’m still in the job hunt, I have lots of time to dedicate here!

My Urban Garden in Photos

I live in a duplex in an alley of a small city. House hunting is almost impossible in here, and when I asked the landlord if the house had sun at all, he said I would be able to sit and tan on the patio. I tried to explain that I wanted to plant a garden, but he didn’t understand. So, we just had to take our chances and sign the lease. In the fall, we only had a few hours of sun in our backyard, and I was a little disappointed in the garden possibilities. However, now that it’s the spring, the sun is in a different position and all the morning and early afternoon sun reaches my little plants.

During the past few weeks, the weather here as been amazing. My plants are beyond happy, and they’re growing up so quickly. Although the patio is all cement, we’ve found some ways to have a garden anyway. I turned an old plastic dresser into three raised beds and a mini greenhouse. Egg cartons have been great for starting seeds, and old yogurt containers have been good for transplanting. I have a few pots from last year that I’ve been using too. See the photo progress below!

Also, you can track my potato plant progress on two different Slow Food posts.

My new hanging strawberry basket from the Tuesday Farmer’s Market.

My yellow pear tomato plant from the Tuesday Farmer’s Market.

My roommate planted lots of seeds and can’t remember what this one is. Any thoughts?

Instead of candy, people were throwing baby trees at a parade my roommate went to last weekend. Now, we have a potted baby tree.

I’ve been trying to clean up the thorny bushes and weeds coming through our chain-link fence and bamboo shield, but a few plants were ruthless and grow back constantly. Finally, I realized this weed was actually mint. When you cut mint into pieces, they take root and multiply. Now, we have never ending mint. I don’t really trust wherever this mint came from though.

Our surprise mint plants. in the gutter between the cement and our fence.

My roommate’s dancing snow peas.

This kale is growing so fast. I have to go get some Slug-O though because they’re being attacked!

I think I may need to rearrange these. The romanesco and salad greens are a little crowded.

That’s my update for now. Any suggestions for my garden? I’m just beginning, so this is all trial and error for me.

How To Make Homemade Greenhouses

The weather here has been amazing lately, but when I started my mini urban garden, that wasn’t the case. I had a small plastic dresser outside all winter that kept all my garden supplies. The plastic drawer didn’t hold up so well through the winter, so I decided to dismantle it and use it as a planter instead. At first, this was as far as my idea went. I poked holes in the bottom for drainage and filled them up with soil.

I found that I had all these other pieces from the shelving of the drawers that fit perfectly on top the drawers. Suddenly, I had a genius idea. I was determined to make an upcycled greenhouse with plastic drawers, painter’s plastic, a stapler, scissors and a hot glue gun. My roommates thought I had really lost it, but I went for it. So, here’s a short photo story on how to make a greenhouse.

I made three prototypes to see which one worked best. See the photos below.

Blue shelving piece and planter box drawer. Step one.

Painter’s plastic and blue shelf. Step two.

Unroll and place shelf in the center. I treated it like wrapping a present.

Wrapped it up and stapled where I could. Step Three.

Finished product of prototype #1. Benefits: Stable base. Disadvantages: Doesn’t hold up well in the rain.

Finished prototype #2. Benefits: Holds up better in rain. Disadvantages: Unstable base.

The final greenhouse prototype was the best, but I had to hot glue sticks to the blue plastic and wrap the painter’s plastic around the whole square. It was much more stable and held up through the inches of rain we had. The weather got really nice, and I don’t really need a greenhouse for lettuce, kale and romenesco anymore though, so I have these guys on top of my other plant starts for now.

Prototype #3. Benefits: Stable and more rain resistant. Disadvantages: Difficult to construct, especially when using found branches and hot glue.

A close-up of the sticks and plastic.

Have you ever done something like this? Any advice?

Baby Sunflowers

Sunflowers are by far my favorite kind of flower. They’re all over my house. A few weeks ago I planted some sunflower seeds, and they’re growing up quickly.

My sunflower babies.

This is my dream for those little guys:

I have this on a canvas above my couch. Literally obsessed.

What have you planted this Spring?

Seashell Wreaths

When I was growing up, we always lived by or vacationed at the beach. During all those years, my family and I collected and created lots of nautical decorations for our house. My dad was obsessed with glass fishing floats and sand dollars.  Sometimes he even pushed old ladies or children out of the way if one of these things was sitting on the beach. However, my mom was a little more reserved in her beach obsession and stuck to creating beachy crafts for our house. This seashell wreath is one of her favorites, and we’ve decided to share it with all of you!

This handmade decorative seashell wreath is for indoors only. This one is 14 inches in diameter and is covered in shells. The backing is straw. We’ll take custom seashell wreath orders and sizes as well.We’re asking much less money than most, and at $30 this seashell wreath, or one like it, can be yours. If you’re interested leave a comment below!

All wreaths are different because no two shells are alike!

A great wall hanging or festive centerpiece.

A close detail shot of the shells and quality

Dinosaur Baby Hat Pattern

I have received so many comments on my dinosaur baby hat post, and I am so flattered that everyone likes it so much! I feel so guilty that I don’t have the pattern posted yet. My life has been insanely busy, and I wasn’t expecting the blog to take off like it did. Anyway, I’ve finally found the time for making the pattern!
Below is my free pattern for a baby dinosaur hat. It’s a step-by-step crochet pattern. What’s better than learning to crochet by example. It basically starts off as a baby beanie, then trails off into a tail. See below for more.

Enjoy! Share it with anyone and everyone! Ask me any questions you have, and I’ll try to get back to you.

Dinosaur hat:

Dinosaur hat complete!

Materials needed:
Crochet needle, I used size F, but it will depend on your yarn.
2 colors of baby yarn, one ball of each should be more than enough.

1. Chain 4. Join to form loop.
   

   Step One.

   

   Loop formed in Step One

2. Chain 2. Single crochet 7 stitches inside the loop for a total of 8 around. Join.
   

   At the end of the step, when you join the row.

3. Chain 2, single crochet in first stitch. 2 single crochet in each stitch until end and join.
   

   Keep adding rows like this.

4. Chain 2. single crochet in next stitch 2 single crochet in next stitch. Repeat sc, 2sc until end. Join.
   

   Again, another round. They should all be like this in even circles, if it starts to get uneven, something has gone wrong.

5. Repeat step three.
6. Chain 2. single crochet until end. Join.
7. Repeat step 6 for 11 to 15 more rows, depending on desired length of the hat.
   

   This was my test size. Yours should probably be longer, depending on your baby's head size.

8. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 22 stitches. Turn.
   

   This is where you're starting the tail. It should be almost half way around the hat.

9. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch for 10 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end, it should be 10 stitches. Turn.
   

   Ten stitches in on row 2 of the tail, and decrease. See photos below.

   

   Needle in next stitch, yarn over.

   

   Needle in next stitch, yarn over.

   

   Pull through both loops.

10. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
11. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 8 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
12. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
13. Repeat previous two steps once more.
14. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 7 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
15. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
16.  Repeat previous two steps once more.
17. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 6 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
18. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
19.  Repeat previous two steps once more.
20. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 5 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
21. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
22. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
23. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 5 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
24. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
25. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
26. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 4 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
27. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
28. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
29. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 4 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
30. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
31. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
32. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 3 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
33. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
34. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
35. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 3 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
36. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
37. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
38. Chain 2. Single crochet in next 2 stitches. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet until end. Turn.
39. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
40. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
41. Chain 2. Single crochet in next stitch. Decrease two stitches. Single crochet and turn.
42. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn.
43. Chain 2. Single crochet in each stitch until end. Turn. There should only be three stitches in this row, including beginning and end.
44. Fasten off!

Scales:

Note:

1. Cast on with color #2. Start about four rows from the end of the tail. Find the center of this row and insert needle. Yarn over and pull through. Yarn over again and pull through both loops.
   

   Step one. Find the middle, insert hook, yarn over, pull through.

   

   Two loops on hook now. Yarn over and pull through. Stitch one complete.

2. Insert needle into next stitch and repeat until you have seven stitches.
   

   Row 1 = 7 stitches

3. Now you are at the next row. Turn, but don’t chain. Single crochet in each stitch. At the end you will have six stitches.
   

   Row 2 = 6 stitches

4. Continue this pattern, no chaining between rows and you should have a triangle. Row 1 = 7 stitches, row 2 = 6 stitches, row 3 = 5 stitches, row 4 = 4 stitches, row 5 = 3 stitches, row 6 = 2 stitches, row 7 = 1 stitch. Fasten off when you get finish row 7. Weave in all loose ends.
   

   Row 3 = 5 stitches

   

   Row 4 = 4 stitches

   

   Row 6 = 2 stitches

   

   Row 7 = 1 stitch

5. Repeat this so the scales are evenly dispersed on the tail and hat, this will probably about 6 scales, but could be more depending on the length of your hat and tail!