artful repurposing

a few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to co-design a minigolf hole for an art exhibit on Governor's Island here in NYC. it was part of the Figment festival, a weekend-long (and, for some pieces, summer-long) art exhibit that featured local artists and musicians who contributed anything from massive outdoor sculptures to tiny indoor paintings, participatory theatre to mini dance parties. it's grown to be a pretty amazing event and i was thrilled that our minigolf hole, called 'tillie', was there for 3 full seasons (and even showed up in time out NY and the NY Times!).

tillie in all his glory

however, after 3 years of summer long battering by the elements, my collaborator and i decided that tillie should retire. we had no plans for a mini golf hole this year, but i really wanted to contribute to the festival. the curators really love projects that are environmentally oriented, as well as interactive, and it got me thinking...what could i create on my own that would perhaps use repurposed materials in a unique way? what i came up with was a 'community garden' (the title of my piece), in which all fo the flora and fauna were created from repurposed shopping bags, most of which was converted into plarn. what is plarn? plastic yarn. allow me to explain.

making plarn involves cutting plastic shopping bags into loops, linking them together, and, if you're really ambitious, spinning it on a drop spindle or spinning wheel. then it can be used as you would any yarn to make things like bags, flowers, baskets...anything that likes to have a little structure. it can be a bit fussy to work with at first, as it has no give, but once you get a feel for it it's easy. and goodness knows there are plenty of plastic bags to be had! i put out a call to friends and was overwhelmed with the response.

pre-cutting

snip, snip!

loop-a-rama!

aaaand...plarn! spun and unspun.

 the only problem is the colors tend to be limited...mostly white, yellow, and tan. but i did luck out and find a few interesting colors in the stash next to the fridge....some blue, black, the rare and precious pink or orange. i tried to focus on flowers that used the colors i have the most of, like lilies, sunflowers, and daffodils. the few pinks and reds were used tissue paper flower-style to make peonies. green soda bottles have been serving as flowers and bases.

lily

a rare blue plarn orchid

kindergarten style peony. hey, it works!

i still have a long way to go, plus have included as part of the installation a plarn workshop offered throughout the day to show not only how to make it, but how to crochet a plastic shopping bag to be used again and again. i'm a bit overwhelmed (what have i gotten myself into???!), but excited at the same time. and so grateful to live in a city that offers such wonderful opportunities for artists to express themselves. now,  i'm off to design a crocheted daffodil...

i'll just keep these loops safe for you. don't wanna be the victim of a plarn bandit. you're welcome.

work and play

i've mentioned before that, where i work, we often can't wait to finish sewing so we can start sewing...in the sense that, after we've finished building a new show, cranking out costumes and hats and heaven knows what else, we all get very excited for the chance to work on our own projects. for example, we just finished building 2 shows, one on top of the other. it was very challenging and frustrating at times, but they are now out the door and we have a couple of days to relax. which, in the case of my coworkers as well as myself, means honing our skills on the sewing projects we've been dreaming of.

i'm a big fan of vintage dresses and have accumulated quite a few patterns over the years. the one pictured above is a favorite, for several reasons...not the least of which being that, including front and back facings, there are only 6 pattern pieces. sweet! i also recently unearthed some yardage of a great vintage style print, more than enough to make the dress. so that's what i did today.

mine is a bit shorter, and i modified the neckline, but in the end i was very pleased with the result. i considered a number of different trims for it, but didn't want it to be too precious. then i started experimenting with some of the leftover fabric, and came up with this:

flowers! they're hard to see here, but they're basically ragged looking roses, made from severals layers of fabric cut from a template. i based it on one that Clover has put out that i couldn't justify buying because, well, the pieces were just cardstock that was printed with directions. i could see from the packaging how it worked and set about making my own version.

the templates were created by folding a square of cardstock or heavy craft paper in half, half again, and half again, then cutting a curve around the edge and a circle in the center. this created an 8 petal template. i made 3 sizes for layering.

next, you want to cut a piece of fabric about the size of your template.

fold it in half along your first fold line.

then fold in half and half again, as you did when cutting the original template. and please ignore the dye under my fingernails. oh, the fashion sacrifices we make when we're crafty...!

cut the fabric around the curve...

and open! you now have a flower shape.

now, keep cutting! i made 4 large, 2 medium and one small to make a basic flower.

stitch an 'X' in the middle using a sturdy thread and pull it snug. the flower will pucker a bit.

flip it over and stitch through from side to side several times, just to pull the base into more of a pucker. alternatively, you can do a circle with a running stitch that's about 1/2" in radius and pull it tight.

the back will now have a little cluster that will give the flower some shape.

fluff out the petals, hit them with some steam and voila! you have a clever little rag flower! attach a pin back or sew it directly to a bag, pillow, sweater...whatever you like. it's a great way to use up scrap fabric and may well be my new favorite thing in the craft world. enjoy!