the green gal

My first swish

This is a top I swapped for one of my dresses at the Daisy Green swish at UK Aware on Friday. As it was my first swish I wasn't sure what to expect but it was super easy. I took in a few of my clothes that I no longer wore and could pick the same number from clothes that other people had brought in. I took in three dresses (which were quickly nabbed) and I took home this top and a T-shirt. Jury's out on whether I keep the T-shirt, I'm not entirely sure if it's me but if not, I'll just redonate it to a charity shop. However, I LOVE this top!

Daisy Green holds swishing events throughout the year, check out their website to find a swish near you. Soon you could be walking away with an updated wardrobe, for free!

Swishing and skincare

Today I am off to UK Aware at Olympia in London, will I see you there? I'm going wearing several hats (metaphorically, actually wearing multiple hats would not only look silly but also make it difficult to fit through Tube doors).

I'm going as press with my First News head on, as just me because I find all things environmental v interesting, plus I will also be joining the Daisy Green gals at their swishing spot! For some reason they think I might be of use with the clothes sorting but I think there's a good chance I'll just ooh and aah over the lovely stuff people bring. I'm taking a few items of my own with the hope that I might be able to update my own wardrobe with others' cast-offs. I will report back!

In the meantime, you can pootle over to Almost Frugal from midday where I've written a guest post on how to make your own skincare…

Have a lovely Friday, folks!

Face-lifts for clothes and wrist furniture

I've made an exciting discovery, two, actually three if you're being literal.
I can:
• embroider
• applique
• make a bracelet

Now, for those of you who are already versed in these skills it won't seem that exciting, but to little ol' me it's thrilling! (I seem to write this a lot, that's what comes of learning skills that have been around for donkeys but which I didn't apply myself to before.)

Armed with encouragement from my pal Kirsty and an ancient book of embroidery stitches (price: threepence) from my mum, I had a stab at running, back and blanket stitches as well as french knots. Once I stitched a few random shapes on my practice hankie (the humble hankie has a multitude of uses) I thought I'd try out my new skill on a proper piece of clothing. That's where the applique came in.

I fancied jazzing up a plain black cardigan with a cheerful butterfly cut out of yellow flowery fabric. The most secure way to fasten on the butterfly would be to sew it, which is where appliquéing came in! I used some bondaweb to help hold the yellow fabric on my cardigan and then embroidered blanket stitch around the butterfly’s outline. Using backstitch for the tail (is that what that little sticky out bit’s called?) and the same again with French knots for the antenna my cardie was complete! Only drawback was that I had pulled the jersey material of the cardigan too tight so the butterfly is a bit puckered, but hey, you live and learn.

What about the bracelet I hear you cry?

Having spent a v fun hour in The Bead Shop in Covent Garden, London, I had a stab at making jewellery. I threaded beads on to jewellery wire (found at John Lewis or haberdasheries) and then knotted the ends around a fastening (magnetic ones are the easiest to get on and off yourself). It’s a bit of a fiddly job as I kept measuring it against my own wrist while trying not to let the beads fall off, and it’s harder than you’d think to get the size/colour/style of beads right. Beads that look great on a table can look too big or garish on your wrist.

Anyhow, the results of my efforts, all both of them, are here, let me know what you think!

All in all I am quite pleased with my new craftiness. I gave an old piece of clothing a facelift and made myself wrist furniture for a bargain price.

Next step is to use vintage fabric my mum has passed down and pieces recycled to me by Kirsty rather than newly shop-bought cuts. And if I can find beads made from recycled materials I’ll be even happier. Perhaps I can take fastenings off old bracelets and reuse them…

The mental cogs are a-whirring!

The joy of freecycling

For those already initiated in the ways of freecycling, you'll know what a marvellous thing it is. For the freecycle-virgins (like me till last week) let me enlighten you.

The Freecycle Network spans the globe and consists of groups of people who want to give something away for free and receive somebody's unwanted thing gratis. Noel Edmonds' swap shop without Noel Edmonds. According to their website (www.freecycle.org) there are more than four and a half thousand groups and nearly six million members worldwide! That's a whole lotta stuff being swapped instead of being binned or sold for commercial gain.

Here's how it works:

Log on to the website and search for a group near you. Register, agree to their rules (fair stuff like you won't ask for lots of items without giving away stuff too and that you won't sell for money) and away you go! I joined my local group and posted a message offering a sofa. Within 24 hours a nice couple came round to the house to take it away. They were pleased to have a free sofa in relatively good nick for their daughter and we were happy to get rid of a surplus sofa that wasn't ready for the scrapheap.

Next, I put an unwanted, but barely used, computer desk on the message board. Now, I hear you say, why don't I sell it and make some money? I could. I could put a note in a newsagent's window, wait for enquiries, haggle over the price, and then eventually say goodbye to the computer desk. Or, I could put it on eBay, let a bidding war start, or not, and wait for it to be collected, or not. But instead, I put it on Freecycle and within a couple of days waved it off to the good home of a local hospice. Admittedly, I made no money, but now I have more space in the shed and a warm and fuzzy feeling. 

Give it a go, you might like it!