Sunday, May 6, 2007

A Green Project

I hoped I would finish this for Earth Day, but I think I started only about two days before that, so instead I finished it today. It is the first of at least a few more of these shopping bags. We have an insanely large collection of plastic bags that I feel more guilty about every time I go to the store, so this seemed like a great idea. The yellow-orange variegated is thrifted and the green/white combo on the bottom and one of the straps is from some leftover from other projects. I decided not to make the envelope because I figured I would rarely go to the trouble of folding up the bag and that it would be easiest to store it on a hook. I also think the pattern makes the bag way too large (especially because it stretches so much), so I think for my next one I will cut off 5 to 10 rows. I might also make the base a little larger - maybe an extra two rows. Last week I picked up a lot more thread at the thrift store because it was all tagged with the half off color tag, so hopefully I now have enough to make at least four more, although it will probably be a while before I get them finished or even started. The ink finally came so I hope that I can figure out some tags and get my hand-crafted items in the shop. That and a refinishing project(of some thrifted furniture) will be my main projects this week.

The furniture is a bit overwhelming. I've never really done anything like this before, so it's turning out to be an experiment and an adventure all in one and all I've done so far is start stripping off the layers of paint. So far I have seen green, gold, peach, purple, black, blue and white paint. I'll try to get out and take some pictures tomorrow when there's a little bit of natural light in the garage and you can see all of the fun.

1 comment:

Christina J. said...

What a great idea! I really like the bag. Good luck on your refinishing project. I've done a little of that myself. I think my least favorite part is stripping off the old finish.