A better way to recycle your old clothes

I am a recycling junkie who will look at an Old t shirt and think about making a bag or a toy. But I am dedicating this post for a better way of recycling. Giving.Yes, Give it away. Donate your old clothes to someone who will need it more than you do.I know many people who will never ever give away clothes or any other stuff for that matter. It might not even be the insane hoarding case.I will break it down to you so that you can picture this better.




(image credit: link)

Sentimental clothes

I totally understand this if you want to keep your sentiments attached to various pieces of clothing, like the dress you wore when you first performed on stage, or the jeans you wore when someone proposed to you. It is totally cool to get attached to one or two pieces of clothing. But when you have a load of clothes that are completely useless but you can't let them go because you have some memory attached to it, now that is what I will call a clutter. Wear it or if you don't fit into it, hold it, take a picture, post it on facebook, write about it on your blog, do something of that sort, save the memory in writing along with an image and be done with it. Give it away. If you want to save that one pretty piece of fabric, by all means save it. Take it to your grave if you are into that kind of thing. My mother wants her wedding saree to be taken with her to the grave, apparently. Now that is weirdly sweet. Weird, but sweet nonetheless.

Fit back clothes 

I once had a pile of clothes which I thought I will fit back into. Some were really nice clothes, but they were no longer my size. I tried to exercise, I ran daily and so on, but no, they did not fit back. They just stayed in my cupboard like constant reminders of how my body changed. They were like mean pointers who were mocking my efforts to go back to whatever body size I was three-four years ago. They were also a thoroughly depressing sight. And one fine day, sense dawned on me. I realized that I got to get rid of them and get new clothes that are suitable for my current body size. I asked my friends to take which ever they wanted to keep, rest I gave away to people who I thought might be happy to get some clothes that are old but in good condition. I also stopped shaming my own body for growing out of my old clothes. I got new better clothes :)

DIY idea clothes 

Ok, so pinterest is big these days. Among the people who waste time on internet, half of them do it on Pinterest crazily pinning DIY hacks. Anyhow, I am pretty  sure almost all of them just pin those ideas so that they can do it later. They will also find their old clothes and hoard them so that they can do that recycle craft later. Just that the later will never happen. Result is a cluttered clothes cupboard.
What make sense is to execute projects within a week. If you do not have the passion to do that old clothing craft within a week, you are not going to have that passion one month later. If you are not doing it in a week's time, give it away.

Not sure clothes 

Then there are these clothes you are double minded about. You kind of like them, you sort of dislike them too. You are not sure whether you want to wear it or not. My idea in dealing with this category of clothes is to put them in a bag. Check if you thought about wearing them at least once in a period of a month. If you haven't worn it for a month, just give it away. I am only talking about the seasonal clothes here.

No idea I had these clothes 

Then there are these clothes, when you see them you sit and wonder if it is actually your's or has someone left it in your closet. It might even be a dress donated to you by someone else but you can't remember who. These are the clothes you do not care about. Don't even think twice before donating them.

Sarees 

Never discard sarees. They are always in vogue and they will fit you no matter how thin or chubby you become in the years to come. Hoard them. Have family heirloom sarees. Save your grandmother's sarees, your mother's sarees, your aunt's sarees, your entire woman folk's sarees. Do giveaway too if you feel like giving them away.

That is my idea of what to keep and what not to keep. Use your sunday to clean your clothes cupboard and give away what you do not need.

Happy Donating!

Whimsical Sock Monster Puppets

There are these socks, you do not know where the pair is. These socks, they have the habit of disappearing. You can either be a hipster and do not give a damn to the colour coded sock wearing world, go ahead and wear them mismatched monsters, or you can transform them into sock puppet monsters. Now, I don't really care whether the socks on my feet will match with each other, but I so wanted to try out making some whimsical sock puppet monsters. Just look at them, adorable things! I am also adding a step by step tutorial into how to create one of these using an old and fuzzy sock.

Before we move into the tutorial, take a look at what fun thing a sock puppet monster is... 

It sure does have a lot of character! 

It can talk and give weird smiles and all...

They are very smart photobombers!

I have used wool for the nose and hair of this one. You can use pretty much anything, it is that random whimsy.

Here he is displayed next to the boy's artwork :P

Ha ha, monster smiles.

Hide and seek.

Let us feed the monster a magician panda!

Now the tutorial.

Draw a rough oval on a piece of chart paper.

Cut the said oval. No need to put pressure on perfection.

Grab any random waste cloth, preferably bright shaded, fold it and cut it in a similar shape. This should look somewhat like this. Again, no pressure on perfection.



Keep the paper oval inside.

Next item you need is your old sock: the fuzzier, the better.

See that line over there, that is where we cut.

This should look like this.

Lookie look, the plan is evolving now.

Now insert the oval paper covered in fabric.

Next step is to stitch the said oval formation to the sock, cut the sock as and when you want it fit around the oval.

See, this is how it looks.

Now we will make eyes. You can buy those readymade teddybear eyes, but I wanted it to be from recycled stuff, so I cut a piece of fabric from an old tshirt.

Then that was rolled in to a not so neat fabric ball...

Finished rolling it.

They were then stitched into the sock as eyes.

My washing and sketching unit.

Sheets are washed and monsters are made in this household.

I drew eyes with black fabric paint. He now looks a little tipsy, don't you think?

Then I made some hair from another piece of waste fabric.
I took a roughly cut long piece of fabric.

This was then cut to make tassels, all done quickly, not so neatly.

That was then rolled and stitched on to the sock where hair should be.

Sock puppet happiness :)

This is really easy folks. Next time you see a sock without a pair, make a monster.
:)

Enjoy the puppet show.

Ice cream stick family

Summer is hitting Delhi. Most of our trips outdoors are accessoried with icecreams. Whether it is Winter or Summer, you will find various brands of ice creams in these tiny bicycle carts. Our first choice is Mother Diary. But then we couldn't resist the creambell Sachh Muchh Aam. It was seriously sachh muchh aam :)

The ice creams came in a stick, a peculiar shaped stick which I found ideal to make a miniature family for the boy.

Thus the tiny ice cream stick family was born.
There is the appa, the amma and the boy.

I used sketch pens to make these free hand drawings on the ice cream sticks. 

Amma and Appa watching the boy play with the balloons...

Amma holding the boy.

And here is Appa holding the boy.

This was the suchh muchh aam raw material :)

Amma and Appa can have some alone time too, eh?

But not for too long... The boy was too keen to put himself back in the picture :) This is exactly how he behaves in real life too at times :P

Shuffling and playing...

More play. More fun.

Shaking the ground beneath a little, are we?

Appa and the boy, chilling in a paper boat.

Paper Boat :)

Just how did you make this again?

Us in a boat.

Row, row, row.

Appa and Amma trying to have a cliche'd Titanic moment in the paper boat.

Closer is Better!

Much love.