What goes around comes around!

I am thrilled to see two lovely women sharing their versions of my tutorials to me. My attempts to inspire people to craft is hereby considered successful.

Here is Arathi and her version of a t shirt tote bag.  You can find my tutorial here. I love Arathi's choice of a t shirt.

And here is Poonam and her wax resist painting. I felt sentimental and super glad when she told me that after some seven years or so, I inspired her to pick up some colour and sit down to paint. Find my wax resist tutorial here.

My love and thanks to both of you!

tshirt to grocery tote bag tutorial

You might want to say no to a plastic bag when you go grocery shopping, but what is the alternative? All those shopping bags, those horrible looking monstrosities, how are you supposed to carry those around? Here is something that matches your cool quotient while being eco-friendly. Presenting before you, the re-cycled grocery bag made from an old tshirt. This does not include any complicated sewing process at all. All you need is some 15-20 minutes of your time, an old tshirt and a pair of scissors. 

First step is to pick an old tshirt that is too tight or too loud or too old for you to wear. If it has a cool print, your bag will have it too. 

Chop the hands off.

Now chop the neck off. At this point, if you are a Mallu, remember Akkare Akkare Akkare :)

Cut some fringes.

Knot them fringes. Make sure you knot it twice to make it strong.

Tie a piece of fabric to create a handle. (You can choose not to do this too.)

You are all done!

I love these fringes.

But if you are of a non fringe loving, simple bag person, trim those fringes and turn the bag inside out.

I turned it inside out and quickly scribbled a Frank Sinatra song lyric to it, you know, just to make it extra cool. :)

May be I should have saved those leftover dreams. Funny, but here's that rainy day.

In my grocery bag today,

It seriously will take 15 minutes to do this. The bag is unbelievably sturdy, it will put any of your plastic grocery bags to shame. It is washable. It is just an old tshirt.

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.