Friday, 6 September 2019

ZWW - Progress Report #1

The Audit Sheet is on the fridge and I am trying to be diligent about filling it in. Easy when I am in the kitchen, less reliable when I throw something away in the bedroom. I will post about the Audit tomorrow.
But I have done a few other things to save stuff from landfill.
On Wednesday, I was invited to go to the Scrapstore with a couple of friends. I picked up a few bits and pieces for my Sunday Morning Children's Activities. And I found something for Bob too
This is a case for microphone stands. Bob has one already, but he has too many stands - so this is a useful addition to his PA kit. They retail around £20 - this was £2.50! Admittedly it needs an inner divider, but we can easily sort that.
I showed the staff at the store some photos of the Kids' Club crafts - they'd provided laces for the bottle-top snakes. They said it is always good to see how stuff has been used. 
I was quite disciplined about collecting stuff- as I said to my friend "If I cannot think of a use for it, I will not take it just to add to my stash - better to leave things for someone else who can use them"
My other activity of the week has been working on a set of three memory bears for a friend in Sussex [she's also a friend of Jill, for whom I made a bear in July]
Now in one sense this is helping save old  worn-out shirts from landfill. One had a hole in in, two others were ripped on the button band, and cuffs and collars were very worn. You couldn't really give these to a CS.
So that is good - but I have still got all my trimmings which are too small for further sewing projects. What should I do with these tiny bits? I remember when I was making some play costumes from fur, I worked outside in the garden, and the birds came and picked up the little bits for nesting. Not sure these scraps will be as useful. Any ideas, anybody?
How have you been getting on with Zero Waste Activities?
As I rarely buy new clothes, and usually look first in the CS when I need something, the Oxfam Secondhand September Challenge hasn't felt particularly relevant. But I applaud those who are trying to cut back on their clothes-purchase-habits. Every little helps!
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5 comments:

  1. Kezzie6 September 2019 at 08:17

    What about using the scraps as stuffing for the bears or for another craft project. Could they be cut into strips and attached to make a costume for Rosie such as a birds wings, a jelly fish costume, could they be given to a school to use for a collage project (e.g. our year 5 kids do an Antarctica collage and I save all sorts of scraps for them. Same as my old socks which get used for stuffing for felt fish.
    The microphone case was a bargain!!

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  2. Bless6 September 2019 at 08:32

    For the scrap fabric from the shirts, maybe consider making a rag rug? The way I do them is cut the strips about 3 inches long by about 1/2 inch wide, stack about 6 or 8 of them so that they criss cross each other and sew onto a backing fabric (I used to use burlap, but any fabric should be OK). If you don't want to make a rug, you could make a cushion cover. Maybe little quilts for the memory bears?

    I've had to throw away a bag with litter box cleanings, so far. Other items have been recycled, or put into the compost pile. However, I do have a small bit of cooked pasta that got too dried up to eat and a couple of spoons of some other cooked food in the garbage to be tossed.

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  3. Angela6 September 2019 at 12:32

    Thanks for these ideas. The larger pieces of leftover fabric have gone into my scraps box . The yellow box is full of tiny bits. Mostly seam trimmings about 3mm wide. As they are polycotton, I do not think they will compost. Kezzie's idea of using them as stuffing might workbut I am afraid they might be lumpy!

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  4. GretchenJoanna7 September 2019 at 02:16

    My granddaughter filled a little basket with such trimming scraps and hung it in a tree last spring as a charity shop for the birds :-)

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  5. veeknits197 September 2019 at 11:57

    Thank you for raising the zero waste week,glad you had a successful visit to the scrapstore. It's always good to repurpose things isn't it? Just a point about clothes not suitable for the CS,most charity shops do take clothes, shoes, belts, books that are not suitable for sale but which are sold on by weight to the rag merchant which raises money for the charity, although I'm not sure what does happen to these fit for rags items - I expect someone will know!

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