Crocheted plastic sea creatures by Gooseflesh

Everybody has seen shopping bags crocheted from plastic bag yarn, but have you seen these...? Helle Jorgensen aka Gooseflesh is an australian artist who has taken recycle crocheting into new hights. She creates beautiful organic and very lifelike sea creature sculptures from plastic bag yarn. Man, I wish I could crochet. Envy :)

You can see some of Goosefles´s works on Flickr set. She also has a blog and Etsy shop.

MAGMO recycled trash dolls

I found Magmo Recycle Dolls when surfing in Flickr one day. I think it is wonderfull that not only the surface of the doll is made from recycled materials, but also the filling. Magmo dolls that have a zipper opening on the back so they can be stuffed with paper bags, newspapers, plastic bottles or whatever else you can think of. The doll designs are based on original Magmo characters that range from the mighty little Earthmo to deadly Trans-fatmo monsters.

Check out MAGMO THE DESTROYER for more info on these fantastic trash dolls.

My trashion idol - Mr. Martin Margiela

I have always found Martin Margiela´s work (see Margiela "Artisanal" collections) very inspirational. He takes everyday objects and transforms them into fashinating artistic garments. I also love that they describe on Margiela´s website what these items used to be, how the item was constructed and how much time was used.


Maison Martin Margiela Artisal collections items are all remodelled by hand. A long sleeve jacket is cut from a zipped nylon travel garment bag. The fabric and all details of these bags are used to construct this jacket. Its lining is used to create the jacket sleeves. The original piping, catches, hooks, zips and handle are all maintained on the finished article. The bag's shoulder strap is now the jacket's belt. Jacket made in 53 hours.


Ski gloves are used as the raw material to create a blouson with or without sleeves. Over dyed in dark colours the gloves are unstitched and laid flat so that all original detailing may remain intact and they may be assembled directly on a black cotton base prepared on a tailor's dummy. Two inserted pockets are added to the front of each blouson. Jacket = 103 hours



This white suit just looks so much more cooler with the neclace made from sunglasses.



Dress made from painting canvases.

80´s loose band t-shirt

I looove these 80´s styled loose on-shoulder band tees. This is my latest. They are just so easy to make. I made my first one in a wardrobe-panic when I had no cool clean clothes to wear and a bandtee was sticking out from the bottom of the pile. 10 min and some cutting later it was finished! Now I have about 5, a few back ones a pink one and a blue one.

Here is a tutorial on how you can cut you´re own from an XL t-shirt. The shirt you cut, should be about two or three sizes too big.


This is what I started out with - a long sleeved band-tee. At least two sizes too big. Remember to wash your shirt before cutting.


Step 1.
Cut the sleeves. Here I had to cut between the sleeve images. If you have a short sleeved tee, cut right above the edge-stitching. No sewing needed!


Step 1b.
I cut the other sleeve also right between the graphics. Now it is 2cm (1/2 inces) shorter than the other sleeve. It does not matter since this shirt will be worn asymmetrically.


Step 2.
Cut two slits about 3cm (about 1 inch) from the collar. Make sure you cut them in a 90 degree angle.


Step 3.
Cut a circle from the slits to the centre as close to the collar (mid-front) than possible.


Step 4.
Flip the tee over and do the same to the back. Cut as close to the mid-back of the collar as possible.


Step 5.
Try the shirt on. Cut the hem. I usually cut about 10 cm (4 inces). Fold the hem as you cut so the length will stay the same.

NOW IT IS FINISHED!

Fusing plastic bags into knitwear

Fusing plastic bags into fabric is not the only way to use this material. Ironing ready-cut forms straight to the fabric (or knitwear in this case) proved to be a very fast and cool looking effect! I noticed some plastics melted onto the paper and not the knit. Test before starting which plastic is best.

You need plastic bags, scissors, one sheet of non-sticky oven-paper and smooth surfaced knit. Test if the plastic is suitable for this kind of work before starting. I tested 8 different bags before finding the best one. Here´s how it was done.


Step 1.:Cut the form from the plastic bag. Here I used two layers of plastic.


Step 2.: place the plastic form on the right size of the knit. Do not put any needles!


Step 3.: Place oven paper on top (non-sticky baking paper).


Step 4.: Hold iron on top for about 20 seconds (disconnect steam). No need to press the iron. Check the paper once a while to make sure it does not burn.


Step 5.: Remove over-paper carefully.

How to restyle Converces at ThreadBanger.com

Threadbanger´s DIY designer Andrew Hanson shows you how easy it is to restyle a pair of Converce sneakers with studds and some spraypaint. Everyone has a pair now so I think some reconstrucktion is necessary to separate you from everyone else.. Plus it´s fun!

I also did some spraypainting on footwear a while ago to make a pair of heels and a clutch bag to colormatch them to a party outfit.

Preen FW2004 collection

Preen made fantastic reconstructed knits and shirt dresses in their Fall 2004 collection. I think this label is a very good example of a brand that does not get much press coverage, but is very important for a self-making fashionista.

I thought you should see at least the shirt collar dress, which again proves my point of "large quantities make art". Buy a lot (estimated 30-50) of recycled men´s shirts, preferrably in a certain color sceme and cut out the shoulder/collar area. Then sew them on a simple spagetti strap dress, which you propably have in your closet but have not used since 99`. Your dress is finished and it propably took you only one afternoon! If you want to make it look even more festive, just use secondhand satin ladies shirts instead. The sewing does not need to be fancy because the new layer of collars always covers the other one...







Another idea is to take three or four recycled basic men´s knits, cut them apart and them reconstruct them together on a dummy to make your new "fankenstein" knit. Just be carefull when cutting your knit that you do not stretch the pieces. The loops might begin to unravle. But I´m all for trashy looking stuff! You can always darn them together later to make your knit even more trashion.

Collections that inspire me

I thought it was time to share more collections which I find still to be very inspiring. The first is Christopher Kane 2007 Summer collection. I think the way he has combined fluo colors and lace is genious. Also the use of D-rings and ribbon. I see this kind of clothing created from those awful 80´s aerobic-suits, secondhand corsets + all your left over laceribbons, shoelaces and curtainrings. There is basically no wrong way to combine colors or material in this theme. 80´s lurex + lace + glitter fabrics + any colored lace ribbons.

I was so inspired by this collection that I made a dress by using a secondhand corset, metres of neoyellow 80´s elastic waistband and recycled street workmen´s fluovests for the base. The details are made from a roll of lace ribbon that I had been in my craft supply closet for years + some left over curtain rings. The result was quite Nu-rave, I think.

Here´s a picture of my finished dress but also some pics of Kane SS2007 collection. See the entire collection at Firstview.com

City.fi Best in Helsinki 2007 - Best Trashionista

City is a Helsinki area magazine for young city people. They choose "The best of Helsinki" every year. I made it to this years issue + their awards gala on next Wednesday. Hmmm. What am I going to wear?!?

The story:
The best trashionista (= fashion from trash)
Outi Pyy works in a normal office by day but on her spare time she is a fashion anarkist. She loves things that other people concider trash and ugly and she believes that we all can be "our own fashion designers". "All items can be re-invented. You can make buttons from Legos, totebags from pillowcases, keychains into earrings.. and so on." Last spring Outi, who studied to be a seamstress, got a chance to make two trashion dresses into a fashion show. The other one was made from 60 ties and the other one from street worker´s glowvests.

At the moment she is intrested in making something new from umbrella fabric, painter´s smudgy overalls´ and videotape. "You are able to dye, embroider and do different kinds of worn-treatments and change the model by sewing. I love the fact that your wardrobe can change when your style changes - it has an evolution."

Before Outi thought she was alone with her recycle-fashion-ideas, but now she has found her DIY-tribe. She is one of the founding members of Trashion Nation group in Flickr and she writes her own Trashionista blog. Her motivation is spreading the recycled fashion filosophy. The idea is to make something fab and then show to everyone what you have done and tell how you did it so others can do it for themselves.

"The Finnish DIY-scene need more punk-attitude. Crafts and recycling are still thought to be something grannys do, because most the ideas and patterns of Finnish craft and sewing magazines are the same as in the 70´s. I have more ideas that I have time to make so I´ll share the extras to everyone else in the web."

See the article at City.fi website HERE