Cut Out + Keep Projects Craft community

Cut out and keep is a fun craft community where after creating your profile you can easily make tutorials of your craft projects. Just protograph every step when you´re doing a new project and then upload the images + step by step instructions to Cut Out + Keep.

I´ve uploaded two projects so far: Spraypainting accessories and my boxy-t-shirt tutorial. I´ll be entering more soon.

You can find all my Cut Out + Keep tutorials and projects HERE. Check out also my craft tutorials on Flickr.

The Levi´s Project501 design competition

Levi Strauss & Co. is hosting a Project501 design competiton for all you DIY-remake-crafters (US residents only unfortunally). It´s nice that companies organize these compatitions for everyone and not just for fashion students.

From the competition site:
"The concept is simple: take the 501® jeans and the trucker jacket and use them as the raw material to design your own denim masterpiece. Whatever you imagine, make sure it captures the originality and youthful spirit of Levi's® - and make it happen by February 6, 2008! First step: register and upload your design.

Once the people have voted, you'll find out if your design will be the one produced and sold on Levi.com. Don't forget, you need the stylish Project 501® community to rate your design the highest. The more people who give your design five rivets, the more chance you have of reaching the top 20!"

Looking forward to seeing what people will come up with... I can see that Compai girls amog others have entered many of their fab designs.

Eco chic - the savvy shopper´s guide to ethical fashion

I found Matilda Lee´s Eco chic - the savvy shopper´s guide to ethical fashion last weekend from my favorite craft bookstore. I don´t read that many books (with no pictures..) but this blew my mind. I devoured this one in two days.

It is a very good cross section in today´s clothing and fashion business (everything from labour, materials, production, recycling...) and how it effects our precious planet and how to make your wardrobe more eco. I loved that it had a lot of actual numbers and figures but in a readable form plus great easy tips on how to shop greener. I think if one should criticise something they should also give an alternative. And this book did just that. Half of Eco Chic was about the problem and the other half about the solution. I also contained a lot of eco-brand names, organizations and other related info´s that I will check up later.

I thought I had a pretty good idea on how fashion should be consumed and how clothing recycling works, but apparently I had just scratched the surface. It raised so many questions and red flags in my mind about my own cosumption habits. Inspired by this book I have decided to take the Jill Danyelle pledge and attempt to make my wardrobe at least 50% sustainable this year.

If you buy one book this year, buy this. I will write some highlight from it later this week to give you a better idea on why I call this my new "shopping bible". You can buy a copy at Amazon.co.uk or win one from a competition hosted by Fuk.co.uk HERE.

Superuse.org and Haute*Nature

I hate it when people refer to DIY goods and using recycled materials to be less "design" and beautiful than new/factory/massmade goods. I think giving an existing material a new function takes a lot more imagination and product development/design. It is the new challenge in product design!

Superuse.org and Haute*Nature are some of my favorite blogs. They present a lot of superstylish products, art and other creations made from recycled materials and sustainable manufacturing techniques. These sites have lead me to a lot of new designers and brands that are hard to find from the www just by googling. These blogs have really shown that recycled and sustainable can look fabulous.

Using and buying ALWAYS NEW is so last season.

Clothes-hangers collar necklace by Frederike


Hockey stick chair

The Compai ladies DIY revolution

You´ve seen their designs on the pages of publications like Vogue Italia, Glamour Italy & Russia, Venus, Velvet aso. They are the authors of "99 WAYS TO..." book series which are a must-have for any trashionista and DIY clothes customizer. They were also featured on the latest episode of Threadbanger, my favorite DIY show on the web.



Compai are sisters Faith and Justina Blakeney and Swedish fashion designer and illustrator Ellen Schultz. In 2005 the Compai ladies wrote, designed and self-published their first book “99 Ways To Cut, Sew, Trim And Tie Your T-Shirt Into Something Special”. After that came “99 Ways To Cut, Sew And Deck Out Your Denim” in 2007, and “99 Ways To Cut, Sew, Tie And Rock Your Scarf” will be released in March 2008. I have already ordered my copy of the new book to my local bookstore. I can´t wait to get it!



Compai also posts to Flickr and I was happy to see that they have contributed to my Flickr Trashionista group! If you have some the 99-books and you have made stuff from them you can post images of your 99ways-projects on Flickr Compaiprojects group.

Organic vs. Remade clothing

I´ve been wondering a long time which is more ecological way to consume fashion, by customizing and buying remade or buying sustainable and eco-friendly products. My question was answered when I found this from GreenLAgirl.com in their QA column.

From GreenlAgirl.com:
Question: What is more eco-friendly: recycling clothing fabrics to create a new fashion item, or buying something new that’s organic? Maybe I’ve asked you this before. I have an idea for making a particular style of clothes, but I’m not fluently knowledgeable about the fashion world. -Trudy

Answer: Hey Trudy! The quick answer: Reusing / recycling beats out buying new stuff pretty much all the time. The reason: New stuff inevitably takes more energy to produce — water, fuel, etc. — than reused and refashioned stuff. As Umbra at Grist points out: All textiles, as currently manufactured, require large volumes of water throughout the manufacturing process. Spinning, dyeing, weaving, scouring, sizing — all involve flushing the threads or fabric with water at one point or another, and often that water comes away contaminated with chemicals used earlier in the process.

Granted, you’ll be doing away with the chemicals if you stick to organic clothes — but these new clothes will still take tons of energy to produce. Besides, opting out of the excesses of consumer culture’s the new hip thing :P Of course, sometimes new stuff’s necessary! Used undies are generally not a good idea, for ex. But I always suggest that people try to get their clothing items used FIRST, then if that’s not possible, going for organic.

You asked specifically about making new fashion out of old clothes — which makes me think you might be interested in Armour Sans Anguish, a cute girly company that makes sexy new refashioned fashion. Check out their Golden Shirt Dress to the right, avaliable at my friend Summer’s store BTC Elements. Best thing about remade fashions: Your outfit’ll be envied, but no one’ll be able to copy that unique style.

Photos from Armour Sans Anguish

Freaky 70´s balaclava masks

These balaclava masks from a 70´s craft magazine are my absolute favorites from Flick. I found them from Poppalina´s craft set. They are so hilarious but at the same time they freak me out. Someone has actually worn these skiing 40 years ago! A perfect project to use some of those left over woolthreads... If only I could knit...

Pattern for Adult Balaclavas here
Pattern for Kids' Balaclavas here
Also blogged in Poppalina´s blog.

Rosie Robinson´s painted jeans

Every once a while I strike gold while browsing through Flickr. This time it lead me to denim painting wizard Rosie Robinson. I think her painted jeans pictures found on her website speak for them selves. Amazing technique with fine taste in denim customizing. Some of these look so freaking fantastic that I do not know weather to wear them or frame them on my wall...

After graduating from Central St Martins in 2001 with a degree in Fine Art, she has been working on a accessories line, selling in independent shops in London’s East End. The core of her collections are revolving around her “sewing-drawing” technique. Machine embroidered, freehand drawn pictures on canvas or vinyl which are then made up into a range of utility bags and purses. The denims are custom made from recycled quality jeans (including Diesel, Replay, Energie, Levis and G-Star.).

And the best part is that these denim-art-pieces can be bought from her website (in requested sizes!!)and Ebay... But they are also a great inspiration for all you home-denim-painters. I wonder if she could customize a pair for me if I sent her one???