Feautured artists: Svetlana Mititelu, FromBabushkaShop. Upcycled crochet bags made from plarn

We love our planet and the concept of repurpose, reuse, resycle and upsycle is always on our mind. Today we'd like to introduce our team member Svetlana from Moldova who is following this concept very much with her idea of recycling the plastic bags from the grocery stores. She uses the yarn made of these bags to crochet baskets, bins and totes, They are sturdy, pretty and look stylish, too!

You can find many of Svetlana's items in her Etsy shop (FromBabushkaShop) She is always on a watch for a new ideas, new methods and stylish looks so visit her often!

Here is her story about her inspirations.

Q: Tell us about yourself?
A: I am a mom to two wonderful grownup daughters and a grandmother  I am 52yo and only now I began to do what I really like, crocheting, and to be exact crocheting bags.

Q: What are your bags made from?
A: The bags are from the basic plastic shopping bags. This method (upcycling) is very popular just now and gaining more publicity because the pollution of the environment is very important. I take the single use plastic bags and make from them a reusable bag for life.

Q: How your bags are different to other upcycled plarn bags?
A: First of all, I tend to make them not only practical but also beautiful, designer! Secondly, almost every bag has a fishing line added to the base for strength, so the bag can withstand up to 10k. Maybe more but I didn’t manage to carry more from the shop. So instead of using a new plastic bag every time you shop, you use one plarn bag from babushka.
And my plarn bags are very light, fold if necessary and don’t take much space.

Q: What do your clients like about the plarn bags?
A: Every bag is one of a kind. You can choose a bag based on your mood and character and be sure that nobody else will have the same. My clients like the versatility of its usage. You can use the bag for shopping, or to go to the beach, or use it as storage unit. Also they like that the majority of bags have handles that easily transform and you can carry it as a shoulder bag, in hands or cross body that is quite practical as hands are free!

Q: What care do they require?
A: The plarn bags are easy to take care of! If there is a small spot then wipe it with a damp clean cloth. Also you can put them through a gentle wash cycle, 30* degrees no more. Every bag has a small tag attached, it’s a sample that you can wash first to make sure the bag is not going to be ruined.

Q: What would you like to wish our readers?
A: I would like to say that you don’t need to spend much energy to be green. Start from yourself and your habits. Pay a bit more attention to the environment. Hopefully together we can help our planet!

Interview with a Star, Albina from GoodWeather

Recycling is a great way to give a new life to the things people don't want anymore. Albina from GoodWeather shop on Etsy is sharing her own vision of this with us.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself

I think the ideas of recycling are in my blood. My father is good at inventing things that are practical. He made a wash stand for their garden out of 2-liter plastic soda bottles. He also made a sauna oven out of metal barrel and built a green house out of old window frames.

I use “soft” materials for my crafts such as old sweaters. I know that unwanted sweaters can have several new lives.

Some of the things you can do with sweaters is unravel them to get some yarn for your new projects and make something from it like this handbag:

Also I often felt sweaters and make lots of cool stuff out of sweater! I love to make gadgets like this smiling cat iPhone sleeve:

Since I love to make jewelry I also use felt in it!

Do you use only recycled materials to create your beautiful items?

I use both used and new materials to make my products. Things like my cup cozies or knitted iPone sleeves are made from new materials only.

Do you take custom orders?

I love custom orders! Once, I had an order for 9 owls. I made all of them look a little different and I enjoyed making them. 

What is the best reaction you have gotten from one of your pieces?

I appreciate all the feedback I get from my customers, even if it is short and simple like “Thank you”. One I really like that I got for this brooch, "I love this so much! I attached it to my sweater coat and I have gotten tons of compliments on it already! Thank you so much for such fast shipping! You rock!"

Ideas for upcycled supplies

By upcycling you can make your life and the life of your customers greener. Why not making craft and at the same time changing world for the best? Here are some ideas about where to get alternative supplies for your craft and what to do with your own unnecessary supplies.

1. First of all, check vintage and second hand shops in town - many of those offer amazingly cheap old and tired items. Give them another chance! Moreover, in many second-hand shops one can find leftovers of yarn and other supplies - use it :)
This ring is crocheted with red yarn I have bought in a charity second hand shop and is embellished with a turquoise bead from a vintage necklace.

Old and tired wool sweaters can be easily felted into beautiful new accessories. Just as tiny bit of unwoven wool can make a stunning felted flower.

Check out the tutorial of TonyaUtkina on how to create a felted flower

Moreover, youtube is full with video-tutorial on what to make out of old woolen sweaters.

2. Find soulmates! I regularly post on a local blog an advert saying that I exchange my products for a bunch of old jewelry, even broken or torn (anyway I will upcycle it), leftovers of yarn etc'. You won't believe it, but MANY people are happy to get rid of things they do not need - especially if they get a handmade designed item in exchange. Besides local online forums you can find handmade clubs in town or designs faculty in university or college and simply put paper advert on their board. Believe me, you will be surprised by result!

That's the treasure I got lately from such exchange for only one of my necklaces.

That red broken necklace is made of real red corals. Good bargain, isn't it? :)

3. Revise your old stocks.
Every craft artist has a bunch of old supplies, those that are not colorful enough, shining enough, those that cannot be incorporated into any of your designs, or those little bits that are simply left over and are not enough for a new design. What do you do with them?

- Change them!
Color them, crochet around them, reshape them :)
I have a lot of amazing buttons. Many of them are absolutely unique and vintage, other more common and dark.

In my designs I mainly use happy colors, so brown and black buttons will have hard time finding their way to my necklaces. But I still love them, and I have an idea what to do with them - I will crochet around them and make necklaces out of them. Just wait and see!

- Exchange them!
Yes, your boring leftover supplies maybe a real treasure for someone else. Find your local fair and forum - give advert that you want to get rid of them and see what people can offer you in exchange - their leftovers can be a real find for you.

- Sell them!
yes, as simple as that. List them in your shop and sell.
If you have them for couple of years, you haven't used them until today and still don't have any idea of how you will use them - get rid of them!

- Combine the leftovers.
do you have a bunch of old beads of different size and color! paint them in one color or crochet around them with similar yarn - and then they will make a nice necklace or other accessory. Their different size will only add uniqueness!

In this particular necklace most of the beads come from different other necklaces. Even the yarn I used to crochet over is of different shade. And yet, this necklace is charming, isn't it?

As I said, I love seeing old and sad things getting new life and starting sparkling again.

I hope this can inspire you to reuse and recycle. You can both make crafts and make the world better. So why not simply doing that? :)

Story by Irene (TomBjorndesigns)