Madame Theresa’s Handy Craft & Recycle Tips

YOU know the kind! The ones with the rotten, splitting, UGLY as SIN webbing that you hide from Aunt Agnes (and possibly Becs… LOL) when they come visit????

I am flat gonna have to learn how to take pictures AND post them, pretty soon.  This is one of those “recycle projects” that you’re gonna have to close your eyes to “see” it, but take my word, they are so dang cute!!!

You do need a basic knowledge of weaving, or how to weave, though.  If you are unsure or unable to fully understand these directions, do not attempt this project.  It is a simple over-under (in and out, left to right, etc)  procedure, but this level of recycling may not be your bag.  If it is not something you want to do, save your junky lawn chairs for me, please!  LOL!  I just ask that you please, drive up to the house before you chunk ‘em out in the yard… I don’t do “ditch trash” because of my dislike of things that slither when its 65+ outside…. LOL!!!

Prepare:

Strip all the old webbing/weaving straps  off the chair frame. If the old webbing was held to the frame with screws, save back 8 or so, screws, and chuck the extra  screws and washers into your recycled screw jar for another project another day. Wash and dry your metal frame, and use aluminum polish on it if you want the frame to shine like brand new again. 

Construct:

Next, you want to get about 5 -6 yard length of a  pretty, miniature print, fabric.  I like old chintz dishes, so I lean toward tiny floral patterns on a white or light yellow background… something that looks shabby chic.  The famous EVILY box store, IF you are lucky to have one with a fabric department still in it,  will have the perfect fabric for this project on their $1.00 a yard table.  You do NOT need expensive fabric like quilt fabric, because you are going to rip the fabric into 1″ wide strips   and connect end to end, making a slit like a buttonhole in each end of the first strip,  and one in each end of the second strip, and connecting them ( like you would loop together rubber bands when you were a kid, making  a rubberband chain).  Do this end to end with a little over half your strips. (28-30 strips) roll into a ball that we will call “ball A”.  Do the same with the remaining strips that we will call “ball B”, and put that one to the side for now.

You now have a ball of fabric in one continous 1″ wide strip.  Do not worry about the frayed strips, it adds to the charm of the look.  starting at the top of the metal chair, tie on to one of the top corners of the frame.  Bring the fabric strip straight down to the back seat piece of metal frame. wind the fabric around the back bar and then procede forward, toward you, to the front seat frame piece. Wrap the fabric strip around the frame and head to the back seat bar, and again, wrap around, the up to the top bar, wrap, etc and do this until you have a frame FULL of up and down strips on the frame , in an EVEN number of strips, anywhere from 30 to 40.  Tie off the fabric strip at the top bar edge.

Now you are ready for the left/right ~  right/left weaving. depends if you are left or right handed I guess…LOL!

Starting at either the left or right hand side of the top back of your chair frame, tie on again with your “B” ball of fabric strip material.  It may be difficult to get the ball in and out of the strips, going sideways, so if you want to unwind part of the ball and take it apart at one of the joinings and just join more strips as you need them, feel free to work like that with the shorter strips.  weave over and under, in a downward fashion, till you get clear to the bottom  where the back set frame piece is.  You can tie off on the same side you tied onto at, after completing the back of your lawn chair.

Now it is time to weave the seat. tie on at the frame at the back, and weave over and under until you get clear to the front of your seat.  I forgot to tell you, when you get close to the end of the seat back and now the seat bottom, you might want to make yourself a weaving needle out of a large 2″ office paper clip. (You tie the end of the fabric to the clip and use it like a needle.)  Tie off when you reach the front end of the bottom seat. 

The screws you retained from stripping off the old webbing, can be used, if you desire, to attatch the knots you began and ended with, to the frame and can be inserted in the same holes in the frame if you so desire.  Its not neccessary, but you can use them again if you want to. 

Using plain fabric on lawn chairs like this gives a charming “garden” look to your patio or porch.  However, the  fabric from any regular fabric store  is NOT “UV safe”.  This means that the sunlight can fade and rot the fabric pretty fast in the summer sun. So, store the chairs inside or in the garage until you need or use them.   There are fabrics that ARE UV safe, available where awning and patio furniture  is recovered or made or you can buy it on the internet.  But it is expensive,  and you’d be better off buying new chairs if that were the case.   This is a fun, cheap way to recycle the old chair frames with a neat “cottage look”.  And it’s a look that looks cool enough to use indoors as extra seating if you need it!  

If this is your first attempt to weave a chair, practice the weave technique with an old sheet you tear into strips, before you invest any real money into fabric at the store. 

If you know how to crochet, with intermediate/advanced skills,  you can even crochet the strips of fabric onto the frame  for a neat look too!

Happy weaving from the merry recycler. Hope your team won the bowl!

Those cool, clear, plastic jars with the lid that flips open on one side,  to spoon it on, or the side that opens to sprinkle it on are great containers to recycle! 

For starters, the Kraft Cheese container has a shrink-wrapped label on it that is easily removed by sticking a sharp knife, or other sharp object, under the shrink wrap label and making a slit to peel it off by.  No messy soaking in hot water or having to use a solvent (like Ronson lighter fluid) to get the sticky label  gunk off with, because there IS no “gunk”!

And with the lid off,  it has a nice wide opening, as wide as the container, for filling easily.  I have 2 or 3 or 6 of these…LOL! And this is what I put in them.

I keep flour in one.  This comes in handy when I grease a cake pan and need just a “shake” or two,  of flour,  in the cake pan.  It’s handier to get to than my flour canister that I keep put away under my cabinet.  I keep it to the right of the oven in a cupboard with the salt and spices, etc. ( Then I cover my cake pan with some Saran Wrap and shake a couple times. This really makes flouring a cake pan easy!)

The next container has a mixture of sugar and cinnamon for toast and/or cereal, like oatmeal.  Stored in same spice cabinet.  Everybody likes cinnamon sugar!   I use 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 TABLESPOONS  (the bigger ones of the two)  of cinnamon.  Shake well and taste.  You may want more or less cinnamon for your taste.  This is one of those recipes that you just have to make it according to your own taste.  (Cinnamon toast  was the second main food group my little brother lived off of when he was in college.  His first main food group was “fried eggs”. He could fry eggs and make soup and cinnamon toast.  Pathetic!!!)

The 3rd cheese container at our house is used for a NON food item, and carefully labeled as POISON and stored away from where small kids can get to it.  It is filled with snow-melt granules and usually kept in my automobile’s winter emergency kit.  It is handy to have if I am away from home and encounter a patch of ice like in a parking lot or sidewalk, where walking might be a problem.  I don’t really get outside if it is slick, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.  Mark has prosthetic legs and can’t tell by “feel” if its slick or just wet out until its too late,  so having snow-melt in a manageable container is just perfect.  Be SURE to label it with a magic marker, and keep the container in a zip lock freezer baggie to protect the contents from humidity (so it doesn’t turn into a rock hard mess) and to also help protect your trunk or wherever you store your winter travel kit. Also, labeling it POISON, and writing the Poison Control Center’s 1-800 phone number on it wouldn’t be a bad idea either.  

These cheese containers are probably the second most recycled container goin’ on at our house.  If you don’t eat a lot of parmesan cheese, ask your friends and neighbors to save their empty containers for ya!  If you can think of any other uses for the containers, be sure to share them with us in the comment section.

The drawing for the 2 artisticly decorated peat pot party favors (boy that’s a mouthfull….) is Monday. I will draw a name out of a hat, from all the names of people who leave a comment on my blog.  I originally said it would be on comments left on Wednesday’s post, but decided to count it on any post until Monday. 

Thank you for reading- now go make yourself some cinnamon toast! 

Till tomorrow, remember:  I LOVE white trash….

(It’s easier to paint, saving me a bundle!!!!)

Here’s a tip of the day for ya!
Buy 3 or four boxes of baking soda and dump them in a plastic coffee can that you have saved from the trash! Keep the “Bucket O Soda” underneath your kitchen sink, where it will be handy to use.
After chopping hot peppers for a recipe, all of the “handwashing with soap” isn’t going to help you much…. when you go to scratch your eyelid… THAT’S when you’ll notice that!
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So…. don’t waste your time and soap. Grab a handfull of soda outta your can and moisten it under warm water, making sure you keep it IN your hand, and rub the paste between your fingers, under your fingernails, and REALLY SCRUB your palms together.
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When you’re done with all THAT, as a cool “multi task” kinda thing, rub the soda you have left in your hands around in your sink. It is an excellent scrub powder for your sink and also will help freshen drains as you rinse it all away.
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Besides being a wonderful cleaning powder and swiftly removing the burning stuff from your hands, the baking soda is natural and gentle on your hands. It smooths your skin, as it acts like a gentle abrasive polishing compound!
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Plastic containers, such as these ugly red coffee containers, are hard to recycle into anything “pretty” or “gifty”. But they are ideal when serving a utility purpose like this.
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Other uses for the “ugly” red containers:
To get rid of the coffee smell-
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Make a thick paste out of baking soda to coat the inside of the container. Let the paste coat the whole inside, when rolled around a bit with the lid on.
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Remove the lid and let the paste on the lid and container fully dry.
Put the lid back on (Do NOT wash out the dried soda paste) and store the container for 2 weeks or even longer, and this will remove the smell of coffee from the plastic.
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When you need a container for cookies or large batches of snack mix, wash out one of your containers, dry it well, and use.
(Remember to wash it out in your sink and use the soda as a “sink wash”.)

Shreaded paper looks darling in Easter baskets, gift baskets, or any container you want to use to present a fabulous gift in!
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Make your own shreaded paper, in multi colors that you can customize, with your paper shreader. Use gift tissue papers you may have leftover or saved from gifts you’ve unwrapped from the holidays, or go buy some colorful new packages at the famous over-rated box store!
My favorite colors are hot pink, lime green and turquoise- those wonderful colors from the Peter Max days of old.
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If you shread tissue paper you have recycled, smooth it out, fold it so it will go through the shreader, and feed it in! If you have a shreader that doesn’t want to turn itself on because it cant “sense” your paper, put a small stiffer paper scrap in the center and activate the shreader switch that way. Use a contrasting color so you can pick the bits out easily afterward.
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New gift tissue is already folded, but you might want to divide the pack into 2 batches and refold it so it is sized to a better width for the shreader. Length of your batch doesn’t really matter, as long as the batch you are feeding into the shreader is not too long, as to get all crooked and cock-eyed as it feeds into the machine.
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Recycled gift tissue shread has a more “crinkled up” look to it, and the new gift paper shread has a slicker, less-worn look to it. I like to reach into my bin of freshly shreaded new paper and grab handfulls to crinkle it somewhat, as this adds body to the shread and makes a nicer presentation in your gift container.
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Other papers look cool shreaded,too. Paper grocery bags make neat material. The handle-type paper bags that are printed with seasonal graphics, or just plain advertising, make interesting color combos. Be sure to cut off and discard the handles and the bottom of the sack. You may also want to trim the glued seam off and discard that too, so that all your kraft paper shread will have a uniform look to it.
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Experiment and have fun making your own shread. When your housemate, mate, or kids come in and look at you like you’re crazy, and ask what it is,exactly, that you are doing, get creative in your answer! Tell them you’ve always wondered what it would be like to be a hamster! Or tell them you’re stocking up on confetti for the next Macy’s parade. Or just tell them that lettuce is just too dang high at the store and you figured this would be an excellent way for them to get more fiber in their diet. LOL!
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Remember, till next time; “If you can’t craft it, cook it, eat it, or boink it, you may as well throw it away.”