What Are Your Creative Ideas? Sewing, Fabrics & Reducing Waste

A couple weeks ago I did a post about getting crafty with fabric and I want to develop that a bit because I've been thinking a lot about all the different things you can do with left over scraps of fabric...

I've always hated waste, not from an environmental perspective, that connection came much later, but all my life I have loved efficiency...makes me sound like a robot and I'm really not, but I've always gotten excited about the idea of making just the right amount of food so that none is left over and none goes to waste. Or taking the most efficient and direct route in the car... I can't explain why it thrills me so much, just weird connections in the ole brain box I guess...

Anyway, because I design fabrics and lots of my customers buy my fabric to make things out of, there is definitely going to be little bits left over...so what to do with them?

I've been compiling a list of all sorts of easy things to make with left over bits of fabric... Like this for example...It's a wheat pillow. My whole family uses these every single night to warm our toes in bed and it doesn't need much fabric to make, particularly as they can be any shape you like...

I've used the motif from my Beautiful Bugs fabric because I thought it would be cute, but the shape can be long and slim or heart shaped, whatever... just make sure that  when you sew the 2 faces together, you leave a hole about 5 cm wide, to put the wheat in. Turn it in the right way and use a funnel to get the wheat into the hole. Don't put too much in, it should feel kind of sloppy. Then either by hand or top stitch by machine, sew up the gap. You're good to go and no chilly toes!

Tip: keep the main stitch short and zig zag the edges so that the little bits of wheat won't make their way out of gaps between stitches.

So what cool things should I make next from my scraps of fabric? I'm thinking about doing a sleeping eye mask and a lavender bag for my pants drawer...what else? If you've got any cool ideas of what to do with scraps of fabric then comment below or email me on rachel@vanasch.se

I'm also very happy to say that I just got delivery of my first lot of organic fabrics and I'm so pleased with how they are looking! It was important for me to start  producing my fabrics organically, once I found out that overuse of pesticides was killing the bees and bees are super important for the environment, I didn't want to contribute towards bee death.

 You can buy our Victorian Gothic fabric here

You can buy our Leopard Fabric here

So have a think about cool things to make with scraps of fabric, and it doesn't have to be sewing... can be gluing too or embedding in resin... I don't know... what is even possible????

Well you crafty lot, I'm off to walk the dog in this beautiful day so I hope you have wonderful weekend and I look forward to hearing your ideas... nothing is too silly or too boring... bring it on!!

Yoga & Gym Clothing Rock & Roll Style ...Hell yeah!!

So as you know, I did a photoshoot last week with model Elegy Ellem and photographer Kristiina Andersson, for my new range of workout gear. I posted up some behind the scenes nonsense last week, right after the shoot, but they were just crappy snaps, so I thought you might like to see the final pictures...

Elegy is a very bendy bunny...

Also a very strong bunny too... quite impressed by that actually :-)

If you want to get your hands on some of my fab new gear then get yourself along to my web shop.. and don't forget that we donate 5% of everything we sell through the web shop to an NGO in India that helps get women into business. Giving them the chance to lift themselves and their families out of poverty...

So make a statement and make a difference.

Tattoos, Yoga & a Very Sweaty Photo Session!

This morning I've been doing a photo session for my brand new workout gear, with the lovely model Elegy (Linda-Marie) and photographer Kristiina Andersson in my local gym.
Man did we make Elegy work! Good thing she actually knows what she is doing in the yoga department, some of those positions! You'll see...
anyway, here is a quick behind the scenes video and some rubbish snaps from my camera phone in the gloom... I'll post up the finished shots when they are ready.

If you want some fab new gym gear, then check out my web store and don't forget that 5% of everything sold goes towards empowering women in Tamil Nadu India, getting them into business and lifting them out of poverty. You can read more about that over on my website.

Remember that this life is not a rehearsal... get your butt down the gym :-)
..........and I say that with love ........

Going Plastic Bag Free February Challenge!

Hello there!

This is just a quick 'drive by'... unfortunately both of my girls have the flu and I'm home with them today... Plus this morning I got a call from my factory to say that my new organic fabric is narrower than my designs to print on it and so I have to re-size all my files today...whilst tending to the small grumpy ones...

I wanted to talk about my idea of going 100% plastic bag free as a February challenge... I wanted to give you a load of stats about why the production of plastic bags is bad for the environment... I wanted to write a rebuttal to people that scoff at me and say that if you live in Sweden then it makes no difference if you use plastic bags or not... that's bollocks by the way... But I just don't have the time to do any of that...

So please, if you haven't already stopped using plastic bags, consider February as a month to give it a try. Top tips: keep a bunch of bags in the back of the car and keep a fabric shopper in your handbag so you are ready for any spontaneous purchasing...

If you are worried that you use the plastic shopping bags as bin liners so what will you do about that... then buy 'green bags' made from renewable sources. These are actually much better for the environment than normal plastic bags, because they are not made from petrochemicals, they are made from growing things... (I'm posting in the videos I made about plastic bags, if you want to know more... see below)

So that's all I've got time for now... got to go and take temperatures and administer generous amounts of ice cream and cuddles... Look after yourself this weekend and think about the plastic bag thing...

You can buy these here