Swap- o- Rama- Rama

Here are some pictures from yesterdays clothing swap:

This is the sorting room. Swappers would pass their clothes through the window to the sorters. The sorters separated everything by article of clothing. The runners would then take the piles of clothes into the main room.

The main room full of clothes and people.

This is the Sewing/ Screen Printing room. Swappers would bring their new found items and alter or decorate them here.

The fabric scraps table.


One of the screen printing stations.

Freshly printed clothes drying

This sweater was probably one of the coolest items.




Some fabric swatches I grabbed up from the sewing room.

My new Skippies. $3.50 shoes from K-mart made supercool by adding fabric. I'm still trying to decide if they need something. I was thinking of adding some eyelets or nautical themed buttons.

I spent most of the day helping out at the shoe and bag restyling table. Lisa the designer in charge gave me these white sandals to decorate.

I found this little purple bag. I added the butterflies and the chain.



Unfortunately I didnt get a chance to sew or screenprint anything. I also missed the fashion show. But I hope there is another swap soon, because it was alot of fun.

One Person’s Trash is Another Persons Treasure

No Im not talking about those crazy garbage eating Freegans.


I was at a clothing swap this afternoon. It was very cool. Bascially people bring in bags of clothes they no longer use or want. Everything gets separated into piles and you can pick through thwm all and take home as much as you can carry. Some people get their entire wardrobe from these swaps. There were people with suitcases and shoppings carts full of cool stuff they they found.
In addition to the clothes they were different crafty workshops. Screenprinting, sewing, jewelry making.
I found some really fun stuff. Mostly T-shirts for a rug that Im making. Currently Im in the process of taking apart a knit sweater so that I can reuse the yarn and crochet something awesome out of it. I also took a pair of $3.00 skippies from K-mart and added some sweet nautical fabric. Im really excited about my finds. Be prepared for photos of stuff that I've made.

Projects Completed and in the Works

I am thoroughly enjoying my renewed interest in http://www.swap-bot.com/ . I collect postcards and participating in swaps really adds to my collection. I have sent and received cards from all over the world.

Right now I am in the middle of a handmade dishcloth swap. I like dishcloths because they are soo easy to make. I made one for each of my three swap partners.

Also I started making a rug out of old t-shirts. (I'd like to thank my friend Danny for donating the first t-shirts).

WIP it, WIP it good!

Every good crafter is familiar with these three seemingly harmless little letters: W-I-P.
Not a crafter? Then I'll explain. WIP is short for Work-in-progress. As a crafty gal who enjoys making all sorts of things I have quite a few works-in-progress.
Right now I'm working on a crocheted Fat Bottom Bag, a crocheted dishcloth, I still need to finished sewing the summer dress I mentioned a few weeks ago. I want to make a cake for an new instructable contest. And thats all on top of keeping up with schoolwork. I have to teach a dance to these girls in my Phys Ed class so that we can teach it to the rest of the class. I have to write 2 short papers for my Family Relations class. Im in the midst of doing research for my final project in Costume History-a five page paper and powerpoint presentation.

Whew!

Wish me luck people. I'm gonna need it.

Swap-o-rama-rama

Here's abit of info about an event I'm really excited about.
I've voluneteered to help out during the Swap. I will try to take pictures when I can so I can post them here. It sounds like its going to be a really fun day.



Clean out your closets
The New York City 2008 Spring
SWAP-O-RAMA-RAMA is Here!
http://www.swaporamarama.org
Pass it on
*
April 27th 2pm to 7pm
New York University's Helen and Martin Kimmel Building, 9th floor
on Washington Square Park South at LaGuardia
$10 and any sized bag of your clean unwanted clothing to enter
"There is no beauty in the finest cloth if it makes hunger and unhappiness." Gandhi
Join in the communal process of reuse and celebrate our collective creativity! You are invited to Swap-O-Rama-Rama, a giant clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which a community explores reuse and creativity through the recycling of used clothing.
It's easy to make the move from consumer to creator - and it's fun. At this Swap-O-Rama-Rama you'll find a host of talent brought together to teach you how to transform your new/used duds into works of your own. Together they bring you: DIY Stations where you can learn many wonderful ways to create out of textile reuse, Sewing Stations where local designers will teach you fresh clothing mod tricks, on site Silk Screeners & Stencilers with a host of original designs and extraordinary local designers who'll show off their work in the Swap-O-Rama-Rama reuse fashion show.
Of course the core of the swap is the gigantic piles of free clothing (several thousand pounds!) sorted into categories: pants, shirts, skirts, sweaters etc. These piles are the collective total of each guest’s contribution of any size bag of unwanted clothes so clean out those closets and let go of what's no longer inspiring. Take home as much clothing as you can carry. Remainders go to a local women's shelter.
Wondering what to bring? http://swaporamarama.org/swapattend.htm
Sewing machines are generously supplied by Janome http://www.janome.com
Tell your friends to join the swap mailing list by sending a blank email to swaporamarama-subscribe@gaiatreehouse.com
Have a look at previous NY Swap-O-Rama-Rama's: http://gaiatreehouse.com/autumn2006pics/autumn2006pics.html ; http://gaiatreehouse.com/swapwinter2006/swapwinter2006.html
Contact for questions: mina Leibitz <ookanuba@yahoo.com>
See you there... oh and please... PASS IT ON!
Wendy, Mina and the NY Crew
=

Sneaker Freak! (Swap-bot edition)

Howdy to my fellow swappers! Here are a few of my favorite sneakers.
I have tons more but these are the ones I wear the most.




This is my first pair of Hi-top Chuck Taylors. They are camo with skulls. Sooo Awesome and they go with pretty much everything. I bought them online at Converse.com




I love these Nike Dunks. These are the second pair of Nikes I have ever owned (the first pair was waaay back in jr.high. I saw these in an Urban Outfitters catalog and begged my Mom to buy them for me. I was half joking but she left me use her credit card to buy them online. They were my birthday present last year. I love the shade of blue and the rainbow.

These are my newset pair of sneakers. The orange just pops! and I love the little pockets on KangaRoos. I remember having a purple pair when I was alittle girl. So these are kinda like a flashback to my childhood. I bought them at DSW.

Oooh these Vans Classic Slip-ons are sooo sweet! They're Houndstooth which is super cool. And so far I haven't seen anyone else with them. I love that. I bought these online at Vans.com

These are the first Chucks I ever bought. And I got em for 5 bucks! Crazy? I know considering I paid about $45 for my Hi-tops. Urban Outfitters was having a clearance sale while the store was being remodeled. The day I went there was a good shopping day for me. I got a whole new outfit(including the sneakers) for only 20 bucks. I love these cause from a distance it looks like regular camo, but upclose it animals!

Instructable #2

I was cleaning up my room the other day when I came across an old sweatshirt, that i hadnt worn in ages. It was a little stained and missing part of a sleeve.(don't ask)



So I got the idea to turn it to a skirt. I decided to document it on Instructables.com.



I took this :-(



And made it into this :-)


You can read all about it at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Introducing-the-Sweat-Skirt/

My first Instructable!

I have been a member of Instructables.com for some time now. I love reading all the wacky things people come up with. Well they are currently having a contest to see who can best make over an old or boring t-shirt.



Someone else already did the whole adding bleach thing so I decided to work on an idea that had been in my head for quite a while. A t-shirt with a deep cut out back and a thin chains holding it together.



You can see the whole How-to process at http://www.instructables.com/id/Chain-Chain-change-your-boring-T-shirt/.



Here are som pictures of the finished product:








I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?