Your perspective - Hobby plus useful

[mzgarden]

This has rolled around in my head for a long while and I'd like to gather your perspectives.

I'll start by saying that I am pretty intense about spending my available time on things that are productive and useful.  I can't convince myself to spend what little time/money I have to sew, quilt, knit etc. items that are not specifically useful.  That being said, there are only so many quilts, afghans, hats, etc we can use. 

If you would, could you please list maybe the top 5 items you make that are immediately useful in your family (immediate or extended)?  I'm leaving out charity work as well as items for sale because, while important, I'm trying to focus on a tiny slice of homemade needleworking.

Thanks.

[Melissa]

Around here I would say the most useful items would be socks, hats, dishrags/scrubbies, and throws or blankets. My grandmother used to knit gloves, mittens, and house slippers that we used daily.

[feather]

I have no experience in making these. But it's become a huge thing to have recyclable grocery bags with handles. It's good for the environment and they are washable. The ones you make don't have store names advertising on them. Make them from a thin polyester that can be folded and rolled up.

I have at least 10 of them and I use them for potatoes and onions in the basement, but the one I like best is a thin polyester without advertising, that can be rolled up very small. A girl friend gave it to me. I smile when I think of that gift.

[feather]

Feb 26, 2019 20:39:23 GMT @redfish said:

feather , I have some I made years ago from a midweight canvas. Man, I can put a lot of stuff in those! I have a feeling I'm going to regret that as I get older.

I so hear you! Smaller polyester bags with handles might be just the thing for the boomer generation! I'm a boomer.

[Maura]

I have made shopping bags from canvas or upholstery material, also denim. I have a small one for cd audios from the library.

I have knit sweaters for the kids and DH, lots of socks. I have knit mittens, scarves and hats as well as having lots of fun with shawls. Right now I am knitting baby gifts for 2 nieces (blankets and little hats).

I have cut up plastic grocery bags for knitting up floor. mats. I have a friend who uses same for shopping bags. Another friend crochets shopping/market bags that fit in her purse.

While a sweater is more of a commitment than a dish cloth, you don't have to finish it in one sitting. Something like that is a project you keep going back to for a month or even longer.

[Melissa]

Shopping bags are a great idea. You also might think about fabric gift bags. I remember in the Tightwad Gazette someone said they made fancy gift bags from old prom or wedding dresses.

[Skandi]

Socks Socks and more socks followed by slippers. We get given between 5 and 10 dishcloths every year we are swimming in the things, so sure knit some but it's very limited how many you need! SH however can go through 5 or 6 pairs of socks in a year and they take a lot longer to knit And the horrible man has feet so large that 2 balls is NOT ENOUGH I've taken to making the toes a different colour to stretch the yarn enough!

[Maura]

Skandi, have you ever seen an old cartoon where the socks are hanging or someone looses their shoes? The toes and heels are usually a different color (white socks with red heels). If you knit from the top down you can unravel the toe and reknit it with new yarn. If you make a "toe" heel you can do the same with the heel. I think the red heels in the cartoons were a comment on poverty, that nobody would see the new heels and toes and Mom used whatever was handy.

[Skandi]

Feb 27, 2019 17:57:55 GMT Maura said:

Skandi, have you ever seen an old cartoon where the socks are hanging or someone looses their shoes? The toes and heels are usually a different color (white socks with red heels). If you knit from the top down you can unravel the toe and reknit it with new yarn. If you make a "toe" heel you can do the same with the heel. I think the red heels in the cartoons were a comment on poverty, that nobody would see the new heels and toes and Mom used whatever was handy.

What they should show is holes under the ball of the foot, that's where he murders socks. It's because he walks around the house in them so they wear out on the bottom.

[Maura]

That's where my socks wear too. I have darned them. Still, you can unravel the socks as far as needed and reknit, rather than knitting new socks.

[AD in WNC]

Lets see if I can get to 5:
1. Most years, I crochet a couple of afgans in the fall as Christmas gifts.
2. Some years I do a couple of hats for gifts also.
3. One year I sewed a couple of velvet cloaks (costumes and warmth) for Christmas.
4.My son makes Paracord macrame bracelets, so you are never without a rope.
5. If I was really ambitious, I would buy flour sack dish towels and machine embroider edging on them....

Hope the ideas help!

PS I wear socks out in the heel.

[Maura]

AD, if you make a "toe heel" you can unravel the heel and reknit.

[Billie]

Quilted bags..........they get used around my house more than anything. Everytime I turn around Bill has nabbed another one for some reason and I have to make more. They get used for groceries, store purchases, my "to go" bag of yarn for crocheting, carrying presents at Christmas time, hold food items when we travel (and many other items when we travel), carrying food to church or any other gathering we attend, etc. They get used every day. I make them all different sizes and they usually nest inside each other for storage. I like my bags to be sturdy and not flimsy so I make my own.

[feather]

Mar 21, 2019 22:11:31 GMT Billie said:

Quilted bags..........they get used around my house more than anything. Everytime I turn around Bill has nabbed another one for some reason and I have to make more. They get used for groceries, store purchases, my "to go" bag of yarn for crocheting, carrying presents at Christmas time, hold food items when we travel (and many other items when we travel), carrying food to church or any other gathering we attend, etc. They get used every day. I make them all different sizes and they usually nest inside each other for storage. I like my bags to be sturdy and not flimsy so I make my own.

That sounds just so nice.

Do you use quilted fabric or do you layer fabric, batting, fabric, or do you do both? And do you make them with a square bottom or some flat and some with a square bottom?

[Billie]

feather, I have done both, already quilted fabric and fabric, batting, fabric. Sometimes I will take already quilted fabric and layer another pretty piece of fabric on top and quilt it to the already quilted piece! (Because usually it is a solid color and I want pretty fabric on the outside). Depending on what size I make, I will cut a 3" or 3 1/2" square piece out of the bottom, on each side of the fabric. It makes more room in the bag and will stand up. (I guess that is what you are referring to when you mention a square bottom?)

I also use webbing for the handles and place them on each side of the bag, from the bottom up. That way they go up the entire bag, which makes it much sturdier instead of just putting them at the top only.

[feather]

Billie, yes that is exactly what I was asking. You sound like a pro. It's such a good skill to have.
Yes the squared or rectangular bottoms make it stand up, and the flat bags don't.
Thanks Billie.

[Wind in Her Hair]

I no longer spend my time crafting things to fill my time as "entertainment" or "recreation" - or even serve as simply "decorative" pieces. I like my efforts to result in something truly useful and functional.

At our house it would be:

Knitted and felted/fulled slippers
Knitted mittens
Knitted hats
Knitted socks
Knitted scarves

[tenbusybees]

I sew and crochet. I also love beading but rarely do it these days.

Dish cloths
hand towels
Clothes (skirts and dresses mostly)
Slippers
Sweaters/ponchos

[tenbusybees]

Oh, and potholders. I never can seem to have enough of those.

[Tim Horton]

Several winters ago I made a whole bunch of tote bags. Like reusable grocery bags, that are so common now. They didn't seem that common back then and many now are not very rugged and seem to fail quickly.

I made them from the plastic fabric bags pet food, bird seed, hen scratch grain bags. I had a bunch and was given a bunch more, so found a use for them and something for me to do with my time...

As far as clothing goes, all I am capable of is replacing buttons and crude patches where needed.

[mogal]

At one time, I was a member of a fiber guild that didn't value the clothing items for which I produced yarn from raw wool then knitted. No matter how beautiful these items were, if they didn't hang on a wall or rest on a table, those guild ladies didn't value it. One lady formed papier-mache over empty Mrs. Butterworth's syrup bottles, painted them black and called them her wise woman series. Other members in the guild bought them up like they were Rembrandts. I want to create something I can use and while I may need to wash it occasionally, I don't need to dust it. To each his own, I guess.

DH thought I'd lost my mind when I started saving string used to sew feed sack closed. Yesterday, he asked me what I was doing with it. I told him I was tying it together to crochet a small bag. Soap chips go into it and I hang it in the barn. When I need to wash my hands out there, I take the bag, wet it at the faucet and scrub my hands with the bag itself. Some soap dries in the bag strands while it's hanging on its peg out of the weather. I've also used it to bind the ends of a rope I braided from sisal hay strings--practical but not that pretty.

Tim Horton, did you sew those bags by hand or with a sewing machine?

[Tim Horton]

Tim Horton, did you sew those bags by hand or with a sewing machine?
>>>>>>>>>>> All machine work.. The only thread and needle hand work I do is the occasional button replacement.

At a thrift store I got several small cones of surger (?) thread that seemed tougher than most. Made a short 2x6 base with a dowel to hold the spool, and another dowel with an eye over the spool to guide the thread. Sat it on the floor under the table and got busy.

[katievt]

My mother makes socks using her Circular Sock Knitting machine. She originally purchased an antique (1930s?) CSK, but got into it enough that she wanted a new replica, so she'd have the ability to do more with it. Last year she made 100 pairs of socks! Most are given away to family and friends, but she has sold some.

The history behind these CSK are neat. During WWI, families were provided the machines with the promise to make a certain number of socks for soldiers.