New-cycling*

I wanted my kids to have a good reusable drink container to take to school. I saw a recommendation for the 'Funtainer' from Thermos and since I didn't find anything else even remotely as usable (it is both stainless steel, seals and is easy for kids to use) I decided on getting one for each of my two girls. Unfortunately The store (Walmart is the only store around here) only had three varieties: Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine and Tinkerbell. First of, I'm not a huge fan of children's products that have cartoon or movie characters on them, and second, my children are a bit old for the ones that were available.

I figured the younger one would still be able to use the Tinkerbell one, but there is no way the older one would have used the Dora or the Thomas ones. Fortunately, I recently saw a blog post where the person was using novelty Duct tape to upcycle boots. I thought to myself that I could do the same with the thermos'. So I picked out the Thomas the Tank engine thermos (since it had a blue top and bottom - my older daughter favorite color) and headed to the home repair part of the store. You gotta love Walmart - they have everything there!

Low and behold, they did have colorful duct tape. Actually it was Duck Tape. So I took Kamilla's thermos and covered it in tape.

When her sister Ása saw what I did with Kamilla's thermos, she wanted it done to hers to. Kamilla wanted hers from side to side. I thought it would be easier to match the pattern on the tape going up and down, which I did on Ása's, but I was wrong. It was harder, mainly because I didn´t have a handy craft knive to cut the tape. I only had my knitting scissors. While they are sharp, they were not optimal for cutting the duct tape on a round surface! It all worked out in the end and the kids are super happy!

Here they are, side by side:

Who knew duct tape could be so fun to use. Kamilla grabbed some and made her flip flops more colorful. I think they look a lot better now!

*New-cycling is a play on words drawing from the expression 'upcycling' when you take a used item and make it into something new. I on the other hand took something new and commercial and made it into something that's unique.

Kamilla sews too.

My daughter Kamilla will turn 9 in a week's time. When I was sewing she and her 7 year old sister were very interested and wanted to help me. They did help by pressing on the foot pedal to make the sewing machine go. They've never been this interested in knitting, but then again, knitting doesn't have cool machinery involved in it.

So after I finished my project. Kamilla wanted to do her own project. She picked out a fabric, cut it and pinned it together (right sides together). Then she sewed the pieces together as she had seen me do previously.

After she was done stitching the pieces together, she turned the piece inside out (she left a small opening).

And stuffed it with polyfill.

After mom helping with decorations (closing up the hole, sewing on buttons as eyes and gluing the mouth on with ribbon using stitch witchery) Kamilla was one very proud owner of a brand new stuffed animal!

Her sister has a design all drawn up for a boat! I guess we know what our next project will be.