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Greeny Crafter - Lisa from Cucicucicoo

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Another busy weekend for me. I took part in World Arduino Day and displayed my wearable electronics - blinky bike bag, smart bib necklace and also a twinkling dress. I only managed to catch my breath today, and I'll blog about the event soon. But first, it's Greeny Crafters time!  Lisa from Cucicucicoo.com shares her story. Don't forget to check out her leggings made from turtlenecked tops.  


The Get Redressed Challenge 2014

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Courtesy of Redressed Asia

I'm taking part in The Get Redressed Challenge 2014 this month. From 1 April, I will be showing you how you can easily repair your clothes instead of throwing them away.  



Redress it, don't bin it!

The Challenge is a one year consumer challenge that started in January and will continue until December.  It will feature sustainable outfits worn by people all around the world. The objective is to inform consumers about the positive impacts their clothing choices, consumer care and wardrobe management can have on the environment. 

Look out for my first outfit on Tuesday onwards, and on my Facebook page (#GetRedressed, #Repair). After the Challenge, I will be posting up the tutorials on how I mended my clothes.  If you have missed the earlier months of The Get Redressed Challenge 2014 - The Little Black Dress, The Search for Durability and On-Trend, pop over to the website! Follow the challenge on instagram @GetRedressed!

Update: A summary of my repairs can be found at this link.




Redress Asia is a NGO with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in Asia’s fashion industry.

Smart Upcycled Bib Necklace

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Creative Commons Licence
Smart Upcycled Necklace by Agatha Lee is licensed under a


I've always wanted to make a bib necklace but didn't get around to doing it as I wasn't really sure what materials to use. Then a friend passed me an old jean skirt that no longer fitted her toddler.  I used the jeans as the necklace base and strengthened it with felt. I added black lace scraps from the upcycled LBD project, a few Swarovski crystals (a few because they were so expensive!) and a couple of craft gems.  The project was finished off with a black ribbon.

To give the project a sparkle, I sewed on the LilyPad board, light sensor and LED lights. This project glows when it is dim or dark, and flickers when it is bright. You don't have to do the electronics, but I think I'm hooked ever since doing the blink bike bag! Read below for the tutorial.


PS: If you would like to see this in person, do drop by the Arduino Day on Saturday!

Greeny Crafter - Tiffany Loy

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Source: Parasolbag

Last weekend was extremely productive as I finished my upcycled jean necklace and got the glowing/flickering sorted out with the Arduino; definitely much better than having real diamonds :-) Will be posting a tutorial soon!

This week's Greeny Crafter is Tiffany Loy of Parasolbag. She makes bags upcycled from off-cuts, and I first saw her products at the The Made in SG Market. Tiffany makes all the bags herself, and by hand! Read more about her work below.

A Sewists Flow

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Last week I met up with William Hooi, the founder of Singapore Makers, and a gentleman who is extremely passionate about the maker movement in Singapore. For him it is not just about growing it, but getting people to experience what it feels like when a maker is in his or her element.  I think sewists know what it is like when we have that creative flow, but each individual could experience it at different stages of the making. It could be drafting the pattern or perhaps sewing by hand (that's me!). 

If you are wondering what I mean by flow, check out Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's TED talk. You might remember him from one of my earlier post regarding tying shoe laces!

On TV! “Style: Check In” (《潮人攻略》

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Last November I got an email from Mediacorp about being featured on Style: Check In” 《潮人攻略》.  They wanted to find out more about my refashioning adventure, and they wanted me to teach the show hosts, Candyce Toh and Jeffrey Xu, how to get crafty with their old clothes!

[Update: For those of you who missed the show, click on this link. I appear after 28 mins! Not sure how long it will be up for though]

A whole team of them came down (I think there were more than 5 of them) with their lights, cameras and microphones. It was very exciting, but I got extremely nervous speaking in Mandarin (especially in front of the camera), so they decided I should switch to a mix of Mandarin and English (note to self - must improve language skills).

Here are some shots my hubby took while they were doing the shoot. It was 6 long but fun hours. I was very impressed by how keen the hosts were to take on their upcycle projects - Jeffrey had the t-shirt bag, while Candyce made the jean apron.  

Anyway, it was featured tonight on Channel U. It was very exciting, and even my son stayed up later than usual to watch my segment.  Thank you to Mediacorp for the feature! And thank you to the whole team who came to do the shoot; they were extremely professional!

Candyce with her apron. With her is the producer, Alice. 

Jeans to the rescue?

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I have finally decided what to do with the shirt that had ended up all wrong from the DIY eco-dye. I am going to cover it up with all these discs cut from old jeans. My only concern is that I might end up looking like a fish!



Greeny Crafter - Adventures of Lauren

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Fiddling with electronics and scrap fabric!
Last weekend was very busy for me. I was busy helping out at the 26-hour #Startathon (yes, it was overnight!) and teaching a few of the participants how to sew wearable electronics. I was pretty happy that three of the teams used textiles as part of their projects, although I think my sewing machine just refused to cooperate with one gentleman, and ended up breaking two needles on him!  They were a fabric pocket to contain picture cards for autistic kids, and two fabric bands containing electronics for tracking health. 


This week's Greeny Crafter is Lauren. She took up sewing because of her love for another hobby of hers - belly dancing! Read more below!


Weaving Coasters again

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I found this beautiful and creative site called Krokotak. Although it's in Bulgarian, you can easily figure out the instructions from the photographs. I loved their weaving tutorial for coasters. I had tried doing square coasters before, but this one is simple enough for even kids to do!

I tried making my own using old t-shirts and this is what I got!  I'm pretty happy with the result.





Greeny Crafter - Mich L. in LA

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Mich L. in L.A.

How is everyone? We are experiencing a dry spell in Singapore - it hasn't rained in weeks and our reservoir water levels are pretty low. I thought we would have water rationing just like our neighbour, Malaysia, but it seems like we won't be as the water authority has ramped up water production using the desalination and NEWater plants. Personally, all this production may actually create a situation where most people will forget how precious water is. 

This week's Greeny Crafter is Mich from Mich L. in L.A.   

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