latest finds for kids

once my daughter was born, i knew better than to swear that i wasn't going to have ANY plastic toys in my house. but i did really want to keep from buying cheap plastic toys as much as possible. i was grateful for all the hand me down items that were given to us [which have since been handed down again]. and i scoured craigs list and freecyle and berkeley parents network for items that i thought we could use. [btw - berkeley parents network is a GREAT resource. it's full of information on parenting and tips on bay area businesses, etc. you have to be in the bay area to sign up for their lists, but anyone can browse the site for info. i wonder if other communities have similar networks set up? if you know of any leave the info in the comments?]




i was really happy to discover green toys . they are actually made in california [the state where i live] and are made from recycled plastic milk jugs. you can read more about the process here . the thing that i really like about green toys, though, is that they LOOK nice too. i have to admit that looks are important to me. especially since toys are going to get left lying around. i might as well find the objects strewn about my living room aesthetically pleasing to look at right?




i was able to find a shop locally that carried the toys so i went and checked them out in person. they look and FEEL nice. my daughter is still a bit young for most of their toys, but i definitely will be getting some for her in the future.

green toys has their own online shop, or here's a list of stores that also carries their stuff.



the other thing i found were these stainless steel drinking straws. my daughter has just discovered the joys of drinking from a straw. i happened to have a very old box of plastic straws around that we've been going through, but i really didn't want to have to buy a new box of straws. so wasteful. and i certainly didn't want to try and explain to an 18 month old that we couldn't use a straw because they were bad for the environment. nor did i want to try and find BPA free plastic straws [somehow the thought of trying to keep a plastic straw clean didn't really work for me]. but stainless? these i like! the only bummer was that i couldn't find any locally to buy, so i gave in and purchased some from amazon .

and so goes my recent adventures in green shopping for the little. not as cool or green as re-making bibs into handy wipes, but it's what i got !

The Three R's - Part 1

As I was preparing to write this post, I was thinking about what Sew Green is all about. Living ecologically, obviously. But there is a craft or creative element to the blog. So then I started thinking about one of the basic environmental tenets: reduce, reuse, recycle. This post and the next two will explore the three R's, with an emphasis on craft.


Every knitter has this problem. No, I'm not talking about lack of time or a tendency toward obsessive/compulsive behaviour. I'm talking about the stash. The contents of the stash fall into two categories: yarn that had to be bought because it was too gorgeous to pass up, and will be used for future projects and leftover yarn that is too long to throw out and may possibly be needed for something at some distant future date.

I'm pretty good about resisting new yarn, but I'm horrible when it comes to throwing out the scraps. Recently, when I was trying to find a bag to take to the grocery store and realized that they were all full of yarn, I decided that it was time to seriously reduce the stash.

So, here are a couple of my successes...

Snake from Jess Hutchinson's book (now sadly out of print) using leftover yarn from baby blankets. Almost done!

French press cozies using wool leftover from making toques.

And a bunch of suggestions...

• cat toys
• jewelry
• baby booties
• finger puppets
• aliens

How are you reducing your stash?

toys without the tox

Has anyone else been bothered by all the horrible news about toys lately? With the holidays upon us, all the news about lead, phthalates and asbestos in children's toys seems particularly ominous to me. I've never liked the part of Christmas where kids are overwhelmed in beeping, spinning plastic toys and the city trash collectors have to do double-duty to haul away all the packaging and wrapping. But the pollution that's in our kids' toys is far worse. It's not that I ever thought that plastic doo-dads made in China were particularly good for kids, but lead, for crying out loud?

First, everyone should take action to let Congress know we need decent safety standards to protect kids from nasty chemicals. And after we've been responsible citizens, we can turn to being responsible consumers, and the toys we buy for the kids we love.

My suggestion? Let's make our own toys this year!

I love making toys, and Christmas is a great excuse for me to get Santa's workshop going on my kitchen table and make a whole bunch of them. So I thought I'd share some of my favorite resources on toy-making, and ask y'all to share yours, too.


bad kitty, a wicked but cuddly sock monster

My all-time favorite toy to make is a sock monster. All you need is rudimentary sewing skills, some old socks, polyester fiberfill or other toy stuffing, and your basic needle, thread, pins, scissors, etc. Sock monsters can be incredibly simple little goblins, or complicated animals with long, curling tails and embroidered features - kids seem to love all of them, no matter how well (or poorly) you can sew. The best book I know for sock monster instruction is "Making Stupid Sock Creatures" by John Murphy (read my previous post about this great book here).


knitted momerath village

There are oodles of resources on the web and in the library for knitting toys. This blog is devoted to toy knitting, and includes an index with lots of free patterns. I love Jess Hutch's toys, and her book is a gem (if you can get your hands on one). Lots of knitting books with kid and baby patterns feature toy patterns in among the sweaters and hats, especially books by Zoë Mellor and Debbie Bliss. "The Knitted Teddy Bear" by Sandra Polley is a great resource for knitters of all skill levels who want to make old-fashioned, cuddly teddy bears. I also really like "New Knits on the Block" by Vickie Howell, which includes not just softies but all kinds of neat costumes and accessories. "Family Circle Easy Toys" is a classic with both knit and crochet patterns - the copy in my local library has been well-loved in its decades-long tenure there.



For stuffed animals, dolls and doll clothes, a wonderful book I picked up recently is "Toys to Sew" by Claire Garland. Her toys range from ridiculously easy to not-very-hard, and the patterns are way cute.

And finally, puppets! You can make a puppet out of just about anything, and while you could make a puppet and give it as a gift, making puppets together with kids is so much more fun. I just picked up a copy of a beautiful book called "Puppets Unlimited with Everyday Materials," by Anushka Ravishankar & Gita Wolf. The authors include detailed instructions for making stick puppets, string puppets and many others based on traditional Indian puppetry, with regular junk from around your house. Their focus is on making the puppets together with children. Then you can make your own stage and celebrate Christmas Eve with a puppet show - a great gift for kids and grown-ups alike.

Have fun making some toys for the kids on your list this year... and don't forget to take action!

softer softies

Oh how I love a cute softie. As kids, my sister and I had a huge collection of stuffed animals, many from the store, some made by loving aunts and other friends. One of my favorites was a rag doll made of muslin and calico leftovers by my Aunt Cindy. My dad built a "zoo" for all of them, which was a giant shelf to keep them all up off the floor. Making softies was even more fun - I can still remember making a pink dinosaur out of felt in an early home ec class.

About a year ago I wanted to make some more softies, and stumbled upon this wonderful book in the library: Making Stupid Sock Creatures, by John Murphy. The creatures are hilarious, but what appealed to me most about John's creatures is that they're all made from re-sourced materials - namely cast-off socks. You can see a great gallery of them here. Since reading John's book, I've made a lot of sock creatures myself (including the ones in the photos above).

The Stupid Creatures have progressed beyond just old socks. Last summer I saw a collection of John's latest creatures in a gallery in Asheville NC, which included creatures made not just cast-off socks, but old T-shirts, jumpsuits, and all kinds of other garments. This year the Stupid Creatures folks are co-curating a show of plushies at the PUSH skate shop in Asheville themed "medical experiments." If you're lucky enough to be nearby, go check it out!

Sock monsters are obviously not a new idea. I have no idea when the first sock monkey was invented, but people are continuously taking this creative recycling idea to new heights. Jaypeg's sock monkeys are some of my favorites. She's even posted easy sock-monkey instructions on her blog.

This spring I made a sock monster - a sock snake, to be precise - together with Jake, a friend of mine who is six. He picked out the socks, designed the snake and helped cut out the pieces, and I did the sewing. He stuffed it, with a little help, and then gave it the straightforward name of "Snakey." Snakey only took about an hour to make, from sock selection to the eye details. Nowadays he enjoys basking in the sun on Jake's windowsill at home.

The sock monkey permutations have me wondering about what other kinds of kids' toys people are making out of re-sourced materials. It's funny to me that folks spend so much money on the latest electronic gadgetry and sports gear for their kids -- there are so many fun low-tech home-made toys just waiting to be assembled.