Recycled Silk Tuck-Away-Tote

For my first quarter Fiber & Textile mod project on Lettuce Craft, I decided to run a Spring Greening Challenge.  The assignment was to craft an item that replaces a commonly used disposable version, such as dishcloths, cloth napkins, paperless-towels, etc. 

For my own contribution, I knew I wanted to make something out of a recycled yarn.  I dug through my stash and picked out a few cakes of Darn Good Yarn's silk blend sport weight yarn, in colorway Burgundy Blossom.  It's made from reclaimed sari silk and viscose. 

I searched Ravelry for a grocery tote pattern, and found this super cute Tuck-Away Tote pattern, that contains a pocket, that the tote can be folded up into!  You can easily tuck it away to carry in a purse or coat pocket. 

 The round pocket is positioned along the bottom of the tote.  I finished it off with a pewter Celtic button that I had in my stash. 

All tucked away, ready to go on a shopping trip.  ...whenever we're finally allowed to go out again!

Smash the Patriarchy & Frida Kahlo Tea

While crafting for the Feminism & Diversity Swap recently, I chatted with my partner kittykill, and she lamented we live far apart, or else we'd each love to have the other over for tea and crafting.  It inspired me to create a tote for her.  I purchased the frame image from the Silhouette Design Store, then altered the size & shape of it, before adding in the text with a typewriter font.  It was cut out of black glitter htv on my Silhouette.  I was going for the feel of captions to old silent films.  Very happy with how it came out. 

kittykill also mentioned that Frida Kahlo was one of her feminist icons so I knew I had to create something inspired by Frida for her.  I started with a candy pink tee from Target, and did some google image searching to find a simple stencil or icon of Frida, and added a heart around it in my Silhouette Design Studio software.  Once I was finished it felt like it needed a little extra something....  So I added a rose on the back of the neckline.  All the images were cut out of black glitter htv.  As I've been working with my Silhouette, I think I've come to like working with the glitter htv best of all as it seems to stick the best and cut & weed well.