Upcycle Living

During these movement-controlled days, besides worrying about the shortage of surgical masks, the accumulating disposal of the one-time use masks is also a concern - not to mention the money we would have to keep spending on buying them. As I have more than usual free time on my hands, there is really no excuse why I shouldn't look into learning to make some washable reusable face masks for ourselves. After studying the structures of the existing surgical masks and what other people have shared online, I have made a few for the people around me. What I have done is to add a pocket to some, in order to slot in a filter pad if needs be. Another add-on feature is the adjustable clip-on straps so that there is no need for elastics bands over the ears. The main reason for this is that the elastic bands would dig in to the back of the ears and could be painful over time. Secondly, I am making all these with existing materials I can find in the house, and I just do not have them at hand. ...

Been really lazy since Chinese New Year. And thanks to the extreme heat, it's painful to sit down for hours trying to make something. But there has been some occasional rain recently so I've managed to steal a few cooler hours here and there to get something done. I was given a Depeche Mode vest (bootleg one by the way, but still loved it!) a few years ago, but it never fit me properly- or should I say - it's my weird-shaped body that couldn't carry it off 😅 I would usually give away my old clothes to charity collection but definitely not this one - no way! Couldn't bear to see it gathering dust so I decided to turn it into a bag. And yes I haven't had too many bags yet 🙊 All I did was sewing the bottom together to make a base with gussets, trimmed off the shoulders and hemmed them; then finished with straps made from an old knackered neck tie. Took me one rainy evening 🌧 plus two punctured fingertips. I'm now ready to go shopping with my new p...

We all use old t-shirts and clothing for cleaning purposes before we bin them. But here's something else we did even before they became our cleaning cloths: The last time we moved, a lot of our furniture got scratched because we didn't have enough shrink wrap for everything. So to still not spend too much on disposable material for this move, I used some of our old baggy t-shirts to wrap around smaller furniture: drawer units, cabinets, bedside tables, etc. After the move, they can then be cleaned again and proceed to their next stage: cleaning cloth :)