Irish Dance How-to: Recycled magazine clutch

Perfect for carrying around at summer feiseanna, this clutch can be made using old Irish dance magazines!




Tips:

• Find the most colorful pages in your magazines.  This may mean that you only get a couple pages from each magazine.  Ideally, there should be no white space and little printed text.
• Take your time with the weaving to really make your clutch look neat.  The closer the better!
• If you don't want a clutch bag, feel free to attach straps to the inside of the bag using tape and more folded paper strips (four or so taped together)
• Remember: this is a bag made out of paper and tape.  Be kind.

Goals: Stamina workouts
Days till Os: 143

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle Sock Monkey

Turn one pair of socks into a plush monkey pet that will be the guardian of your dance bag!  This is the third of three, and the most advanced tutorial in the poodle sock upcycle series featuring this monkey, a vase, and a heat/ice pack.  





Tips:

• A link to the tutorial can be found right here.
• Knee-length socks will make for longer limbs on your monkey, and various sizes (small, medium, large) will make different sized bodies. (I used large knee-length socks and this monkey is 19 inches long!)
• Try your hand at tie-dying your old socks so your monkey can be fun colors!
• Be patient when sewing your socks, especially the bubbled part.  That section is particularly stretchy and will try to move around when you're sewing.  Extra pins are awesome.
• Be gentle when you turn your monkey body and legs back to right-side out.  The crotch area is very stretchy and if stretched out during turning and stuffing, the sewing back up process will be more difficult.  Take your time.
• A pencil (use the eraser end) or chopstick is useful for not only helping to turn the body parts right-side out, but also for getting the stuffing down into the feet/hands of your monkey.

Stay tuned tomorrow for special Traveling Feis Monkey information!

Goals: Hardshoe stamina

Days till Os: 156

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle sock hot/ice pack

This month's first Irish dance how-to is still going along the theme of upcyclying old poodle socks.  This tutorial is a little harder than April's, and the tutorial being released at the end of the month is the hardest of the three poodle sock tutorials.

Tips:

• Use older and slightly stretched out poodle socks.  Your hot/ice pack will be bigger.
• Don't start sewing in the corner like I did.  It makes it harder to sew up after you flip the hot/ice pack right-side out.  It is easier if you start in the middle of one of the longer sides
• Leave more room than you think open so you don't have to struggle to flip the hot/ice pack right-side out after machine sewing!
• A funnel would be helpful for putting the rice into your hot/ice pack
• For a cold pack: leave it in the freezer overnight
• For a heat pack: microwave in 30 second intervals until warm

Stay tuned for the last of the poodle sock upcycles, being released June 27th!

Irish Dance How-to: Poodle Sock Vase & Giveaway

Want to win one of these? Read below!

Do you have a poodle sock without a mate?  Retired from dancing and don't know what to do with 25 pairs of socks?  Watch this video to learn an easy way to upcycle your old socks into an adorable vase just in time for spring! 



A few tips:

• Bleach or tie-dye your old socks to get rid of that weird shade of grey.  Unless of course, you are going for that look!
• Older socks will be more stretched out.  To keep the project no-sew, use a wider vase.
• Always see what you have around your house before you buy supplies!  The point is for this project to be as cheap as possible.
• Email me pictures of your finished vase (RinceGoBraghBlog@gmail.com)!  I am excited to see what other people do, and if I get enough, I can feature some in a post later this month.

To enter the giveaway:

1. Comment below and answer the question: What is your favorite spring Irish dance memory?
2. Leave your email in this format so I can notify winners: name at website dot com.
3. Comments after 23:59 on April 13, 2012 will not be included in the random drawing.

The two giveaway winners will be announced on this blog on April 14, 2012!  May the odds be ever in your favor.