My mother-in-law gave me this Bottle Chopper last year when she cleared out lots of craft stuff to move house. I fell in love with the idea of it instantly but didn’t get around to having a go with it until yesterday. In all honesty the fact that the contraption needs to be assembled like a piece of MFI furniture put me off for a while (I’m not good with spacial tasks and instruction leaflets) but craft starved, due to work, over the past couple of weeks I decided I was hungry enough to tackle it.

Let me say, before I used the Bottle Chopper I had all sorts of romantic ideas about the lovely recycled glass items I could cut out and paint. Not cigarrette holders and ash trays but perhaps pretty glass bangles, mobiles and ornaments. Little did I know.

I should have been warned by the boasting statement on the box “As demonstrated on Tomorrow’s World”. For anyone who never saw the science and ‘technology’ TV programme Tomorrow’s World it basically consisted of various demonstrations of inventions that you knew would never catch on – Actually, that’s not strictly true, I just looked up the wikipedia entry for Tomorrow’s World and there is a long list of  widely used technologies which were first shown on the programme (like camcorders, CDs and the breathalyser).

The Bottle Chopper does not work in the way I expected (which may explain why it hasn’t been as successful as the compact disc). There’s no chopping involved whatsoever, just scraping and lots of tapping. The Idea is that you score around the glass with the little blades and then tap the bottle all the way around, on the score mark, from the inside which (apparently) evenly cracks the bottle and splits it apart.

Well, it does work like that but I’m guessing that it only gives the desired results if you’re very patient (not me), you don’t mind getting tinnitus (not me) and you wear protective clothing for the tiny shards of glass it throws out. The tap-tapping must be gentle and even all the way around. You should not tap-tap gently until you can’t bear the sound anymore and then just whack the bottle with one big swipe from the outside. This does not give an even edge.

This has to be the most convoluted and humorous craft I’ve ever tried. I was giggling all the way through it.

To be fair to the Bottle Chopper, Yvonne Dockree and Tomorrow’s World, I can see how it would work, you just need to get the knack. So, this isn’t the end of my glass recycling schemes, just an interlude.

The other thing I’ve had in my head are various vintage goodies.

At an impromptu visit to my fave shop in Nottingham, Bambi Vintage, I treated myself to these beads and pretty tulip brooch. Then after a long awaited session on eBay I bought these two pieces of lovely floral cotton. I like the blue and gold theme that has come together and I’m thinking about making myself a little vest top from the yellow and blue fabric.

I also scored this gorgeous 1970s vinyl clutch bag at Small but Deadly on eBay. Yum!

Whilst I’m talking about vintage fabric and favourite things I have to share this article from my favourite craft blog, Crafting a Green World. Here they talk about how to build up a green fabric stash (by green I mean eco, rather than the colour). Check out ‘Build a Greener Fabric Stash‘ for some great sources.

I can’t finish this up without mentioning another place for vintage inspiration and that is Frilly Bits from my lovely friends Claire and Hannah. Frilly Bits is all about making pretty vintage lingerie. Join the ‘FB’ movement at www.frillybits.co.uk

and…these fab embroidery pattern books. I can’t wait until they arrive!

I’ve heard people say that the 70s is the decade that style forgot but I couldn’t disagree more. OK, it was the heyday of some nasty synthetic fibres but the prints and colours were beautiful, rich and vibrant. Of course there’s the sentimental element too. I was just a toddler at the back-end of the 70s and I can remember the styles pretty well.

So, its inevitable that in the things I make there will be some 70s influence whether its subtle or blatant like using these photoshop brushes by Punk Safety Pin over at Deviant Art. Although these are originally scans from a 1970s girls’ book they’ll make great embroidery patterns.

I’m going start using a couple of them to decorate some hand made tote bags for my charity shop shopping escapades. I decided on these two bookie ladies and will update when  they’re a little further along.

Once I’d finished the crochet part it just seemed to want to have a 1970s vibe. Its orange, who am I to argue? So, what’s more 70′s than ric rac and a chunky button? I’ve also lined it with genuine 1970′s fabric, man-made (polyseter I think) and difficult to add as a lining, but you live and learn.

Although the lining was a bit tricky to add (it’s shiny and slippery and stubbornly will not be pressed) I absolutely love the gaudy (in a nice way) little flowers on chocolate background.

This highlights something that I’ve yet to get to grips with – what types of fabric suit which jobs. Once I know more I’ll post more but in the meantime I’ve added some links to the resources section about fabric types.