Tag Archives: repurposing

Trash to Treasure

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Years ago, like more than a decade ago, I went on a tour of a Tesla facility, which was amazing, and I bought a t-shirt.  Now the idea that I gave that company any money turns my stomach.  While comfortable, the shirt was not cheap and the neck stretched out almost immediately.

Not my shirt, I just forgot to take a picture of it before I got started cutting...

Not my shirt, I just forgot to take a picture of it before I got started cutting…

My youngest had a craft / reuse class where the take-home project was to create a sock monkey.  Except we didn’t have any long socks that could be turned into a monkey and destroying something useful to make something less useful is kinda not the point.

I like to participate in these projects with her, so I decided to donate this t-shirt to the cause.  As with all good projects, I started with a detailed plan.

Detailed schematics for plushie

Detailed schematics for plushie

The rest isn’t super involved or interesting.  I sketched out the design on the outside of the shirt and got cutting. From there, ran it through the sewing machine, cut the rest of the shirt cutoffs into scraps, and stuffed the shirt with itself plus additional stuffing.

And, now, please meet “Alset” the spider plushie.

Alset the spider

Alset the spider

Honestly, a lot more comfortable than you’d expect.

Founds parts

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I took my daughter to the library yesterday1 and they were having a huge book sale.  I’m such a sucker for a used book sale.  Some of my most cherished books were previously cherished books.  :)  While rummaging through the books I found one that was a children’s board book with a list price of $20 that had about a dozen pages with colored musical sheets – and a simple electronic piano at the bottom, circa 1998.

What surprised me about the electronic piano is the number of keys it has.  Most children’s toys that incorporate an electronic piano have about 13 or so keys.  This one has 23.  You could actually play some music with this thing.  The speaker area was SO big that I knew it had to be a conventional magnet + copper coil speaker rather than a cheap piezoelectric speaker – the kind you find in annoying greeting cards.  When I held it to my ear and hit some keys, I could just barely make out a tone over the low din of other book lovers milling around.  At $0.50, I SNATCHED it up.

Here’s my plan.  Rip the entire plastic piano off the board book, replace the batteries, rip out the old speaker, replace with a cheap piezoelectric speaker from an annoying gift card, and turn it into a very tiny piano.  It’s not going to change the world or anything, but it is a fun little project.

I’ve already stripped it off the board book, replaced the batteries, and tried out a piezoelectric speaker – only to find out my piezoelectric speaker was broken.  :/  I’ll have to find a new one.  The piano is surprisingly loud – but my daughter got a kick out of it.

  1. As in about 10 hours ago [↩]