What Mon-stors are Made From: From Pajamas into Mon-stor Toy Storage Bags

A lot of people ask me what I mean when I say I use textile discards, so I wanted to bring back my “What are Mon-stors made from” series! I’ve made a LOT of monsters lately and don’t always remember to snap a before photo, but I do have a few from when I received a lot of donated pajamas – some may have had missing buttons, a small stain, a tear or some every day wear, and would otherwise have gotten tossed & ended up in a landfill. Instead, I gave them new life & turned these funky pajama pants…

Into these two cute, fiery Mon-stor toy storage bags! Small Mon-stors are perfect for taming car clutter in the minivan, toy storage in the playroom, holding pajamas & a book for bedtime routines or as an overnight bag for sleepovers with grandparents! Both of these cuties are available for adoption in my shop, along with several other Mon-stor toy storage bags, stuffed monster toys, sensory blankets and more – all made from upcycled materials!

After I make the monsters, I turn the smaller scraps into stuffed monsters, sensory blankets, tooth pillows, etc. Once I’ve used as much of the materials as I can to create product, I use the smaller scraps for facial features like mouths, tongues or irises in the monster eyes, or cute little monster horns/ears! Once I deplete all the bits big enough for that, I take those super mega itty bitty scraps, go at them with the rotary blade, and dice them super fine to blend with polyfil for stuffing – so there is absolutely no landfill waste from their production!

I hope to bring back these posts at least once a week to demonstrate the sustainability and process behind making these toy bags, plush toys & such. That, of course, involves remembering to take “before” pictures and snapping photos of the process – I usually get so excited as I root through donations & salvage center scores after I wash them that I forget to snap a photo & dive right into making monsters! Ha! But I do have a few “before” photos stored up on my computer & will work to pair them with their finished monsters for weekly posts for you guys!

500 Monsters in 2016: Update 4

Whew! I am actually really excited about this week’s numbers & the amount of work I got done!

I am using Craftivity to help me track my progress by setting measurable goals, and according to that web app, I am already two weeks ahead of schedule! Woot woot!

I have made 76/500 monsters so far! That’s 15.2% My goal for January was to get to 15% and I’m so excited to have it that already. I hope I can keep up this momentum!

Here is the pictures I have of the cuties from the past two weeks!

If you don’t want to miss out when I stock my shop, be sure to sign up for my newsletter – Mon-stors typically sell out within an hour or so, so if you want to get your hands on one you have to act fast!

I’ll be taking a brief break from making so that we can move into our new home! Hooray! I’ll resume Mon-stor making full tilt the moment we are settled into out new place. 🙂 It shouldn’t be more than a week and a half from now – keep sending me all your positive vibes! Until I actually move into a place it won’t feel real!