Knitted flowerpot from a recycled M&S biscuit tub

May 18, 2009 by mikocoffey    3 Comments    Posted under: finished objects, home and garden, knitting, recycled crafts

ruth-flower-1My fantabulous friend Ruth had a birthday and asked her friends to give her plants, as she’s stocking up her garden. I have known Ruth for years and thought that I’d like to give something more than a plant, so I decided to make a flowerpot. I had saved some plastic tubs that some flapjacks and mini cakes came in, because I knew they could be reused somehow.

ruth-flower-2

So I decided to knit an outer shell to cover the tub. I made it with acrylic yarn so it could be removed and washed, and would withstand being left on the patio. But it looked a little plain, as you can see.

I then decided to embroider some cherry blossoms on the outside, to jazz it up and make it look special. I added some matt glass seed beads in a vibrant red to bring the whole project to life. I think it looks really sophisticated with a red pelargonium inside.ruth-flower-4

This is one of my favourite projects, because I think the results show that recycled stuff doesn’t have to look cheap or all earth-mother-hippy-ish. I can’t imagine how many of these tubs get thrown away every day, when they could be used to make something really pretty. I reckon there’s loads of ways they could be customised, so I will have a think about how I can decorate the next one. And of course it’s another excuse to eat loads of flapjacks and mini swiss rolls. “But I NEED to eat them because I need to use the tub. Honest!”

ruth-flower-5

3 Comments + Add Comment

  • [...] She’s Crafty VN:F [1.8.1_1037]please wait…Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes [...]

  • So cute, I really like embroidery.

  • [...] chip cookies, and I wanted something festive to put them in, so I once again turned to the biscuit tubs from M&S which I made a flowerpot from last year. Funnily enough, I think my mother in law was more impressed with the container than the gift [...]

Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>