Whether we're talking about headbands or rings and earrings, we love a good bike tube craft around here. Once a bicycle tire has blown out, it's not of much use, but DIYers all over the place have been discovering that you can cut them up, clean them out, and reuse that rubber in place of leather or vinyl in all sorts of crafty ways!
Not too long ago, we posted about some awesome bike frame shelving spotted at a bar in Portland, Oregon and asked if any of you had been up to any fun bike-related crafts. Commenter Meg told us about her husband, Josh Price, turning a blown out bike tire into a reusable coffee sleeve!
We asked about how it went, and she said:
It came out really cool. He took a cardboard sleeve from Starbucks for a template and traced it on to the bike tube. Then he cut it out and hand stitched up the sides using the blanket stitch.
How awesome is that! Not only did he give that worn out tire a brand new life, the finished product will help him use less paper in his day to day.
Want to try and make your own reusable coffee sleeve out of an old bike tire? All you need is a paper sleeve as a template, the tire, and a heavy needle and thread. Here's a video showing how to sew a blanket stitch:
As Meg pointed out in her comment, bike shops just throw away blown out tubes, so you can probably hit up a local shop near you and easily get a used one for free!
[All photos courtesy Meg Price. Used with permission.]
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Hey Becky,
Very cool idea. Did you see that beta cup competition that just ended? They had a bunch of cool stuff like this up there as well.
(ps – the video isn’t showing up for me in Google Chrome…)
I didn’t! Do you have a link?
Bummer that the video isn’t showing up…I’ll see what I can find out about that!
Yeah, check out a bunch of the submissions here – http://www.jovoto.com/contests/drink-sustainably
The “Karma Cup” ended up winning, but I was a big fan of #2, the “CupToKeep”
Am I missing something here? Are we celebrating that he is not using a bit of recyclable/biodegradable cardboard (sleeve) when he is still TAKING A TOTALLY UNNECESSARY WAXED PAPER CUP THAT CAN’T BE RECYCLED/COMPOSTED?
Ahem. Sorry, but why can’t he take a reusable cup?
That’s a fair point, Alex. I think that on days when you forget your cup, having a reusable sleeve stashed in your purse, car, or desk can at least mitigate some of the waste. This fellow actually does use a reusable cup most of the time, though I didn’t include that in the post. Maybe I should have!
Thanks Becky for posting my reusable coffee sleeve idea. I hope this post has inspired others to become more creative in their daily lives, and to be more mindful of the impact our lives have on the earth. Right after I made the reusable coffee sleeve my wife and I started making our own coffee at home and using stainless steel insulated coffee bottles by Klean Kanteen. No more wasted coffee cups, and the coffee stays hot all day long.
I tried this, it didn’t work out so well. It was very difficult to remove and to get on in the first place. I asked my wife to sew another one and this one was a little looser and easy to put on and take off but it just didn’t stay on and I lost it.
As I can’t get my wife to make a third one, I’ll just keep doing what I used to; reusing the same paper sleeve for as long as I can (sometimes months before it gets dirty).
Interesting! I wonder if lining it with some fabric scraps or felt would help with the friction issue.
I wonder ! It ‘s bicycle tire. cool idea