Check out these beautiful pendants made from reclaimed wine corks!

We love crafting with wine corks around here. That humble little cork in your bottle of vino has so many crafty possibilities! Whether your bottle has a plastic or a natural cork, it's worth collecting those suckers in a little bowl, because both make great, free craft supplies. The bonus? When you craft with your old wine corks, you're keeping that material out of the waste stream.

Over on the Fiskars blog, Lisa Storms shares a tutorial for making some super sweet wine cork pendants. You only need a few materials to make your own:

• A sharp knife - I've found that a serrated blade is best for cutting cork
• Paint
• Paint brush
• Stamps
• a 5mm eye screw

You probably have most of these supplies laying around the house! Ready to make your own wine cork pendants? Click here for the complete tutorial!

Thanks to everyone who entered the Patagonia and PlanetShoes.com giveaway for Patagonia Advocate Week! We used a random number to choose a winner, and the winner is......

Ryan Joswiak who said:

I like the Patagonia Advocate Lace Plaid Men in Grey!

Thanks again to all our readers and everyone who participated!

Shopping for a vegan shoe isn't always a simple task, but PlanetShoes and Patagonia make it easy.

Disclosure: Patagonia and PlanetShoes sent me a pair of their vegan shoes for this review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Patagonia Advocate Week is back! Patagonia will donate $10 to the World Wildlife Fund for every pair of Patagonia footwear sold on PlanetShoes from March 21 - April 4. The WWF is the world's leading conservation organization with an admirable set of preservation goals for the coming years:

The world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. WWF’s unique way of working combines global reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature.

WWF's expansive work includes the Tiger Survey Team:

Monitoring tigers and their prey is essential to achieving our goal of doubling wild tiger populations by 2022. By employing camera traps, tracking technologies and DNA collected from scat, WWF scrutinizes the progress of tiger populations in order to adapt our strategies and make conservation decisions based on strong science and field experience.
Photo credit: © WWF Indonesia/Tiger Survey Team

Ready to update your spring wardrobe with some eco-minded wares? Patagonia and PlanetShoes has just what you need!

Shoe manufacturing is rarely Earth-friendly due to the use of leather and synthetic materials, but vegan shoes offer a nice alternative for eco-minded or vegetarian/vegan folks. The best choice for a vegan shoe is organic cotton, canvas, hemp, or anything recycled (not leather). Opting for second hand shoes (or repairing the shoes you have) is another way to green up your footwear without harming animals and minimizing your environmental impact.

Vegan Shoe Review
An Eco-conscious company, Patagonia offers a wide variety of vegan shoes, not to mention almost all Patagonia footwear incorporates recycled materials. The Advocate Lace Plaid shoe boasts a recycled PET fleece collar and lining, a 15% recycled EVA insole, and a 20% recycled and durable armadillo rubber sole. And true to a vegan shoe, no leather or animal product is used in the Patagonia Advocate. A slip on shoe, the Advocate is cozy, cute and an easy choice for a camp shoe. The handy rear pull-loop makes it easy to slip these comfy shoes on and off, or clip them to your pack while you're rockin' your heavy duty kicks on the trail.

Overall I'm enjoying these shoes. Definitely casual and comfy, great for either wearing around the house like a slipper or cruising the streets of San Francisco. Small and soft, I can see taking them with me on trips as they pack easily or can be clipped onto my carry-on.

And for the fellas, Patagonia makes an Advocate for men.

Sizing
The Advocate line only comes in full sizes, so if you are a half-sizer like me you may want to order a size lower as they seem to run a bit big. I'm a 7.5 (but can occasionally wear an 8) and I ordered an 8. The fit is just a bit loose but doable with a sock. If you plan to rock these without socks than I definitely recommend going a size down.

Patagonia and the Environment
Patagonia has been one of my favorite company for years, from their awesome selection of outdoor gear to their committment to supporting environmental causes, it's a company that has earned my loyalty. A member of 1% for the Planet, Patagonia also maintains a high level of transparency about their manufacturing processes, so consumers are always able to make informed decisions when buying Patagonia products. You can read more about Patagonia's environmental initiatives on their site.

Check out the wide selection of Patagonia shoes on PlanetShoes and purchase by April 4 to support the World Wildlife Fund. And be sure to enter our $100 Gift Card Giveaway from Patagonia.

Once again the folks at Patagonia have teamed up with PlanetShoes.com for Patagonia Advocate week, and they're giving away a $100 Gift Card to one lucky Green Upgrader reader to help spread the word!

Patagonia Advocate Week

Running thru April 4th, Patagonia will be donating $10 to the World Wildlife Fund for every pair of Patagonia shoes they sell at Planet Shoes. The world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally.

Started in 2010, the Patagonia Advocate Weeks program allows retail partners to support the 1% For The Planet non-profit organization of their choosing.

The Giveaway
If you enter our giveaway, we hope that you'll also consider making a donation to the World Wildlife Fund, in lieu of the one Patagonia would be making if you purchased a pair of shoes. The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to use on Patagonia's site, so you can pick out any pair of shoes or Patagonia product.

Speaking of that giveaway, I bet you'd like to know how to enter! There are a few ways that you can get your "name in the hat." Please just make sure that you leave a separate comment for each thing you do, so that we can be sure to count all of your entries!

• Comment here, letting us know which Patagonia shoes you like the best.
• Like us on Facebook, and let us know with a comment here.
• Follow us on Twitter, and let us know with a comment here.

That's it! We'll announce the winner on Monday, April 8th, so hurry and enter while there's still time. Don't forget to check out our review of the Patagonia Advocate, an affordable and comfy vegan shoe.

Is your stash of reusable bags a little bit slim? If you've got an old t-shirt handy, you can turn it into a DIY mesh grocery bag super easily!

My very first reusable grocery bag was one of those crochet mesh ones. I got it at a health food store as a teen and felt so good about saying no to plastic and doing the family grocery shopping. The whole thing felt so grown up!

Over the years, I've built up a big stash of reusable bags, and I don't think any of them are that old school mesh sort that I remember from my teen years.

Those bags were great, though! You could shove them in your purse, because they got really small, but the mesh design meant they expanded to hold way more food than they looked like they would.

Want your own mesh bag, but don't want to pony up for the expensive crochet version they sell at the store? Delia Creates shows you how to make your own out of a reclaimed tee, no crochet skills required! All you need are:

• an old t-shirt
• pen
• fabric scissors
• sewing machine/thread or needle/thread
• ruler
• rotary cutter (optional)

Get the tutorial here!

Note: She says that you can use a straight stitch or a narrow zigzag, and I would definitely go with the latter, unless you're super skilled at sewing jersey. The zigzag gives that knit fabric more room to stretch, so you'll be less likely to have stitches break.

I love shopping for jeans at the thrift store. Some of my favorite pairs of jeans have come from the thrift store and cost me less than $5. The thing that can be frustrating is when you find a pair of jeans that would be perfect except for one little detail. Maybe they have a small tear, are a bit too long, or fit great in the hips but have a cheesy bell bottom thing happening. Never fear! Whip out that sewing machine, crafty friends, because you can easily fix these problems and turn those thrifted jeans into your favorite pair.

1. Hemming

Hemming is probably the most basic repair you can do, and there are a couple of ways to go about it. The easiest is to cut off the pants, fold them to the length you want, and sew the seam, but you can also hem your jeans and keep the original hem, if you like the look of it. Here are tutes for both methods:

1. Basic hem
2. Keeping the original hem

2. Lengthening

Shortening jeans is very Sewing 101, and it's not that hard to add a little length to jeans that are a little too short. Julie over at Crafting a Green World shows you a simple way to lengthen too-short jeans.

3. Patching

Confession: I love a patch! Sometimes I add patches to things that aren't even torn, just to up the cute factor. Whether you want to add a splash of color or cover up a tear or stain, check out this tutorial on how to sew a patch. Easy peasy!

4. Reverse Applique

Reverse applique might sound daunting and fancy, but it's really not much harder than sewing a patch. Get more deets on reverse applique and how to use this method to repair torn jeans here!

5. DIY Skinny Jeans

Ever tried on a pair of pants at the thrift store that are super cute until you get to the knees, where they balloon out into bell bottoms? Fear not! You can turn those outdated duds into skinny jeans that fit like a glove. I love this skinny jeans tutorial from Cut Out + Keep for taking in those pant legs!

Have you done any creative repairs or alterations on old jeans from your closet or from the thrift store? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments!

Image Credit: Thrift Store Jeans photo via Bigstock

Did your favorite pair of jeans get an unsightly rip? You can repair torn jeans by adding a sassy lace detail!

We are all about mending instead of replacing around here, and one of my favorite things about mending is that you can make your repair into the centerpiece of the garment. That could mean using contrasting thread, a cute patch, or - like Sophie at The Forge - a super cute lace reverse applique!

What is reverse applique?

For these purposes, you can think of applique as basically a fancy word for patch, and a reverse applique is a patch sewn behind the hole or tear, rather than on top. So, instead of sewing a piece of lace on top of the hole in your jeans, you sew it in on the inside of the garment, so the lace peeks out from behind the tear.

I love the depth that reverse applique can give a project. Some designers use it intentionally on original garments and accessories, and using it for repair adds some interest while fixing a problem at the same time. How cool is that?

Using this method for a repair is easy as pie. If you don't have lace handy, you could really reverse applique with anything! Choose a cute fabric scrap from your stash, for example. With jeans, the only caveat I'd give is to choose something that's not too flimsy, because you want your repair to stand up to wear and tear.

All you need to repair your torn jeans are:

• the jeans in question
• sand paper
• scissors
• iron-on transfer paper
• lace or scrap fabric
• iron
• a sewing machine
• thread that matches the color of the jeans you're mending

Ready to get mending? Get the tutorial here!