Tag: vegan

When life gives you lemons, make some lemon cakes because you’re absolutely amazing

As the title maaay vaguely suggest, I haven’t been very on top of my game lately. But rather than focus on the negatives (throws glitter into the air): I have repurposed the Kraft-tex material I made a while ago into something completely new!

I didn’t really like the zipper pouches (the zips were meh and didn’t match), so I took them all apart and have let them sit on my desk for a while. Just sitting there. Some unsewn little bits. Wondering what to do with them…

So after a “bit” of time (re: 6 months or so), I have finally found myself with some key fob makin’ bits and a bit of free time. A few hours later, and I had some brand new key fobs!

So what is the lesson here? Hoard things for months and months and stress over them until finally you crack and tear them up (THREE TIMES!!!) and then finally understand their true calling?

Maybe not. But anyways, I’m out of wisdom so here’s a link and a pretty picture to the aforementioned fobs. Have a good holiday everybody and see you in 2018 where I may even get my crap together!

Paper Leather Key Fobs by makeMonster

What is Kraft-Tex Paper ‘Leather’ and how to treat it

Kraft-tex, fabric
Kraft-tex drying after being washed

I won’t lie, this stuff tripped me out when I first saw it. I was walking through Byron and little shop had these massive leather tote bags in all sorts of metallic colours. The shop owner saw me touching them (because I’m like a 4 year old and have to feel everything shiny), and asked if I knew what is was made of.

“Feels like painted leather” I said.

“Nope, it’s paper!” She replied, smiling as the shock moved across my face.

What. The. Hell.

I spent that entire night frantically googling this mystical material.

The makers of bags are called Uashmama (who have a whole range of cool things), and call it ‘washable paper’. It feels exactly like leather, but it’s a manufactured paper product that’s a vegan alternative to cow hide. I’ve even seen their stuff pop up in Newcastle now, at one of my favourite Hunter Street shops, Studio Melt. I don’t know exactly their source, but commercially it’s available as Kraft Tex (or KraftTex, Kraft-Tex depending on where you look).

But with some more research, I discovered that this isn’t some new technological miracle, it’s been around for ages. If you own a pair of jeans with a leather name tag on the back, it’s probably not leather, but this Kraft Tex.

Of course I bought some. It comes in bolts like fabric, but feels like card stock. The website said to wash it once to give it a bit of texture. So this weekend, I decided to see what happened when I washed a bit. I didn’t send them through the machine, but soaked them in boiling water for ten minutes. After they became soft, I crumpled them and molded them a bit to get that rough texture. After drying, as if by some miracle, it turned into a really supple leathery material!

The next level is seeing how well this takes fabric paint. I bought some silver over the weekend, and in my head I have some really cool accent pieces for tote bags I want to do.