Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Waste Not!

 My son makes his own craft beer, in his kitchen. Among the byproducts of brewing are "spent grains". These are the grains used in brewing, boiled to get all the sugars out of them, and then strained out and discarded. They are low in carbohydrates and still have a lot of nutrients, so lately, people have been looking for ways to use them, besides throwning them into the "Green Bin" (municipal composting). 

After my son gave me some from his latest batch, I made dog cookies.


In addition to 4 cups of grains, I added some flour, peanut butter, and an egg. Then I mixed them with my hands, and rolled them out.


After 3 hours in the oven, they look very sturdy.  However, the dogs give them 2 paws up.

Spencer Ogg Designs posted a video tutorial for a new pouch. She calls it the Bummity Bum Bag, but I thought that with a bit of work, it would make a nice pouch for carrying masks to school. 

I had the bright idea to make them from denim, and that turned out to be a bit of a problem, but in the end, my lovely vintage Singer was up to the task. Turning them right side out was a challenge. 



They hold three masks, nicely.


Yes, I made more masks.


The "waste not" part of this: all of the fabric was from my scraps. The zippers, stabilizers. hardware and appliques were in my stash. The only materials specific to this are the filter fabric and elastic for the masks.

3 comments:

  1. Your dogs eat well, for sure! Nice little denim bag, it looks very useful.

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  2. Ingenious! Nothing goes to waste and your son gets to drink the beer he makes. Those bags are great for the masks and the denim is sturdy and durable as well.

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  3. I am such a bad doggy-mommy. My pup only gets store-bought treats from me, because on the rare occasion that I DO get the urge to bake something, it's usually chocolate chip espresso cookies for my human son. ;-). What a great way to use up those spent grains, though! And your masks are so cute, they almost make the pandemic fun again!

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