“Up from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success,” says the fount of wisdom that is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I had cause to remember this as I made a complete mess of things initially with my first project, Wellie Boot Liners. I mentioned yesterday I was working on these and this morning I was determined to finish them, but I ran into problem after problem and finally had to admit defeat.

However, where my the boot liners failed, my alternative solution came up blooming because its far, far easier and quicker: Felted Shoe Insoles.

Cosy insoles for wellies made out of an old felted sweater

These handy little babies are what’s going to let me wear my utterly charming but poorly insulated new Wellington boots instead of having to stump for the practical but boring option.

What you need to make Felted Shoe Insoles at home

All you need is (yet again) an old wool sweater. That’s it.

If I haven’t persuaded you to start trawling the charity shops and your friends closets for old sweaters — especially ones with moth holes or stains — then hopefully I will now.

As I explained in the Felted Sweater Bag tutorial (for pictures and more detailed instructions), you simply add a few good squeezes of dishwashing liquid onto your sweater and throw it into the wash on the hottest cycle you have.

How to make the insole

Once you have your felt, simply remove the sole from your shoe and place it on top of the fabric.

Use your shoe insert and just cut around it

Then cut around it — I didn’t bother to trace it or anything, just cut away — with a little extra room just in case.

Place it in your shoe or boot and trim if necessary. That’s it!

The felted soles inside the boots

Making a Wellie Boot warmer

Now here’s how I came to be doing this. These are the boots that are my super deluxe purchase of the year: the Hunter Festival 2009 wellington boot.

Ready to walk in my new boots

I’m afraid they’re pretty much all style over substance, meant for traipsing about rock concerts in the mud. I tried, I really did, to find boots that had a rugged sole and warm interior to suit our daily treks over the rocks and the beach, but they were all just so borrrring.

I like my jaunts outside to have the spice of adventure, and that means a pair of boots I can’t wait to put on.

Wellie boot liners

When I found out there is such a thing as wellie boot liners, I thought I’d go one better and make them out of felted sweaters I’ve already got. Here’s the original design I was attempting to copy:

Here's the original Dubarry design

My niece Sameena was visiting from New Zealand and she came up with the design. She thought very cleverly of using plastic bags to wrap around our feet to get an idea of the shape of the pattern and we even sewed a mockup that looked like it would work.

Mockup in muslin to test the design out

So I made it up this morning using two different sweaters because I didn’t have enough fabric left over in either. But when I tried to put it in the boot, no luck.

Cosy but very bulky liner

Wayyyy to much fabric meant it was never going to get in there. It was a bit depressing really, but then sometimes it’s good to realise just how hard things are to make, that there’s a reason cobblers are master craftsmen, for example.

As I was thinking what to do with all these scraps of felt, I figured I could at least line the bottom of my boots and so I pulled out my shoe sole, cut around it, and popped the fleece into the boot. Ah, luxury.

I’m wearing the boots today to see how they do. So far, the soles feels fantastic.

So my other lesson for today is to Keep It Simple. And just for fun…

Your suggestions?

I haven’t given up completely on the boot liners, so if you have any suggestions, please chime in.

Welly warmer in fleece

So far, this is the best Welly Warmer tutorial I’ve found and I’ll probably give it a go at some point (though I couldn’t find any pattern to download, which means I’ll need to come up with it myself).

I’ve already ordered the faux fur to make the Dubarry knock-off boot liners, but now I’m thinking I might just use my over-the-knee socks and add a strip of fur to the edge.

If you try the insoles, let me know how you like them.

[Note from Rachel: These also make great presents, so this is Part 4 of my Frugal and Green Christmas Gift series. You can find all the projects by clicking on this tag (also on the righthand side of every page): Christmas.]

Decorating the fireplace for Christmas

This I believe to be one of the earliest of human inventions and in all honesty, it is superior to the man-made, metal equivalent.

For one thing the parts are white and shiny, so reflect more light. For another there are many flutes thus allowing multiple wicks and thus variable brightness (the world’s first ‘dimmer switch’). Oh, and they are free, recyclable and beautiful.

Waiting for dark to be lit

Recycling a Scottish tradition

During the 17th – 19th centuries, and probably long before, traditional cruisie lamps were used to burn fish oil.

The upper bowl can be tilted to keep the wick wet so it doesn’t burn down

These were generally made of two metal dishes mounted one above the other, on the wall or hook. Now we are going to update this old lamp for the 21st century.

What you need

Rushes grow all over boggy fields

• scallop shells or similar containers
• vegetable oil or any oil that burns
• rushes or cloth, string or matchsticks

Readying the shell

Eat your scallop. Clean the shells, especially the insides, so there is nothing to ‘go off’. This also helps with reflectance.

The flat shell will catch any drips

The flat half of the shell makes an ideal base, to steady the upper shell and catch any oil that may run down the side of the shell. It also helps you tilt the curved shell at the right angle to keep the wick in oil.

That is the shell done!

Making the wick

You can use anything that will soak up oil, including cloth, string and matchsticks. I use the traditional wicks made from the soft rush (Juncus).

Gathering the rushes

Rushes grow all over boggy fields

The soft rush has been used for rush lights and wicks from long ago. As it is nowadays treated as a weed or plant of waterlogged and overgrazed land, it seems a good plant to use.

Gather a few stems of soft rush by cutting low to the ground. It is the soft, white pith in the centre that you want.

You can try peeling the dark green outer fibres as you would a banana, but for high quality wicks and speed, try this:

How to make the wicks from rushes

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Insert a nail, key, bone or similar hard object into the rush, leaving an inch or so of rush to grip (with your teeth). Note, the nail goes right through the rush stem but leaves the outer fibres intact on either side of it.

The green rush is pinched with finger and thumb against the nail. One hand is holding the nail, the other is pinching the rush sides against the nail.

Insert the key into the rush

Now, keeping the fingers pinching the ‘nail’ at all times, push both hands down the stem, whilst holding that inch of rush firmly between your teeth.

Beginners will want to choose only a short length of rush, maybe 4-6 inches, to start.

You will find the white inner pith is pushed out by the hard ‘nail’, as it cannot pass either side of the nail because of your pinching the sides to the hard object. The pushed out pith will then magically extend, like a concertina.

An alternative method is to strip away one half of the green outer fibre (as per the banana skin method, then use the back of your thumb nail to push along the inner of the remaining fibre, thus pushing the white pith forward and out, like a snow plough.

Either way, you are looking for nice, plump wicks. They can be used straight away or kept dry for storage.

Add the oil

Traditionally the oil could be coming from fish, seabird, seal, whale or animal fat (as tallow). If it burns, you can use it.

The easiest to use, and handiest in a power cut, is vegetable cooking oil. You usually have some of this in the kitchen, though it does give of a bit of smoke and the smell depends on what it is. You can add scent with essential oils.

Be safe

Burning oil can cause other things to catch light, so be careful.

Whilst the shell itself is low-lying and thus pretty stable, it can be knocked, spilt or spread. Do not light your lamp when it is set upon something flammable. Wood and plastic objects burn. Things like tables, televisions, stereos etc. All serious fire hazards.

Do not leave a naked flame unattended. Do not let pets near (the vegetable / fish oil is very edible).

How to use

Fill the shell with oil, place one wick in the fluted groove of the shell (perfect isn’t it), leaving half an inch protruding over the end of the rim.

Get the wick tip covered in oil too.

Lighting the rush wicks

Keep the oil level high and close to the rim by repositioning the shell on it’s flatter, lower partner. Take care to get it stable and not having oil dripping over the edge.

Light with a match or similar flame.

Lighting the rush wicks

Take care, please

Please take care! Ensure all fire, flame or heat is safe and out before you go to bed or leave the house. Accidents happen by their very nature when not expected. That said, many fires are started by electrical faults.

In this case, the safety is up to you. Fire and alcohol do not mix.

Final point

There is no point trying to replicate the light of a 100w lightbulb with candles or lamps. Instead, enjoy the calm and soft light of a natural flame.

Now run that bath and set up your lamps, with essential oils added, and relax. Who needs TV?

Using cardboard to insulate the windows for free

My problem: How to stay warm this winter without spending money. The house is cold and heating it is expensive.

My frugal-living philosophy tells me you don’t need to spend money to be green, despite what all the retailers say. But can I?

What if I can’t just buy stuff?

You see, if I had more money I could head off down to the DIY store and buy solutions.

I could feel good buying stuff, and feel good because this will obviously do lots for the planet, despite my having just bought something that had to be made and transported and stored and displayed and sold and transported home. All that carbon burnt, money spent whenever I buy anything.

However, I cannot afford to go buy insulating stuff, partly because I live on an island, to which all that stuff must be transported with diesel powered ferries, which pushes up the price. Partly because it would be a 30 mile drive in a car to the store and we have given up the car too.

The main reason I cannot buy stuff from the DIY store is because I cannot afford it.

Food comes first and there is not enough left to buy insulation material, no matter how much it might save in money and carbon in the long run. I am reminded how it is easy for the poor to remain poor like this.

My solution: cardboard insulation

I’m going to insulate this house without spending a penny. I’m going to make this house warmer and also reduce my fuel bill, and I’m not even going to leave the house to do it. No need to waste time and money and carbon going shopping.

Instead, I’m off into the garage, the shed and the attic to find what I need, MacGyver style.

This is what I found:

• scrap of bubble wrap left from packaging
• cardboard boxes
• newspaper
• nails
• polystyrene off-cuts
• an old rag
• silicone sealant and
• some wool

Feel how warm they are to the touch.

Cold testing with your hands

The best way to work out where the most heat is being lost is to use my hands and feel surfaces.

If they make my hand feel cold they are conducting heat away faster than my heart can replace it (give it 30 seconds).

Hand feeling window pane

What I found was the double glazed windows feel cold. Also, can I feel cold air – drafts? Yep.

So whilst I cannot fill the loft with more fibreglass insulation or fill wall cavities with foam, I can do something. Now.

It feels good to take action

This is great, feels fun and I get a thrill from taking action, instead of being helpless. I may not have the best stuff but I can do a lot, this afternoon, instead of joining the Black Friday / Christmas shopping chaos.

Over the next couple of posts I’ll show you what I have done to make the house warmer and have fun doing something to improve things. I tell you, it feels good!

The window before insulation

First, this is the way I sorted window insulation in the kitchen, our one and only heated room.

The window, double glazed, south facing. Light fades at 4pm.

The kitchen window, double glazed

As the light fades there is nothing to see outside, so I can block the glass until morning.

Thick curtains will help, shutters will help, triple glazing will help. All cost money. Necessity is the mother of invention

Getting dark outside, nothing to see

After insulation

With just 2 inch thick polystyrene scrap, cut to fit, a cardboard box, trimmed to size and a couple of tacks to hold the cardboard in place, we get:

Insulated window

Result – warm room!

What a difference

The effect is so dramatic I can feel the difference instantly, and the room remains warm, despite the stove being on for less hours than in summer. Once the stove goes off at 6pm the room now remains cosy until past midnight.

Making it look pretty

Next step, to decorate the cardboard, trim it to a better size and make the job look nice but for now, we’re toasty. Then I’ll show you how I draft proofed the doors, windows, for free.