Repurposing a sweatshirt with a broken zipper….

One downfall, I suppose, of volunteering a day a week in a thrift store is all the the treasure I come in contact with that really needs saving.  I see it all….all the wastage and excess that most of us have come to live with as normal. 

There are so many possibilties for items people have discarded as trash…

For instance…today I happened upon this Quiksilver sweatshirt that had a broken zipper.  

Now, it would not have been that complicated to replace the zipper….a little time consuming and about 8 bucks.  No doubt the person donating this item didn’t have the time to try and figure it out in order to avoid having to go out and buy another sweatshirt.

So….I begged to take it home and repurpose it.

…..for those of you new to my blog, you need to know I have a propensity for projects that #1) take less than an hour, #2) take no appreciable skill to complete  #3) that I don’t have to measure or follow a pattern to do, and #4) that I don’t have to spend any $$ on….

First I sewed the zipper together by hand….just used brown thread and a needle and sewed that sucker shut.

 

Then I eyeballed and  I simply cut out what I thought looked rectangular.

Then I looked over the rest of it and decided on interesting pieces for the back….I also cut out one of the pockets and sewed it onto what would be the back panel…

Now, I’m not into changing my machine thread just because ( it takes time, and cuts into my hour), so I thought the current color I had on there…an orangy yellow, would make a nice contrast and I just used that to stitch on the pocket.

I don’t know much about adjusting the tension, so on most of my projects, the stitching comes out a little wonky, but that to me, just goes to show that it doesn’t have to be perfect…it just has to work.

After that I took out my handy dandy rotary cutter…( oh, now don’t you go thinking that I went out and spent $$ on this…oh no…I put it on my Christmas list last year and hubby’s equally crafty aunt, saw the value in purchasing it for me…I love her I tell you..!)  …anways, I took out my rotary cutter and matched up the back and front and somewhat tried to even out the edges ( right sides facing together…)

Then, I started stitching the back and front panel together.  Also note the wonky stitching here.  I’m not one to go out a rip it out when that happens…I just go back and sew over it again.  After all, this IS going to be on the inside….if it were on the outside, I probably would reconsider, but maybe not…:)

Ok, we are almost there now…by now, you may have figured out what we are making, but maybe not, so I’ll break the suspense for you…we’re making a shoe bag, or a little carry satchel ( which my 9yo has already claimed as his gym bag for next year…)

So, once you’ve stitched twice with right sides together, you turn it right side out and turn over the edges about an inch, and then slice into it twice so that the string will have somewhere to go.

At this point, I did use pins to pin down the channel all the way around….and I (gasp now..) changed the thread color since I kind of wanted it to disappear on the outside of the bag….

and the measurement thing on your feed plate does come in handy for this job….helps you keep the channel size somewhat consistent as you go…

Next, you feed through your string… ( and make a mental note to change out your badly chipped nailpolish!)

et voila….front and back!

Now, my next dilemma…I’m pretty much left with scraps except for the arms….what can I do with them…?????  ideas????

What can we learn from watching the tragedy of Michael Jackson’s life?

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Judge not, lest you be judged.

Fight the battle that can’t be seen.

Fight with weapons that cannot be felt.  Believe that no weapon formed will prosper against those that seek and find.  Believe it for those who can’t believe it for themselves.

Stand for those who can’t stand.

Stand for those who don’t see the battle raging.

Stand for those who are too weak, too tired, too hurt to see it for themselves.

From our pain comes our confusion.

From our confusion comes poor decisions.

From our poor decisions comes a disability to see the Truth.

 Stand for Truth.  Above All.

 Truth can undo poor decisions.

Truth can undo confusion.

Truth can reign.

 Don’t react from the hatred that comes from holding up the mirror.

Don’t believe your own life, temptations or transgressions

to be on any higher or lower plane. 

Each one is the same, none worse than the other.

Don’t think that you’ve got it all together.

Don’t think that you can do this on your own.

 Hate the Tempter, not the tempted, nor the one who gives in.

 Look into the soul. 

The soul that was created with the same potential to love and be loved as your own. 

The soul that cries out for unity, for justice, for mercy, for one-ness.

 For from which we were all created, is ONE.

Is unity.
Is light.

Is hope.

Is peace.

Is redemption.

Is in us all, though us all, and can result in us all

Being ONE.

Be one at the crossroads, where life beckons.

Be one at the crossroads, where the battle rages.

Be one at the crossroads, where Truth reigns.

Be one at the cross.

Together.

Moving Forward.

Loving.

Bringing peace.

Bringing Light to dark places, joy where there is sadness, love where there is none, mercy where there is judgement, understanding where there is confusion, bringing hope where there is nothing.

Together, as ONE, through ONE.

Repurposing while on Vaca….

..who knows how many crafty little things I will come up with while on vaca….idle hands ‘n’ all….I think I’m just making up for the past few months of nothingness.

Here is another installment of a little girl’s dress made from a  vintage sheet….such a sweet pattern!

Then I had some time on my hands and had seen examples of these floating around the blogosphere….so I thought I had to try my hand at it.  I used a very thick marker, so next time, and there will be a next time…(!), I will use a much thinner marker tip….maybe I’ll include a tutorial too!

 

I played with it in Photoshop and like this one nearly as much!

Repurposing a Wedding Dress

We’ve been hanging onto my mom’s wedding dress, well, since forever….it has been damaged some in all of our moves, and really wasn’t in great condition.

So, when #1 sister decided to get married, we made the decision to cut it up and create some useful items out of it.

First of all, we have crafted the ring bearers’ pillow, which my son(9) will carry the rings on and hand to her stepson(15).

And then, we cut out some strips of the satin and the netting from the full skirt; added a bit of ecru lace that I scrounged up, and so far, have half a dozen ’shabby roses’ made. 

We had thought my son(9) would carry these down the aisle as well, pausing to put three ( for three children) of them on a table where Mom’s picture will sit, and then hand the other three to my Dad…but we’re not sure about all that yet.  Not sure how that would work as he walks #1 sister down the aisle….  any ideas from blogland?

 

 

It’s been fun having the sewing machine going again….we are a long way from having my studio back up and running, but in the meantime, the dining room table does just fine…!

Back in the Groove

Not sure when I’ll be posting with any sort of regularity again…..still lots to do.

In the meantime, be inspired by this couple who made it through one year only generating one bag of trash:

http://www.rubbishfreeyear.co.nz/index.php

woohoo…..repurposing again!!!!

Finally, I’ve stolen away some time to get into my studio and run with scissors again.

Here is just a fast project inspired by a vintage pillowcase I picked up for a quarter…as in 25 cents….

It’s called a pillowcase dress and little girls everywhere are staying cool this summer in them.  I made this for my little friend Summer and I’m going to give it to her tomorrow…..if I remember I’ll get a picture of her wearing it…that is of course, if her two-ness will put it on….you never know at that age…!

Love Winnipeg

In between all the muck and the yuck around here, a very important yearly event has also come and gone.

It’s the time of year when we at Riverwood put on our work gloves, pick up our rakes and lawnmowers and set out to give some love away “no strings attached”.

This year we asked kids from our weekly “KidzClub” – a gathering of neighbourhood kids from Elmwood – if they would like to join in.  We ended up with about 15 kids on the block, pitching in and helping out in their own community!  Not all of these kids attend church regularly or even at all, but over the weeks at KidzClub, we have been able to form relationships with them that we hope spill over into positive life change for themselves and for the community of Elmwood!

Way to go Kids!  We learned alot about giving away a part of our lives to be a blessing in someone else’s…!

Closing In…

Well….we are getting there…even if progress doesn’t look like much on the outside….

For all our $$$$$ this is what we got:

a bunch of construction traffic….

 some damaged stucco, a bunch of styrofoam and some of that squirty foam stuff…

A new cement thingy that is the ‘clean-out’ chute for you-know-what…

a bunch of these things sticking out of the ground and out of the house…

a few of my bulbs made it unscathed…woo hoo!!!

but the piece de resistance….10 foot ceilings and R40 walls!

oh, and a few of THESE for FREE!!!

 

Re-Post – I am Older than my Mother

Here’s a reposting of an entry I wrote last year…

 

http://repurposed.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/i-am-older-than-my-mother/

 

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Feeling Blue…..

This is a good sign….the contractors have cleaned up the area in front of the gazebo, and smoothed out the rough spots their machinery left in the driveway….

 

The Blue Skin has been applied ( for waterproofing below the surface)

 

The new huge basement windows are framed out…

and green things are beginning to sprout in one of the untouched places…

Our new exterior paint color has been chosen….(BEHR paints – Sierra Madre)..can’t put a paint chip up on here…they won’t let me copy/paste…grrr…

…and we’ve chosen our new exterior brick that replaces that ugly green siding…

and all is alright with the world….