…There are alot of places to find inspiration for repurposing old items. Google is my best friend these days when I find myself with something to repurpose….
Take for instance – ZIPPERS.
Wouldya ever have thought about this?????
Brooches and the like from ZIPPERS…..see more here
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…I’ve go two weddings in our immediate family in the next month, so I’ve been busy, busy, busy….there will be a few projects to share, but just not yet so I don’t spoil any surprises!
In the meantime, here are two websites to look at for repurposing inspiration!
http://www.madeleineboulesteix.co.uk/teacup.html
This ARTIST uses old glassware to create chandeliers!
ooooh the possibilities!
And something a little more local….my good friend Kim has recently made some purses out of old BOOKS!
You can give her a shout out right here and I’ll make sure she reads it!
Inspiring for sure! She is also a very talented photographer and artist in many other forms as well…..help me encourage her to showcase her work on the world wide web!
Let me just say right up front, I am not a quilter…never done it, never thought I would explore it….but….last week while at the thrift store, some donations came in from someone’s mother who had recently passed. I know the daughter as an aquaintance and I was overcome with a thought as I saw all those clothes.
It just seemed like there was SOMETHING that could be done to ease her grieving, at least just a little….so I rummaged through, and pulled out some items and got busy that evening.
Once I had started, I realized that there was still a very strong lingering of her mother’s perfume on these items, and so I told myself I needed to work really fast so that I could present it, with the scent of her mother still ‘alive’ on it. So…I was up until midnight…cutting, pressing, sewing….and I came up with just a small little lap quilt, or, as I’ve shown here, a neat little roll pillow….
It was just one small thing, that I could do…..
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????
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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.
..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!
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…!
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:
Repurposed
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