A crafty kind of hide and seek.
You know how you clean a closet.
You sort into Will Wear Again, Will Never in a Thousand Years And What Was I Thinking, and Donate and Throw Away.
Mighten I suggest that you have another pile.
The "How Great is This Fabric and What Could It Be Because I Don't Really Want To Part With It" pile.
Let me show you some ideas:
Sunshiny Sally (she always greets me so warmly) from my Garden Exchange, showed up on a cooler Garden Exchange evening with this jacket. I kept looking at it, quietly inspecting the little details. During our Refreshment part of the evening (is there any point to going to any gathering without refreshments? I think not.), I approached SS and asked her about it. I told her that I was admiring it from afar.
It was then that Sunshiny (a wise woman of the generation above me) stated proudly, that her well made jacket was a Repurposed Project!
She told me that she had attended a class on this very subject and the attendees were to bring an used article, prepared to make it into something else.
Sunshiny Sally brought in three pair of jeans.
Adding some nice knit ribbing around the neck, bottom edge and cuffs (I might inject that SS is quite an accomplished seamstress and maker/designer of quilts) and some very fine applique and voila! A very, very unique jacket to wear on the cooler Garden Exchange Club Nights.
I was impressed.
And where did this clever little apron come from?
Once upon time, long, long ago in the late nineties, a dapper little straight skirt came to me via a second hand store far away.To be honest, I didn't think it fit me very well but I just loved the fabric (key!)...
I wore it and wore it until it starting looking very much like I had landed in a 90's closet freeze.
I put it away with off season clothes and each season as it rotated up in the storage bin, I would sigh, put it in the giveaway pile then at the last minute, I would pull it out, thinking someday.....
Then a Customer that shall remain nameless because the apron is a gift, asked me to make a birthday gift, an apron and could it please be on the budget side?Bingo!
Knew from the very beginning what fabric I would use!
The feminine floral was on the heavy durable side and could stand up to a lot of laundering.
Got out an Easy Shemeasy Pattern from the 70's (They really made patterns easy then; wish they still did the step by sub step by assuming nothing type of patterns for sewing neophytes)
Added a bit o' flourish, lining pocket with some of Paulina's Gingham and making the adjustable straps with another gingham, and it was done. I even used the original hem, thus aiding in the speed of it's completion.
What have we learned here?
What have we learned here?Before we toss anything, be it a towel, blanket, clothing, sheets, check it over carefully. How wonderful is this fabric? Durable? Could it be pockets or applique on something new? Is there enough in it to make something for Baby? Reflect carefully and repurpose it happily.
Or give it to me.......
