Repurposed!

Do you Recycle, Reuse and Reduce?  

Being 'green' is very fashionable these days...and for good reason!  We need to take care of the Earth and the resources we have been blessed with.  

A newer term for being green is repurpose...taking something that you no longer use, or want and finding a new purpose for it.

I've been having fun repurposing [if that is a word].  Here's an easy peasy project to do...take a envelope that you no longer need...extra from Christmas cards, junk mail, etc.  Cut off the corner [about 2 1/2 or 3"] on a diagonal. Carefully open it up and trace the shape on the back of a fabric scrap. 

Cut out the fabric and spray baste it to the envelope corner. Stitch around close to the edge then glue closed. It is a great book mark...and pretty too...say goodbye to dog-earred corners in your books.

Another project was a challenge on Jenny of Elefantz blog.  She challenged her blog readers to take a skirt and repurpose it into an apron!  Although I didn't know about the challenge in time to be a part of it, I thought it sounded like fun.  So off to the resale shop where I found this skirt with 3 rows of ruffles.  I started by taking out the side seams and zipper...now I have 2 pieces! From my stash, I made long apron strings...attached them and finished the sides. 

My favorite project is T-Shirt yarn!  

I have made several balls of yarn from cast off cotton t-shirts.  

Here's a brief how to...there are many good tutorials online to follow...my favorite being  here. 

Lay the t-shirt down flat on your cutting surface...smooth it out...then just under the arms or under the picture/saying/words, cut straight across and again at the hem.  I used my rotary cutter and ruler.  

Keeping the 'tube' flat, cut 3/4" strips...But don't cut all the way through...leave about 1" along one fold. Once all your strips are cut, carefully open up the fold [uncut] and cut diagonally from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. 

This spiral cut will result in one long piece of t-shirt fabric.  

All you do is pull the fabric in both directions...the fabric will roll creating 'yarn'... increasing in length. Wind it into a ball and it is ready to knit or crochet!

I'm knitting on large needles...making a bath mat from my D1's apartment.  

 Sometimes I just need to try something different...more on what I've been quilting on my next post!  

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