This cute baby set used to be a tshirt. Really.
We had a t-shirt that no one could wear, so we made a baby hat, a baby bib and a burp cloth. Melany added the applique’s for a stylish look.
The hat is from the sleeve, the burp cloth is the bottom and the bib was from the neck. We simply added the binding.
Today’s re-purposing project answers that age old question: What do you do with dryer lint?
Well, you make pillows, of course. Simply use it in place of poly-fill to stuff a pillow sewn from your favorite fabric. It took about 2 months of saving dryer lint to stuff the pillows. But, if your like us, there is a constant flow of laundry creating a constant supply of lint.
From plain old jacket to beer jacket.
Have you seen those really pretty wine bottle holders? Well, they are a perfect gift for a lady. But we have a couple of guys who really like beer. So, Melany took an old canvas jacket and created a beer bottle jacket, complete with a pocket to hold a cd.
This was a perfect birthday gift and there is plenty of jacket left over for more projects.
The ribbon bobbin (or ribbon spool).
Since we sew a lot, we go through thread spools quickly. We also noticed that our ribbon box was a bit messy. By winding the loose ribbon around the empty spool and pinning it with a small pin, we can reuse the spools and keep our ribbons organized.
Today’s re-purposing project: pin saucer.
I (Carol) happen to have more saucers than cups from my wedding dishes (3 kids, go figure). By hot gluing a strong magnet on the bottom of a saucer, we now have a handy dish to toss pins in as we sew.
Our final curtain re-purposing project (for the time being) comes from Melany.
For Christmas, she turned some old (and by “old” I mean, not used anymore), kitchen curtains into adorable pajamas for Ava and her favorite doll. She made the pants drawstring for easy adjustment and used pieces of the curtain to make a flower on a white tee shirt.
These are by far Ava’s favorite pajamas.
Curtains
Here is another way to refresh old curtains.
By cutting off the bottom of the curtain and sewing on a contrasting fabric you have a new look. Â Melany used an old bed skirt for her contrasting fabric.
Curtains
Instead of buying new curtains try refreshing some that you already have. Â We took some plain cream colored curtain panels and gave them a new look by adding a stenciled design. Â Fabric paint or wall paint, a stencil, and a small roller or sponge brush is all that you need. Â Now we have a whole new look for a very small price.
A curtain re-purposing success story.
When we had our sewing day at the Foundry, our friend, Becky, brought in some valances she wanted to re-purpose. She is a novice sewer, but with a little help she transformed the valances into a table runner and napkins. It was exciting for us to see her success and now she can put away the duct tape forever.
One Sunday we had a basic sewing workshop at the Foundry. Our project for the day was tote bags, but as you can see, there were some different and good things happening.
We had a lot of fun watching some of our friends sew and realize how not scary sewing is. The best part was being together with good friends and being able to create.
