The picture just does not do this up-cycled rug justice. It is a lovely purple, yellow, gray and looks fabulous. It is made from braided strips of old t-shirts. After a long time storing it, I decided to use it in our camper.
It worked wonderfully! It was small enough for the camper entrance, and did a great job at capturing dirt. It had a rug grip underneath, thanks to the dollar store.
It turned treacherous after it’s first washing. It shrunk somehow, because it was smaller than the rug grip footprint and had waves in it. I tried repeatedly stretching it back to its original size, but it never went back. It would get caught on feet and was a trip hazard.
All this time and it wasn’t until right now that I thought of a reason it might have done this. I stretched the t-shirt strips to make them longer, and they curled naturally. This made it like braiding with cord and all was well with the zigzag stitch, flat and beauteous.
There are t-shirt projects where you stretch the material, but they never mentioned what happened after washing. There are projects like these:
Next time, I will experiment with less stretching and see what happens. I might even take that one apart and try again…
We inherited a lovely 1970’s hide-a-bed couch, heavy as the dickens and ugly to boot. Gee, a picture of that would’ve been nice.
Well, it had sat downstairs in the designated kids’ area, hosted a few sleepovers, and hid a lot of mice. Not only had it been stored in a shed with access for mice, but we were also having a mouse infestation in our house. $300 and lots of frustration later, the mice were dealt with, but the thought of that couch haunted me.
My son and I took it apart, using hammers and flat head screwdrivers, because there was a lot of wood and a lot of staples. It was quite the process, the worst part being the heavy metal frame in the couch. Thankfully Minneapolis will take stuff like that! Drag it out and wait for it to disappear.
I, being part scrapper/ part crafter, just knew that I could remake both the springs and the wavy couch supports into something useful.
Couch supports. Here is one of the many springs I pulled off the couch.
I am going to try to describe what it’s like to hold something and just know, deep down in some mysterious place, that I can make something with it. Sometimes I have ideas and other times I don’t. I may notice some aspect of it that tips my brain toward ideas. Often ideas come to me like a light bulb. I may come across the item in a clean out mode, or creative mode, and it seems like I just know, finally know, what it can be made into.
Keep in mind, I could go years with a nagging feeling that the weird stuff I hang onto can be repurposed, but also with my inner voice yelling “Hey! It’s cluttering up my space. Get rid of it now, Amanda. Get… rid… of … it… NOW!”
These springs are such an item. I almost decluttered them at least 3 times, but each time I decided that I did want to invest the time, space, and money into upcyling them. The hook part “tipped my brain” (look, I’m quoting myself) in the direction of using it to hang things. The real problem was how to incorporate the cylindrical tight swirling of the spring portion. I also had to consider what tools and techniques I knew (not many) and what I might have to buy. In recent years I have added a few more items to my consideration list: time, motivation, and frustration tolerance. More on that in a later post.
This, folks, is just one part of the wavelength of creativity where I might get stuck on a project. Stuck as in, set it aside and keep moving it around for maybe a year or more. In this case, I was able to innovate washers, long screws, and drilling holes into 2×4’s to almost solve all those problems.
I imagined making this into a tutorial, but, eh, I’m feeling lazy. Let me add the pictures that show how I did it.
That’s it. It took forever, and I have two made. I am stuck at a different part of the wavelength of creativity now. I want to paint it, or stain it, or something. Plus I have to decide how I’m going to hang it on a wall (definitely into studs) and cover the ghastly sharp ends of the hooks. Lastly, I have nagging doubts that I put the springs too close together for the use I’m planning it for. I want to hang one behind a door to hold gift bags and other such wrapping stuff.
I dream of having a wrapping station…
I will either update this or put up a new post once I’ve solved those problems. Tell me what you think!
Many years ago, I picked up a book about redesigning t-shirts. It had lots of great ideas like patterns cut into the fabric, or restyling the shirt. I tried a few of the items, and none of them turned out well. I’m guessing that my body type couldn’t pull off some of the looks!
Since we get a lot of t-shirts as a family, and are tough on the ones we wear, I have collected a bunch of stained or worn out tees. The designs on the majority of them are only on the upper half, so I knew there was plenty of material to upcycle into something else.
After experimenting with t-shirt pom poms for keychains and pen toppers, I was left with my tee strings. I tried making 2 different types of scarves, as well as using it in place of yarn in craft projects.
I finally found the project that I am going to use them for: rugs! I like the braided look with the zigzag stitch. I ran out of colors a couple of times so had to improvise. I also used my old Brother sewing machine, that has the power, but also skipped stitches. Overall, I like how it looks.
You can probably imagine the content that will be included in this blog just by the name. To elaborate more, let me introduce myself and my current state in life.
I am a married mother of 3 great children, with a host of challenges in my marriage that we are working through, one day at a time. One of those challenges that was diagnosed a year ago is that I have ADD. As I’ve learned a long the way, my ADD explains a lot of things!
So…when it comes to making, or re-making, things I run into some frustrating but sometimes hilarious situations. Here is a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to my creativity and entrepeneurial spirit.
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
Some amazing ideas
Some bad ideas
Some expensive ideas
When I finish, my products can be beautiful, useful, and quality
I get stuck on parts of the project that I don’t know how to do or solve
I often don’t finish projects for a year or longer, and it hangs around as clutter.
Adventures in ReMaking 