On Friday I popped into a thrift store on a whim while driving home from work. I thought it'd be cool to see what kind of things I could find that would be good to cut up and use for fabric. I ended up picking a couple of men's shirts and a cool vintage dress, all of which had small spots and flaws that I figured might keep them from finding good homes in their current forms.
Yesterday I was planning to meet up with my best friend/model to photograph my new headbands, but because my sewing was not as fast as I remember it being, I ended up missing my chance to get together with her. I was feeling pretty bummed and kind of annoyed with myself, and I decided to dig into the clothes and start cutting. I had no idea that simple act of cutting up clothing would have the power to turn my day around! It was so much more fun than I expected it to be. It was the perfect mix of a destructive outlet and creative possibility. And once it was all cut up, I ended up with some great pieces of fabric!
Next time I will definitely wash everything before I cut it, because the way I did it I ended up with quite the tangled mess in the washing machine. But after ironing I have some really nice-sized pieces of totally usable fabric. 
I really like this brown and green striped woven looking stuff! I can't wait to see how these look as headbands, and I am already itching to go scour the second hand shops for more finds!
March 22, 2009
Recycling / Upcycling to live life softly
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2 comments:
I never find anything nice when I go to the charity shops! I like your fabrics.
i love upcycling! i've especially become creative w/ it since i had my baby, because babies don't care as much about flattering shapes as adults do lol. so i've been doing a lot for him w/ old tees. so far i've made pants and a hat for him.
and ugh. i totally learned the washing-fabric-scraps lesson the hard way. my grandmother gave me tons of old pieces, and washing it was horrible. pieces and strings ended up all in our sewing machine mechanisms and in the lint trap... i think it could have been a fire hazard actually lol.
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