Saturday 22 February 2014

Happiness is ....Re - Purposing clothing into funky stool covers

Amazing how a little cutting, sewing and elastic can bring about a deep sense of satisfaction. Something our mothers and Grannies took for granted and which a growing number of younger women are rediscovering. As I'm usually painting or playing with essential oils, I had forgotten the simple pleasures of re- purposing second hand clothing/materials into other creative uses. I had no idea why I was buying this top at the second hand shop that was 5 sizes too big for me ( other than the wildly,colourful material). It just jumped into my hands and said " take me home with you" and so I did!! The same happened when I drove past two chunky, wooden and very old stools that had been put out for the Bi-annual roadside, recycle, pick up. They called to me too and so I screeched the brakes on and reversed and threw them in the car. These two incidents happened months apart and I didn't know until yesterday that these seemingly unrelated events were going to come together and make the quirky, bright, kitchen, bar stools that they are today!. Hubby had to be enlisted to cut off two very solid and large, curved wooden handles from each side of both stools. I then washed the stools clean and brought them inside. I put some sticky felt on the feet and then had fun with the material from the top. I literally cut the top in half and sewed half of the cut sleeve to the neckline to give added width ( my husband calls me the 'Slash and Burn' dressmaker) and that is a fairly accurate description!! I then sewed elastic around the edges and some discarded ribbon, from my sewing box, onto the for corners, as ties. The elastic pulled the material around the seat and the ribbons tied the 4 corners together underneath the seat. Voila!! In less than 2 hours, I had these funky stools finished and ready to seat my ample bottom on. I even like the 2 little buttons from the front of the top, that can now be seen on the side of the seat. YAYA!! Happy days! I would love to hear about your sewing projects or re-cyling successes - just leave a comment below peeps and lets continue to feed our souls this Yummie kind of creative food!

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