Make it GREEN

I love creating things from discarded items. I have a few pics of some of my first creations.

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Recycled Sweaters Lap Blanket

When my daughter left for college she also left a bag of wool sweaters! What to do??

Well I decided to felt them all. (To "felt" a wool sweater: Put sweater and a drop of dawn in zippered pillow case. Fill the washing machine with hot water and wash for about 5 min. Lay on a thick towel and roll it up to soak up the water. Put sweater in dryer.) Felting keeps the pieces from raveling when cut.
After all the sweaters were felted, I cut them in 4x4 in squares, randomly sewed them together with wool yarn in a contrasting color, and then backed it with a huge duster sweater that was cut and sewn into a rectangle and hand sewn to the top. I saved the buttons from the sweaters and used them to hold the two together.

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From Tank to Handbag

An old tank top turned into a fun summer handbag. What was great about this was the buttons that went down the back, have become the front side of the purse! Because the shirt was lined, I didn't have to line the purse.The empire waist made it nice. I simply took the tie that went around the rib cage and put it up in the hem line at the top. The shoulder straps became (you guessed it) the purse handles. (This idea was my daughter's. She said she saw it on the bed and thought...hmm that looks like a purse!) Well now it is!

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Hand Towel Heating Pad

From hand towel and a canvas bag (note the handles cut from the bag) to heat pad. I sewed the handles to the ends of the towel, folded it length wise right sides together, then sewed it to make a tube. I then turned it right side out ,added rice and stitched up the end. Just heat in the microwave for about 2 min. for moist heat.

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From Wrapskirt to Table Cloth

A wrap skirt from the '90s made a nice tablecloth for this bistro table .

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Salvaged Fabric, Great Reupholstered Chair

Discarded fabric (my husband scored this great find on "move out day" at the college where he is employed) gave this 1970s Herman Miller piece a face lift... I loved the retro fabric and colors which were much better than the sun-faded, ugly red it used to be.