Re-purposing

Today, the grandparents left us for a few days, to give us a break (they're coming back again). As my father left, he asked "what are you doing today?" and I thought, hmmm, good question. It's a funny thing that when you have visitors you spend so much time planning things for them that when they go - even briefly - you're kind of left dangling, from all the activity.

Recently, I got around to purchasing this book. I read Amanda's brilliant blog regularly, and read her previous book, The Creative Family, from cover to cover in almost one sitting. I love her ideas, her ethics and her seemingly endless energy - anyone who can homeschool 4 kids and have enough time to make their own sanitary towels is a wonderwoman, in my book. Anyhow, again I was totally inspired by this book as it really made me think about how much we waste in life these days - not just the food we fling out at the end of the week, but the clothes we can't wait to get rid of, just because we've never worn them, or the idea of buying dusters (for instance). What I'm trying to say is it really struck a chord that perhaps I do waste too much and perhaps I should think a bit more about recyling and repurposing stuff. And it's quite good fun and a challenge too.

So, this morning, I decided to do something about this waistcoat thing that I knitted a year or two ago and has been clogging up the bottom of my wardrobe ever since because it isn't really 'me', to be honest. I used Rowan All Seasons cotton which, we know, is not cheap. I like the colour and I thought okay, let's unravel it and use it for something else.

And this evening I started knitting this - a much nicer summer top which I hope I will actually wear this time.

It's from this book, in case you were wondering (you can see the original waistcoat, bottom right).

Meanwhile, after winding the wool, I got thinking about the last lot of the boy's old clothes which I hadn't yet thrown out. There were 5 pairs of jeans that were too small, but with holes in the knee so no good to pass on. Why not make them into shorts I thought? Okay for playing out in, surely?

But then I was left with these.

Now. Of course, normally I would have slung them in the bin, but today I had a flash of inspiration. My mind was thinking 're-purpose, re-purpose' and - lo and behold - a mere 5 hours later 4 new placemats were (re)born!

Talk about chuffed to bits! I used some blue and white ticking I already had, some soft denim chambray for the backing and binding which I also already had, and some left-over cotton batting (from the boy's quilt) for the middles.

I tell you what is so extra nice about these - they are soooo soft because the denim from the jeans had been washed so much, it's really soft, as is the other materials used. Also, I have enough of the pale blue chambray to make a matching set of napkins! Hurrah for me! And hurrah for Amanda!