Repurposing

21 January 2015




I have an old chest of drawers that used to belong to my granparents, it has deep wide drawers which are hopeless for keeping clothes in.  You always want/need what is at the bottom back corner.  We I use it for storage.  The top drawer is full of first aid supplies, a hangover from my time as an outdoor instructor I never go anywhere without a first aid kit which needs constantly resupplying..................

Of the other two drawers one has yarn it, mostly ends of balls from past projects and a few skeins patiently waiting to be knitted.  The other is full of material, again pieces left from projects, or pieces acquired/given to me that have already been made into something but would be perfect to be made into something else someday.  There is also a small pile of old clothes beyond repair that are, the could be used to make something one day pile.  One piece is a pair of old linen trousers of mine worn for years but now completely worn through on the seat and rather grubby I noticed when I got them out to have a good look at them recently.

I have been wanting to make some mats to put hot drinks on for a while now, we have a few round cork ones that look like a mouse has had a good chew at, they haven't I don't think but I wouldn't put it past those mice that moved in a couple of years ago.  We also have a few old CDs that do a serviceable job but they have a hole in the middle which means that a small part of the surface they are on still gets hot, one of our tables does not like this.  So I had some linen and an idea and this is what I came up with................




I had no template and so kind of guessed based on the one square mat we own.  They have a section of towel in the middle to provide the padding.  The towel is an old stained one that had been relegated to the mopping up messes pile.  As the linen was a pale colour I thought they would look good with an appliquéd shape on them, I went for an apple but you could sew anything you fancy, a circle, a leaf, maybe?  If you don't fancy applique you could just miss that part out and make them from some patterned material.




So I cut two squares, from the linen and one from the towel. The first two I made were 4" squares, the third a 5" square.  I sewed the appliqué shape to one of the linen squares.  Then I placed the linen squares right sides together with the towel square on top, pinned them and sewed around 7/8ths of the edges leaving a 1/8 of a side unsewn.  I turned it the right way out through the hole and hand sewed the edge up.  Voila a mat.  I now have three, in three different sizes it would seem.............




I have cut some squares to make some more they are patiently waiting on a shelf.

19 comments:

  1. What a lovely idea, very thrifty and very pretty. I like the sound if the big chest of drawers! X

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  2. That's is a good idea and they are really nice :)

    Lluisa xoxo

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  3. What a great little project, they look awesome. And how great that they are completely repurposed :)

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  4. Those look great! And I love that first photo, the light is lovely. : )

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  5. Fantastic idea. Love the applique.
    I always have a first aid kit with me too!

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  6. Great idea and all from stuff you already had too!

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  7. nothing makes me happier than being able to re-purpose fabric. towelling for padding is fab. i love your sweet apple appliqué. and now mugs can be extra comfortable wherever they lay.


    www.inkandchai.co.uk

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  8. They turned out so cute! Fits under your mug perfectly!

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  9. Everyone should have such a dresser. :)

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  10. Cute! And I love that yarn and fabric come in second in necessity after first aid supplies. :)

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  11. How cute are the coasters! Lovely!

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  12. Great idea! They turned out really cute.

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  13. They turned out great! Isn't re-purposing the best feeling?

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  14. Love these - great tutorial, too! Hmm, time to take out my sewing machine soon maybe? xo

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  15. Love it - awesome idea! We don't use coasters here, even though I drink tea every day, but these are really adorable. The mention of using old CDs as drink coasters made me laugh - totally thrifty!

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  16. They are lovely- even more so because they were "thought up" not store bought material and pattern and the whole getup. I bet these will be well used- beautiful!

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  17. They do look great. Love the reuse. I've been looking at our table mats. Dog eared to say the least. I know the children will object to them going, so I need to replace them with something they love more. Maybe I could use machine applique like yours.

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