Curtains to Rug

I usually don't have a hard time letting material things go.  It's just stuff, after all.  So when it came time to replace my daughter's bedroom curtains, I didn't hesitate.  My mom was here, and volunteered to make new ones.  Done. 

The old curtains were ones that I had made during my "nesting" phase while pregnant, 8 years ago, which feels like another lifetime.  Cute bright green with hot pink, topped with ribbon.  I even made floor pillows to match.  The curtains hung in her nursery in San Francisco, made the move to Utah with us, and eventually were hung in her bedroom here in Cozumel.  The tropical sun had faded the material pretty badly, so it was time.  But once the curtains were down, I couldn't bring myself to just throw them out.

Faded panel #1

 I had 2 of the curtains above.  I took off the ribbon, as it was still in pretty good shape, and I have a ribbon addiction problem, so into the stash it went.

Ripped up curtains

 I cut 1"-2" snips into the bottom of the curtains and started to rip them into a huge pile of strips.

And started to braid...

 I took 3 strips of material and started to braid, simply running a couple of stitches through the ends.  I soon realized that this project was going to take awhile to complete...

The finished pile.

 I estimate it took about a week to get all of the strips braided together.  I mainly worked on it at night while watching TV.

Leo Cat loves helping with projects...

 I began the spiral and hand sewed a couple of stitches to get things started.

 I then moved things over to the machine and started sewing.  I used a large zig zag stitch, and just kept sewing and sewing and sewing...

DONE!

 The edges kind of curled up on me, not sure why, but maybe I was stretching the material while sewing?  Who knows.  I tried ironing the edges down, and I washed it, but still curly.  Oh well.

New little rug for the reading corner. with matching pillows!

Overall, pretty pleased with my reuse of the old curtains.  I wish the rug would have turned out a little flatter, but the princess didn't seem to care.  She told me it looked like a flower.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

Recycled Desk Organizers

I'm baaaaack.  I took a couple of weeks off without even realizing it.  Time flies at the end of the school year, I guess.

I thought I would share my end of year gift for the Princess's teachers.  Super easy, made of recycled materials, and super handy.

First, collect Tetra Paks.  It seems like everything here comes in these containers.  Milk, juice, soy milk, tomato sauce...  I hate throwing them away, so I came up with a neat organizer.  I've been using mine for paint brushes, colored pencils, tools, markers, etc, etc.  I even made a smaller one out of little juice boxes to organize my make up and vast collection of lip gloss.

We're thirsty around here...

Cut the boxes in half.  It doesn't have to be exact.

Find some scrap cardboard.

Line up your boxes.

Trim the cardboard to fit.

Cut a handle.

Bust out the hot glue gun and glue the boxes to both sides of the cardboard and to each other.

Paint a base coat of white.  You really only have to do this if the paper you are using in the next step is see-through.  If you're using magazines or thicker paper, you can skip this step.

Glue and paper to decorate.  On these I used tissue paper in purple hues, but I've also done magazine collages and just painted designs.  GET CREATIVE!

Finished product.  The teacher can store all of her pencils, pens, scissors, etc, etc.

Here are some of the magazine collage organizers I made a while back too.

All green.

Red.

Yellow in action.

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you make some nifty organizers soon!