Giving New Life to Old Things

I love love love making new stuff from old stuff. Its why I have such a hard time getting rid of stuff (I wouldnt use the word "pack rat"...but Mr A would). I always see some kind of potential in my old junk.

Heres a pair of leather soled baby shoes I made from an old purse (everyone kept calling it the Granny Bag so I figured its life as an accessory was over), a jacket that didnt fit, and tshirt scraps from a shirt I had already chopped up in another repurposing.

I am especially proud of these shoes for two reasons. First, they cost upwards of 30 bucks if you buy them from the store and mine were as close as you can get to free. Saves me from banging my head against a wall if Ikaika grows out of them in three weeks. Second, I didnt use a sewing pattern (not for lack of trying - I couldnt get the PDF files to open). Of course, there are things I will tweak when I do it again and the second boot came out much nicer than the first, but over all I would say it was a successful eyeball construction. Im planning to make one more pair for the trip to the midwest - there is a wool skirt in the bowels of my closet crying out to become infant footwear!


This activity/sensory blanket is somewhat cheating because I bought some of the fabrics, but they were either on sale or in the remnant bin. I think this will be more fun for baby #2 since its ideal for "tummy time". There are ribbons and strings, different textured fabrics, a pillow and a bag with jingle bells inside, some blue jean style buttons, and crinkly flaps (made from a chip bag that I washed out and then sewed between two pieces of cotton). Ikaika seems to still prefer playing with the real deal (ie. garbage).



This cube is super cute and I stuffed it with stuffing from some pillows I got at a garage sale (Mr A would sooner die than lay his head on pillows of unknown origin). I made a rattle out of an old macadamia nut can filled with 2 tablespoons of dried beans and put that in with the stuffing.

My husband said to me today as he found me huddled over my sewing machine for the fourth straight hour, "geez, when you put your mind to something you are really focused. can you imagine if you were like that everyday?!"

Dangerous, darling. Dangerous.