Second Hand Rose

This week's conversations turned so serious with all the talk of death and disaster that a bonus Saturday posting on a lighter note seemed appropriate.

Susan Being Snippy called herself a Second Hand Rose. Those of us who have been making wonderful discoveries in a "bunch of junk" for years totally understand what she means and the thrill of the hunt. It becomes quite addictive especially when you find things like these beaded buttons. They're an inch and a half in diameter. I bought eight of them on a damaged sweater for $2.50, cut them off, and then used the good parts of the sweater for a different project.




With the current recession (which apparently is over in Canada but...) more and more people are shopping second hand, trading with each other, and re-purposing items they already have. When I was at the second hand store last week, it was darn near crowded, which I thought was great because I love the idea of re-using things that we already have and might otherwise throw out.

One of my friends uses old towels, jeans, table clothes, curtains, and bedspreads to make woven rugs. They're gorgeous. I gave her some old jeans and a few skirts to use in her current project. On Tuesday before lunch, we popped into Value Village where she bought some blue glass, old fashioned, ice-cream dishes that were gathering dust. Last night, she served a yummy chocolate desert in them. So much better.

I made the jacket below from a cowl neck, thigh length, over sized sweater, a silk tweed jacket, and a full skirt. It just occurred to me that this was one of my first responding projects. I started with the sweater and when six layers of stitching shrank it smaller than the pattern pieces, added the jacket sections, and later the skirt for lining which I hadn't really thought about when I started the project or I'd have used it for the backing and saved myself a step. In this photo, the jacket still needs buttons. I looked for them second hand as well after the great find above.




This picture below makes me REALLY glad that I've grown my hair out. Longer is MUCH better. The skirt on the left is one of those tiered and gathered ones that gets wider as it gets longer and makes me look twenty pounds heavier at least. In the photo on the right, I've re-purposed it into a blouse after cutting it up, layering, and stitching it to create a new fabric. The skirt in that image is a bit too big for me. It's since been re-purposed as well. I get a lot of teasing for making something and then re-making it but that doesn't bother me too much. Unless I really like what I've made, I won't use it so I may as well make it into something else. The blouse I love. I wore it yesterday.




Last fall, I took a quilted table throw, added more stitching, over-dyed it, cut it into ten equal sections, and used two sections each to make the purses below. These were gifts for friends. It was a lot of fun following five different what if routes.

Since itemizing my studio, I've been wondering what to do with all the textile fabrics as there's too much for making the odd textile painting here and there. In particular, I'd like to whittle down the scrap fabrics, the boxes of bits & pieces of potential projects, the speciality fabrics that I rarely use, and the trims and cording. That would condense things quite a lot. I thought that...

... making purses would provide a great outline for exploring ideas and - when I had enough finished purses on hand - I could have a "garage" sale. Apparently I can sell small amounts on EBay without it being a problem. Knowing that, the ideas are flowing. I might not get what they're worth when I add up all the supplies, however giving the "potential" shape and re-selling it in some form would re-purpose the inventory - a "cash for trash" type of idea. Love those. Thanks for the great thoughts Susan. OH AND...

... I loved your comment yesterday - ... in this case we must agree to disagree! That philosophy was my goal one year. It was a three part goal. I wanted to learn to listen, to learn to say I'm sorry, and to learn to agree to disagree. By the end of the year, I was so glad I'd set those goals - and of course they carry on - because it's an amazing position to take that allows for all sorts of interesting conversations. Once I was willing to truly listen, I was able to hear about people's life experiences and why they felt the way they did. Sometimes, I changed my way of thinking and other times I didn't. Either way, it was eye opener. I'm so glad we both have that perspective. It's a good one - or at least I think it is - VBG.




Yesterday afternoon, I started stitching the dark green batik with a variegated thread (from stash) by following the lines in the fabric. The stitching on the right brings it alive. The open area on the left is much flatter. I like it. Stitching all of these green sections is the third last step to finishing the pieces. I'm really making progress. YES YES!

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful: a flow of ideas