Purposely Repurposing

I just read that post title out loud.  I didn't realize it was such a mouthful.

 My niece sent me this on Facebook.



 Cute, heh?  I am not alone in being a material girl that's for certain.

 Anyone reading Canadian Needle Nana knows how I feel about recycling.  I have had success with composting and I do try to buy things secondhand and use the clothesline and heat the house with wood in winter. And by the way, here is the very first fire of the year...

  I guess I think I am doing my little bit.  But I am always amazed and happy when I get to see some of the incredible ways people are reusing and recycling all manner of items.  Today I want to share with you some repurposing that clever, clever people have done.

 How in the world do they dream it up?
 
 Over at Making Nice in the Midwest you can learn how easily you can turn a pillowcase, an embroidery hoop and some twine into a very handy and pretty laundry bag.  This is a DIY project that even I could do.  Now that pillowcases are king sized, they really could double as laundry hampers. 


 

This is just too cute and another surprisingly easy project with a great result.  The directions are very clearly illustrated at Bored Panda showing you just how to turn a glove into a chipmunk.   Or as they put it "turn your old and lonely glove into an ever happy chipmunk".  It is actually from the book Happy Gloves by Miyako Kanamori and it can be bought at Amazon for about $11.  In the book Miyako shows how to make your own little zoo from lonely gloves. And who doesn't have a couple of them hanging around.

 


We all know there are tons of books kicking around that are orphaned and discarded.  The public library here runs a regular little bookstore where books cost pennies and they still have lots and lots of books that they can't even give away.  Those could be given whole new purposes according to Lisa Occhipinti in her book, The Repurposed Library.  It too is available at Amazon, used for as little as four dollars.  There are a number of books telling remarkable, artistic ways to reuse old books but I chose this one because the projects seem doable.





And the ultimate repurposed item from the bed to a costume...of course I just had to include the classic bed sheet costume with Halloween looming, timeless, simple and effective.









Repurposing is certainly nothing new.  I have strong memories of my grandmother using sugar and flour sacks washed into softness and made into cloths. 
In fact, I wish I could buy these today.