I picked up a copy of Maya Made's Reinvention just as soon as it became available a couple of years ago. I remember pouring over the pages while my daughter teetered around in the backyard and tucking it between my textbooks to peek at during the lecture breaks at my "college for the late-to-bloom".
The book offers a diverse variety of projects from textile printing to sewing with knits. I'd love to make the Toadstool Cottage one day.
What stood out for me the most about the book was the possibility for my own invention. The patterns are complete but spare in an inviting way. The materials are all "rescued" so anyone can find them.
I adore beautiful fabrics and happily support the artists that make them. But, living in rural Northern Minnesota where there is NO fabric shop within 120 miles makes it difficult to source fabric. I have always sewn with thrifted materials out of necessity. Often there is no other option. As a parent and as someone who is concerned about consumption and waste, I was thrilled to find inspiration for really shaping thrifted materials in a sophisticated way. The projects are beautifully made, honoring the found fabrics in a way that elevates them.
Last year, while I was looking for bean bag chairs or the like for my kids I remembered the poufs from this book. The project is way cool involving drafting your own templates using the instructions and learning how to sew in a zipper. I sewed up the poufs during a couple of nap times early last December and they were under the tree by Christmas.
In an unfortunate twist of fate, though, involving my being in the other room tap-dancing (yeah, seriously tap-dancing - more on that another time) and my husband, the kids, the poufs, a wrestling game, plus a cup of coffee ended in the red pouf being stained.
And then there was the attempted stain removal on the part of said wrestling kids, pouf and husband that ended in the red wool bleeding into the white fabric. Into the mend pile it went. Until now! I ended up taking it apart last weekend to wash the white, faux bois part separately and then sewing it back together. The sewing is a breeze. I think that it's the stain removal that kept the pouf out of commission for a year. My son was thrilled to be reunited with his pouf. This morning the poufs acted as a fence in some kind of backyard the kids were creating. And you can see from the pictures of the green and pink pouf how well the wool weathered a year's worth of heavy use. Plus - they fill an essential role as storage for the many extra blankets that we have around here (15 below on Saturday).
The woolen apron is one that I made using the instructions in Maya's book and a cutter blanket that I had been given earlier this fall. One great thing about living in this little place is that most everyone knows that I love to sew. I frequently get bags full of things waiting to be re-imagined left on my doorstep. This pink blanket came from a particularly fruitful drop-off from a friend's mom who had just closed up her antique shop for the season:) What's being rescued from your mend pile these days?
