Basket liner from thrifted skirt lining

The Find

This lovely basket was out on the curb one night, and I liked the color, size, and generous flat handle. It seemed like just the thing to hold some yarn supplies, so home I went with my new-to-me basket. After a thorough vacuuming and  cleaning wipe down it was ready to go back into service.

Basket: side view

Basket: top view

Basket: worn label on bottom says 'Handcrafted Philippines'

 

The Makeover

Although the basket is it relatively good shape, since I planned to store yarn inside I didn't want any possible snags on the basket sides.  Luckily I had extra smooth polyester fabric lying around from a thrift store skirt that I had deliberately shrunk in order to make felted wool for an art project.  The skirt lining became basket lining!

 

Lining material with knotted end

How did I turn this skirt lining into a basket lining?  All I had to do was tie a knot in the cut-end of the lining material, put that in the basket, fold down the finished edge over the side of the basket, and tie another small knot around the handle using the edges of the skirt back slit.

Conclusion

Here is the newly lined basket (and re-used skirt lining) ready to start serving as wool storage.

Lined basket with felted wool skirt remnant

Happy freestyling, it never hurts to be open to a variety of storage solutions. You never know what the curb-iverse will send your way!

Mood Mirrored Indigo

The Find

Textiles can be a tricky freestyle find, there is always a question of the lurking unseen microbial presence on whatever fabric has been sitting outside, unattended, for some amount of time.  And of course, things on the curb could always fall victim to a lifted dog leg. But if something is small enough to go STRAIGHT INTO THE WASHING MACHINE upon arrival at home, well, then, I feel pretty good. I've stayed in hotels, how different could it be?  Now that you've read my thoughts on freestyle textile find hygiene, let me tell you about ... a freestyle textile find!

I came across this cool pillow cover (with separate insert) embellished with numerous tiny mirrors, one of a few options in a giveaway box at the end of someone's driveway. So much sewing detail, possibly done by hand - I appreciate such work.  There is no tag on the pillowcase, but the fabric felt like cotton, so I immediately had an idea for a makeover.

Freestyle pillow find on curb

The Makeover

I had an existing dye bath setup from some exploratory home-shibori fun in the color Indigo, and the dye type was one for natural fibers. So after a hot wash in the washing machine, the pillowcase went into the dye bath to sit for a while and (hopefully) absorb as much dye as possible.  Without any fiber information I wasn't sure how the results would look, but as a hedge I let the pillowcase sit in the dye bath for a long time. As in, it sat in the dye bath for multiple weeks. I also decided to order some dye fixative, since my previous shibori experiments had faded quickly without this critical ingredient.  Lesson learned.

Ingredients used to dye pillowcase

This is what the mirrored pillowcover looked like when it finally came out, lots of deep indigo color.  But would it hold?

After the dye bath

There were hopeful signs that the dye fixative had done as promised since the color was dark even after rinsing the textile in cold water until the water ran clear.  But the true test is always the washing machine.

Conclusion

The indigo color held up well after a washing machine cycle, so I'm calling it a success.  Here it is, minimally 'styled' on a couch with two other throw pillows (yes, they were free too, the complimentary colors are a coincidence).

Mirror mirror on the indigo blue pillowcase

Here are two detail shots that highlight the interesting diamond pattern embroidery.

Embroidery detail: angled view

Embroidery detail: front view

Happy freestyling, don't be afraid of a little elbow grease that might be needed to clean something and make it your own!

Vellllllllvehhhhhhht pillllllloooooooows

Pillows are a rare find on the loading dock. 

Perhaps because they are lightweight and easy to move, perhaps people here just don't go for throw pillows, perhaps people throw them out in trashbags and I never see them. Whatever the case, I was surprised (delighted) to see these lovely throw pillows late at night, clearly part of a massive moving-out discardfest.

 No, I did not take the couch, or the blanket.

Maybe I should have, but the couch had a few bites taken out of it from a pet and I don't really need another blanket...... Anyway, look at those pillows!  Do people know how expensive those pillow inserts can be??? These pillows didn't smell, had no rips or stains, and had clearly only been on the loading dock for a few hours, so into the washing machine they went. After I washed them I took the inserts out to read the labels (wow, real down, survived the machine wash just fine) and found out they are brand name pillowcases with nice hidden zippers. Did I mention they're velvet, velvet, and velllllllvehhhhhhht?

Now they sit like lovely jewels on the couch, waiting to support your head, and to look darn good while doing just that.

Happy freestyling.

NQF - The warmth of wool, in fingerless mitten form

Heat is expensive. Many of my friends live in places where winter sees the thermostat turned down low to save money.  55-60 degrees indoors, that's the situation you just have to live with, but fingers can get a little chilled in those circumstance.  Last year for the holidays I gave two friends some super simple fingerless mittens made from old wool sweaters shrunken in hot water.  Why fingerless? This functional style allows for normal household activities, typing, etc, while still keeping those extremities insulated.  Here they are modeling their gifts.

Soft, warm, and freestylish in the winter.

Why is this a Not Quite Free (NQF) post?  I confess to buying the sweaters at the goodwill for approximately $5 each.  The burgundy sweater was merino wool and the purple was cashmere.  After a little experimentation with shrinking sweaters had I learned that these two types of wool sweaters shrink down while retaining their softness.  Best of all, since these handwarmers are pre-shrunk they can be thrown in the washing machine!

Happy freestyling, stay warm this winter.