New Purpose

Navajo blanket style

jvaconsulting — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:15:07 +0000

Hi, this is a new blanket I created from repurposed sweaters from ARC Thrift.

Navajo style blanket

My house smells like wool!

jvaconsulting — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:18:09 +0000

Inspired by the throw I finished this morning, and with the justification that snow is on the way tomorrow, had to make a trip to ARCThrift.

I had in mind making a new purpose throw from wool sweaters inspired by the colors in Navajo blanket.

Score! At 50% off, I got carried away. Now to clean, felt, design, cut and sew.

Amish-style wool sweater blanket

jvaconsulting — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:06:47 +0000

Not sure what I’m going to do when spring comes since I’ve become obsessed with repurposing and upcycling wool sweaters. This time instead of making a throw, I used merino wool sweaters from around the house, supplemented with some from ARC Thrift, to make this blanket. I threw them all into the washer and dryer, then used a rotary cutter to cut 6″ wide pieces of varying lengths from the sleeves and 12″ pieces from the fronts and backs of the sweaters, then stitched them into strips, serged the strips together, and serged all around the edges to finish. Part of my goal was creating something that would bring some color into a room that is pretty sedate (sage green walls and deep purple leather sofa)—one of my new year’s resolutions is: MORE COLOR!

Here is the result—the blanket, and the blanket draped over the leather sofa.

Amish-style wool sweater blanker

Six more reasons to love ArcThrift: 6 cashmere sweaters + 50% off = another cashmere throw

jvaconsulting — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:33:48 +0000

Cashmere throw made from six recycled sweaters from ArcThrift

There are lots of mission-related reasons to love ArcThrift, my favorite thrift store. It is a social enterprise, employing people with disabilities as well as immigrants and refugees, and the proceeds from the thrift stores support advocacy programs for people with developmental disabilities. And CEO Lloyd Lewis is a passionate advocate for people with disabilities.

And when you are recycling, repurposing and otherwise trying to be green, there is always lots of choose from in these stores.

But yesterday, ArcThrift rose to the top of my list of Denver area thrift stores again for pure design reasons, providing the raw materials for a cashmere throw for my mother-in-law, who really liked the throw I made for my daughter. As Nancy wrapped Jeannie’s throw around her, I kept thinking: I should make her one. But how? And with what? The materials in Jeannie’s throw had exhausted my personal supply.

Making the rounds of the ArcThrift to see what shirts I could salvage for the polyester chronicles, I came across a cashmere sweater. Examined it carefully. There were no holes. Then another, then another. I ended up with six, and because it was the day after New Year’s Day sale, all were half price.

Everything was half off the tagged price!

The cache before cutting...

I threw them all in the washer and dryer, then cut as many large pieces as I could from the sleeves, fronts and back, serged them together, then serged all around the edges to finish it off.

Approximate time, including shopping: 3 hours

Love this new purpose!

Twinkies, maraschino cherries, and the polyester chronicles

jvaconsulting — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:28:38 +0000

This week, with my inlaws in town, we went to Boulder and ended up at a tapas bar, where my father-in-law ordered a Manhattan with a maraschino cherry on the top. Minutes later, the chagrined waiter came to the table, stating: “I’m sorry, we don’t serve maraschino cherries, but here a shot of a cherry liqueur.”

The Manhattan without the maraschino

Then, as will only happen in Boulder, he went onto explain the chemicals used to preserve the cherries, how it was against the restaurant’s philosophy to serve them, and that eating a maraschino cherry was essentially the equivalent of eating a twinkie in terms of preservatives, etc.

I’m not sure why this got me thinking about repurposing polyester items (probably polyester’s long shelf life), but it did. When Jen and I first began discussing New Purpose, we talked about having a “polyester page” where people could showcase projects repurposing the polyester items most often found in thrift stores into useful items. It’s always fun to find cashmere sweaters you can convert into throws, or beautiful camel jackets you can turn into vests, but what to do with the racks of polyester shirts that make up lots of thrift store inventory?

In the next ten weeks, the “polyester chronicles” will look at different things you can do with polyester shirts, skirts and other clothing items, saving them from the landfill. We’ll be looking at (and for) projects where polyester’s strengths (colorfastedness, lack of wrinkling, etc.) can be put to good use.

Stay tuned!

Christmas 2009: Mondrian pattern cashmere throw and Coach Rockies wristlet

jvaconsulting — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:25:09 +0000

When my daughters were little, I used to make them clothes, little purses, toys, etc. And then they grew up, and Abercrombie always seemed more interesting than Mom’s creations.

This Christmas, I really felt drawn to making personal gifts—something that might outlast even the best-chosen mall gift. Here is what I came up with:

One daughter is an over-the-top Colorado Rockies fan, and also loves Coach purses. I repurposed a Coach® wristlet, painting most of the leather Rockies purple, and leaving the cream colored flap as is, except for writing “Go Rockies!” across it.
My oldest daughter is always wrapping herself with blankets when she’s home, claiming that we keep the temperature too low (we do!). I made her a throw from pieces of repurposed cashmere scarves and sweaters, serging the pieces together in a somewhat Mondrian pattern, then serged all around to finish off the edges.

Here are the happy results. I really had fun doing this, hope they enjoy the gifts as much as I did creating them.

Cool repurposing and upcycling blogs

jvaconsulting — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:37:11 +0000

Here are some blogs I’ve found that have interesting ideas and sample projects. They are aligned with our guiding principles of simplicity, purpose, beauty and loving what you do.

http://repurposeful.wordpress.com, especially http://repurposeful.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/add-new-life-to-old-clothes-refashion/

http://etsytrashion.blogspot.com/

http://repurposed.wordpress.com/

http://craftingagreenworld.com/, especially http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/05/23/girl-reconstructed-upcycling-old-clothes/

From old Cole Haan ankle boots to rocker boots in 10 minutes

jvaconsulting — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:08:55 +0000

Inspired by urban rocker boots I’ve seen out and about, I decided to pull out my old Cole Haan ankle boots and do “something” with them. The heels and soles were still in good shape (I had had them re-heeled) but the plainness shouted: “Wear me under black pants.” I first went looking around for chains, then thought about stopping at the hardware store.

Then it hit me: All of those old black belts that came with dresses, suits, etc. more than a decade ago, and that were never, ever going to work as belts again (will let you guess why). I found two that were approximately the same width and each had silver buckles; I painted them both with black shoe polish then wrapped around the boots.

Total time: 10 minutes

Total cost: $0

Wearing them tonight!

Changing buttons a quick way to change and upgrade the look of favorite pieces of clothing

jvaconsulting — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:55:20 +0000

One thing I have done forever is change buttons on clothing: Sometimes the minute I get something home that I otherwise love but which has bland buttons; other times after I’ve worn something for a while and want a different look.

My most recent is the red coat in the previous blog, but here are some others I’ve done in the last year.

H & M Sweater. I bought this vanilla-colored sweater at an H & M store in San Francisco when we were taken off guard by a sudden chill at the end of summer.

The buttons were plastic and faded into the sweater, so when I got home I found some carved wood buttons that were painted black in the carved areas and the sweater really popped.

Target jean jacket

This jacket has been around for some time and wasn’t getting a lot of wear. I saw a denim jacket at Saks or Neimans for a ridiculous amount of money (afterall, this is denim!), and what was interesting about it was that it had buttons that looked hand painted and were definitely not the usually metal snap-looking buttons.

So I went to my then favorite fabric store D’Leas (no longer in operation, sadly) and bought these leopard buttons.

The silk boyfriend sweater. Not sure why these are now called boyfriend sweaters (it was called a cardigan when I bought it some years ago), but I’ve had this for a long time and like it’s tweedy texture and that it can be worn year round because it’s a silk knit. But I got tired of the plastic buttons it came with, so repurposed some buttons off a frayed dress from a thrift store and love the contrast that the black jet buttons surrounded by gold provide to the preppy tweed.

My new coat: Adding modern black buttons to a 1970s princess style cashmere coat

jvaconsulting — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:32:34 +0000

Not much time for new-purposing this weekend. I ended up spending all day Saturday immersed in Helen Thorpe’s book Just Like Us, then Jeannie was home last night and we went out to dinner, and we all went to the Rockies today to watch them defeat the Cardinals and keep alive the hopes of a wild card slot.

But I was determined to do a project, so focused on an easy one—swapping out buttons.

Jeannie modeling coat with new buttons

The DKNY advertisement that inspired my repurposing a group of pieces to create a fall capsule wardrobe featured a tomato red coat worn with lots of black. I had a vintage red cashmere coat I bought on ebay a few years ago, but as is it reminded me of long ago Easter coats with matching hats and purses.

I changed the red circle buttons with jet black square buttons that provided a lot of contrast to the coat. This was really easy: Less than an hour to sew on buttons, and $10 for the buttons.

Changing buttons is one of my favorite ways to give something a new look. Click here to see some other examples.