I'm turning the lense on two of my repurposes today. In case you can't tell, I'm unabashedly sentimental about "stuff". If it means something to me, I try hard to find a way to keep it around. But I don't hoard (much) - I've moved enough times in my life to be very very scared of my potential inner hoarder. And, I really like my stuff to have a purpose - not hide in a drawer.
Towel #1: One of my oldest friends gave me a hand-painted tea towel / pot-holder gift set about 12 years ago. I love the colors and its Cape Town origins. Ultimately I didn't use it much in the kitchen because all that bright white wouldn't stand a chance. But I hung on to it. When I got a new sewing machine a couple of years ago, I wanted a simple cover and found the tea-towel idea via Martha. My towel wasn't quite big enough, so I cut it in half and added a strip of bright cotton across the top. I cut the painted cherries out of the pot holder and appliqued them to the plain side of the cover. And voila.
Towel #2: When my gran moved from her little flat into a nursing home, my mom selected a few of her things to store for me. Including a set of 2 thin, oddly sized towels from the 50s. The fact that my grandmother still had these towels in the 90s tells me something about my genetic predisposition! I loved the orange detail on them but could never figure out how to use them (odd size). Then, on a whim some time last year, I chopped one up and turned it into a smock/apron. Because when I cook, I seem to need to wash and dry my hands 15 times. I added bright orange ribbon, some hand-sewn detail on the pockets... and now it hangs in the kitchen, actually getting its delicate 1950's hands dirty.
