It's Not Easy Being Green

One day last month I ventured into our local Salvos Store to do some browsing.  It's not a store that I can just wander into as do my shop in the village because it's set apart from the main shopping strip.  It's a store I drive past each time I drive into town but I have to make a conscious decision to go there. 

Once inside I found a huge pile of green single bed sheets (among other things of course!).  One hundred percent cotton, brand new, and a heavy cotton at that. At five dollars each I couldn't pass up on buying one and my intention was to use it as a table cloth on our newly refurbished dining room table.

Green is not my favourite colour. 

Especially this particular shade of green.

It is sort of a vintage green, you know, the one from the late fifties and early sixties.

Institution green.  School classroom walls green, public rest room green.

Much of the interior of my childhood home (which we moved into in the very early sixties) was painted green.

Mum used to tell me that the colour green is very good for the eyes.  She never said why.  Today, I avoid the colour green as much as possible, especially THAT shade of green.  I love the colours jade, aqua, turquoise, teal...but not green!

But I thought a green sheet as a table cloth for everyday use might be okay.

So yesterday was the day I decided to work on the green sheet and bespoke it to fit our dining table.

My Mum was a great seamstress and she taught me to sew when I was very young but she had the knack of just being able to put two pieces of fabric together and sewing it to perfection.  I didn't have that knack and found sewing very frustrating. Especially when I had to unpick sewing, which was more often than not.

But then I took up patchwork and quilting. And I discovered pins.

I have a multitude of pin cushions, this one was a Christmas gift from my Grand Daughter in 2013

And I was taught that if I ironed and pinned my hems, binding etc, well, things came together much better!

As I worked on my project (I needed to cut a strip of fabric off one end as the sheet was too long for our table) I came across a label.

It was then I realised that the sheets are ex-defence stores which must have been donated to the Salvos!

Oh well, there was no turning back! 

With the strip of fabric I cut off I made four serviettes.  I'm very big on serviettes as I refuse to buy paper products (except for toilet paper - and tissues when the lurgy is going around).

I'll just have to remember not to use these when I've got defence-forces family visiting!

But for everyday use I don't think it looks too bad.  I do have another table cloth I can alternate with. (We're not really a tablecloth kinda family but the new paint job needs protecting. And oh...the chairs that go with the dining table are awaiting a face lift and reside in the garage as I speak.)

And it kinda looks cute with my dragonfly china.

Being the ultimate re-cycler I had one little scrap of fabric that I couldn't throw out so I made Little Miss Seven a sack for her school lunch box for the days Nanna has to do school lunch.  It's just large enough to hold some ice coolers, or a frozen water bottle, or her frozen yogurt sippy.

I didn't bother with drawstrings or closures because it's only meant to soak up excess moisture in her lunch box.  The less for little fingers to worry about.

And the label, impossible to remove, except with scissors, I decided to keep (it's inside the sack) as it will be great to write her name on.

What weird and wonderful project have you completed from a reused item?