Saturday, August 18, 2012

Reuse, Recycle, Reinvent... have fun!

Thursday was my sister Vivian's birthday, and I wanted to give her a one-of-a-kind gift. And, being the Penny-Pinching Cheapskate that I pride myself on being, I wanted to spend as little money as possible. Also, I like the idea of recycling and reusing and reinventing so I decided to claim that I was being a Penny-Pinching Cheapskate to Save the Earth. That would make me sound like a Progressive Penny-Pinching Cheapskate, instead of (dare I say that terrible word?) merely Stingy.
So I decided to reuse stuff that I already possessed.
The stuff that I chose to use were:
  • donated yarn (left over from someone's craft project)
  • a piece of a worn-out laundry bag
  • a discarded bandana
  • glittery silver ribbon bought on a discount table at a craft store a long time ago because it was really cheap!
So I started by crocheting. I chose to do the entire project in black and white because I really like the work of  Victor Vaserely (1906-1997), who, from 1951 to 1965, worked primarily in black and white. He was considered to be the leader of the Op (optical) art movement. His work was geometric and an optical illusion. It appeared to be moving.  It was quite astonishing. This was my way of paying homage to Victor Vaserely and his groundbreaking work.
After I finished crocheting a basic bag, I cut up a bandana and sewed a strip around the top of the bag. I also made a pocket from the bandana and I sewed that on the side that I considered to be the "front." Then I added ribbon to give some glittery appeal to the bag. After finishing that, I crocheted a handle for the bag and a drawstring to keep the bag closed. The last little touch was to sew on a little bow to the pocket, to give the bag a more "finished look."
Here are some photographs of the bag:
This is the bag. There is no pattern for it. I just made it up as I went along.

A closer view of the top of the bag, with the drawstring pulled tight.

This is the pocket. I really like the paisley pattern of the (former) bandana and think that it adds visual appeal to the bag.


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