reinvention by maya donenfeld
May 8th, 2012
THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Reinvention: Sewing with Rescued Materials is a beautiful new book by Maya Donenfeld . You are probably familiar with Maya’s blog, MayaMade, where she writes about parenting and making with the seasons. Years ago, Maya sent the craft blog world into a sewing frenzy when she came out with the burlap bucket pattern and for good reason: it is simple, beautiful, useful, and recycled. So too is every project in her new book.
Each chapter in the book is dedicated to a specific material: linen, burlap, jersey, wool, denim, tyvek, and vintage. The projects are, yes, made from recycled materials, but they don’t scream, “I’m recycled!” like say, a pop top vest would. They all subscribe to the same natural aesthetic, even the most seemingly unnatural of materials, tyvek. When my copy of the book came I was immediately draw to this chapter, because I’ve always loved tyvek, oddly enough, and I was excited to see someone else out there did too!
I chose to make the color block zippered pouch, but after painting a bit of tyvek I was less than thrilled. I used a silver metallic acrylic paint that ended up looking a sad gray and the blue was nice, but it brought out the texture of the tyvek more than I wanted. It is actually a nice effect, sort of like a faux leather, but it wasn’t what I was after.
Maya suggests painting the tyvek or simply drawing on it with a permanent marker, which of course makes sense as tyvek is as much like paper as it is like fabric. I picked up my ultra fine point Sharpie and went to town. The leather-like effect I got with the painted tyvek made me want to use some actual leather. A few snips from a vintage, buttery leather jacket and I had the makings for a fine recycled zip pouch.
I didn’t use the exact dimensions she specifies for the pouch, but the patterns in this book are meant more as guidelines. Maya even says, “…ultimately the size, shape, and color of each rescued piece informs the final outcome. If you listen carefully, the fabric will tell you what it wants to be.” This tyvek envelope told me to draw a geometric pattern on it, then sew it to some leather and attach an aqua zipper. Sewing the tyvek was easy, just like sewing paper, so use an old needle in your machine. It was my first time sewing with leather and that was simple too. My machine didn’t know what was going on when I tried to sew the tyvek to the leather, and I had to help it along quite a bit.
Maya also suggests leaving a bit of the original printing exposed, “..so that its reinvention efforts are not forgotten.” I think this quote sums up the book nicely. You get to make all these wonderful pouches and hampers and poofs from old materials, but hidden in these newly sewn things are little reminders of what they once were.
The lovely people at Wiley Craft have offered a copy of Reinvention to one of my readers. Please leave a comment telling me about your favorite recycled material to be entered in the drawing. The giveaway will close Wednesday May 9th at noon central. I’m sorry but this giveaway is only open to US residents. Please follow along with the rest of the tour to see more of this lovely book!
I love using my husbands worn out work pants to make clothes for our daughter…usually pants or shorts. They are so soft!
I love using old magazines, and I just love denim……if olny i wanted yet another skirt or purse. I need some help in that area! This book looks beautiful & full of ideas!
Favorite materials to repurpose: sweaters. I have made toys, mittens, pants, frocks, blankets, table runners even slippers out of old sweaters. But the family’s favorite recycled material is, ahem, those big ol’ cylinders holding psyllium husks. Round here, we call ’em bungo bongos. TMI??
Current favorite=t-shirts!
I have done lots of things with altoid tins, love using scraps of fabric, of fleece too.
what a great pouch you made – i’m inspired although have to confess to not knowing what tyvek is (i’ll have to google it! maybe we call it something else in new zealand?) my fav materials are woolen blankets and sweater, which i felt and make into allsorts of things!
Lately I have been repurposing thrift store clothes, mostly lady’s dresses and pretty blouses, and turning them in to new clothes for my daughter. I love to find cool prints or a great design and make it small or make it into something completely new, it’s really fun.
Cardboard! I love cardboard. It can’t be sewn into garments, true, but I use it to make everything else I can think of. Maya’s book is lovely – I can’t wait to see it! Thanks for the giveaway!
I know this isn’t the point of the post, but I just had to say that I love the fact that your picture of the final pouch with items in it has the head of a Playmobil horse poking out. :)
Thrift shop sweaters are my favorite…for felting and for unravelling to reknit the yarn. My go-to shawl is reknit from a $5 unravelled cashmere sweater. I’d love a copy of this book!
I use a lot of recycled sheets! Also for a while I was reusing fabric samples. And of course, Dad’s clothes are always good! Thanks!
I like bottle caps. I haven’t made anything yet. But have a collection.
melodyj(at0gmail(dot)com
With Mother’s Day coming up it would make a great gift, here’s to hoping I get picked, thanks for the chance! I also like how you designed your pouch.
I love recycling fabfics, from vintage sheets, old trousers, skirts or dresses I’ll make sone new clothes for my litlle kids.
I love to use wool… A thrift store wool sweater or old suit someone has castaway is the best ! Thanks for the chance.
We used old sweaters to make Christmas stockings. My son was very involved in the whole process and did as much of the hand sewing as I did.
Thanks for this great giveaway and thanks to Maya for introducing us to your blog!
Old clothes are always a good source of fabric and pattern. I made some potholders once from a skirt and shirt… Thank you for the opportunity to win this lovely book!
Love using vintage sheets and recycled clothing. This book is right up my alley. Thanks for the chance!
nice! i love that the tyvek talked to you and that you listened. it looks like a lovely book.
Book looks super! I save all sorts of discarded fabrics and need to get sewing. Been thinking of making somethings from the synthetic burlap stuff that the chicken feed bags are made of. Perhaps the bucket pattern would work?
Nice pouch. And the book looks great! What is that traveling hamper? Intrigued.
Favorite recycled material? Jeesh. How about all of them? :) Vintage embroidered linen tablecloths to sew into wee nightgowns?
Miss you Meg. Hope to see you soon.
my favorite recycled material…recycled paper! although I haven’t ever had much luck with it in my sewing machine. Thanks for the tip about using an old needle
I love working with thrifted wool, especially suit pants and coats. Suit pants are usually so gently worn, and the wool is of a quality that would be nearly unaffordable sold by the yard. The jackets and coats tend to have interesting buttons on them that I collect to use as eyes on my stuffed creations.
One thing I recycle often is scraps of craft paper and gift wrap, along with scraps of fabric from various projects. They come in handy all the time for hand-made greeting cards and gift cards, and my daughter recently used some of the fabric scraps to cover a cork board to dress up her room. I’m interested in trying out the yarn from old tee shirts too!
Oh, I’ve got an old sheet that’s torn, but I just couldn’t part with it. So now it’s been turned into strips that I’m wrapping around thick cording to make into a fabric bowl. I L-O-V-E recycling things, especially things that are dearly cherished, and giving them new life. What a great book!