Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures
Amanda Blake Soule
Language: English
Pages: 192
ISBN: 1590305957
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
For many of us, our home is the center of our life. It is the place where our families meet and mingle, where we share our meals and share our dreams. So much more than just a space to live, our homes offer us a place of comfort, nourishment, and love for us and for our children.
In Handmade Home, Amanda Blake Soule, author of The Creative Family and the blog SouleMama.com, offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of today’s families. As Amanda writes in the introduction, “As a crafter, I’m always looking for the next thing I want to make. As a mama, I’m always looking for the next thing we need—to do, to have, to use—as a family. The coming together of these parts is where the heart of Handmade Home lies.”
Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. From picnic blankets made out of repurposed bed sheets to curtains made out of vintage handkerchiefs, these projects express the sense of making something new out of something old as a way to live a more financially pared-down and simple life; lessen our impact on the earth; connect to the past and preserve a more traditional way of life; and place value on the work of the hands. Also included are projects that children can help with, allowing them to make their own special contribution to the family home.
More than just a collection of projects for handmade items, this book offers the tools to create a life—and home—full of beauty, integrity, and joy.
Projects include:
• Papa’s Healing Cozy: This hot water bottle cover becomes a simple way to offer comfort to a sick child
• Baby Sling: A simple pattern for an object that offers so much to a small child—refuge from the world and a place to lay their head next to a parent’s heart
• Beach Blanket To-Go: Repurpose old sheets to create the perfect picnic blanket for special outdoor meals
• Cozy Wall Pockets: A creative solution for storing a child’s small treasures
Super Stitches Crochet: Essential Techniques Plus a Dictionary of More Than 180 Stitch Patterns
Icelandic Handknits: 25 Heirloom Techniques and Projects
Impressionist Appliqué: Exploring Value & Design to Create Artistic Quilts
The Big Book of Wooden Boat Restoration: Basic Techniques, Maintenance, and Repair
An iron. Repeat, folding the edge over �″. Press again. Edgestitch. Repeat the process for the second piece. Place the 9½″ × 5½″ pillow cover piece right side up on a flat surface. On top of this piece, place one of the smaller pillow cover pieces right side down, aligning one short edge with a short edge on the larger piece. Lay the other smaller pillow cover piece right side down, aligning one short edge with the short edge on the opposite side of the larger piece. Pin all three pieces in.
To a minimum, and we avoid it altogether in places where it isn’t allowed. But for the most part, I think a tiny bit of treasure seeking is a good thing; these little bits of nature teach us so very much about the object itself, the environment from which it came, and the animals and creatures related to it. They become a tool for learning, just as much as they become a piece of art, or a toy, or an enjoyable piece of beauty in a bowl. As I was changing out the screens in our windows one day, I.
Fold will be �″. Press. Repeat the fold on the other side of pin, bringing the fabric toward the pin once again. Press and pin both pleats in place. This completes one box pleat. Repeat this process at each pin for a total of six box pleats. Stitch the top of the pleats �″ from the edge to hold them in place. Remove the pins as you go. For sizes 12 months and 2T–3T, place one more additional box pleat at each underarm seam. Stitch the pleats as instructed above, and as seen in the photograph.
At birthday parties from a medieval birthday party in our dining room to a midlake ice birthday party deep in the northern Maine woods. It isn’t a birthday at our house without the birthday banner. Fortunately, you don’t need a special occasion, like a holiday or a birthday to make such a banner for your home. Sometimes just one little word or phrase can evoke such positive change in the course of our day to inspire, comfort, or encourage us as a family. Perhaps there’s a word—a family.
A bag of pretzels and bottled water. It’s easy, not messy, and keeps them fed and happy for a few moments. Include them. Talk before you go in about what it is that you’re looking for, if anything in particular. Ask if there’s anything they’re looking for, and look for it. Including them not only keeps them happy in the process of shopping, but it’s also teaching them some valuable lessons along the way. If they’re old enough, include them in the handling of the money or encourage them to bring.