Reuse, refresh, repurpose
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Kristen - the Frugal Girl
As you know I’m a huge fan of Kristen, over at Frugal Girl.
Her website is amazing with a host of fans all clamouring to read the latest frugal wisdom.
It was Kristen who got me accountable for my food waste with her food waste Friday and she who has inspired me with her creativity and cheerful disposition for the past 3 years.
As if homeschooling 4 children, being a part time piano teacher and running a popular website isn’t enough, Kristen has put pen to paper all summer long and created a wonderful ebook.
It’s only $3.99 (£2.50) and with the title of ‘reuse, refresh, repurpose: 20 ways to breathe new life into old clothes‘ how could I resist bringing it to your attention?
You’ll be aware I was back of the queue when the artistic gene was given out. I don’t do needle and thread but Kristen’s projects (there are 20 in all) vary in level of difficulty with some of her ideas only needing a pair of scissors!
As Kristen points out in her book, often clothes that have holes in them or have faded badly still have lots of great material in them just begging to be used. It seems a shame to throw them in the textiles bank when you can give them a new life (hangs head).
Her projects range from mending holes in clothes by teaching you how to make invisible patches, to dyeing, to making cute animals to give as presents right through to making bags, turning trousers into skirts and making accessories like headbands and fabric flowers.
Kristen’s aim is to keep you from overwhelm; that’s why she’s chosen 20 great projects instead of 100 so-so ones. Her hope is that the book will serve as a springboard and source of motivation for you so that by the time you reach the end you’ll be exiced about all the possibilities represented by a bag of old clothes.
Well I have to hand it to her; even *I* – Queen of donating to charity or stuffing in the textile bank – am excited by this book. As you would expect from Kristen’; all her projects are beautifully illustrated with her own photographs and by the end of the 55 pages I was feeling all fired up for making a few bags and toy animals myself…
If you’re champing at the bit to get hold of a copy, here’s a link to “Reuse, refresh, repurpose” over at e-junkie.
And in case you missed it, Kristen was featured on CBN.com, where you can pick up some tips from her frugal life:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2smCgC2u1h8
Recycled head band
cute bag made from recycled trousers
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Oh, this is such a wonderful book! I too cannot sew (except for replacing buttons), and I got a lot of ideas from it (dyeing, for example). And a very reasonable price considering the great photos and clear instructions.
reflecting upon my own frugal past after reading your (re)introduction to the ‘frugalgirl’ blog ; i can see how easy it is to follow these few bloggers i met via your helpful posts..a fine map to a sane and lovely life, with personal variations of course…
here it is all art and no business ability, so we all learn from one another, kristen has it all, and we do learn from her; looking forward to her books, i’ll recommend her to the local library.