Do you like to rescue – salvage – materials for use in your arts-and-crafts projects? From quilting to felting, from beading to cross-stitch, it can be difficult to find ways to salvage materials and incorporate them in ways that look like beautiful art, and not thrift-store rejects.
Here at Princess YellowBelly Designs we love to save whatever we can and reuse it where ever it’ll work best:
- Buttons off old clothes make the eyes of fabric animals
- Salvaged trim off the neckline of an old T-shirt can substitute for a ribbon
- Old crocheted doilies from the antique store can help create a beautiful pattern quickly and easily
Plus we keep all of the cutting scraps from our fabric that’s over about two-inches wide and 3 inches long for patching, mosaics, small appliques, and more.
Recently, we were privileged to meet a hobby-artist whose fabric passion is tying fleece. And her unique perspective on accepting a rough hand – badly damaged “brand-new” materials – salvaging what was there, and creating something truly beautiful has touched our hearts. We’re so excited for you to meet:
Fabric Salvage Artist Susan Rusie
You made some gifts for a friend out of fleece – what was the inspiration/motivation behind that?
I remember a couple of years ago, I wanted to make a family friend a tie blanket with her favorite team and alma mater, Purdue.
This is a family friend that I’ve known all my life. Her parents and my parents were both best friends. My dad and her dad met in college. My mom and her mom met in nursing school.
She had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted to send her something to cheer her up.
What a touching angle! May I ask; what happened with your friend, why the tied fleece blanket, what was the deeper personal connection with her alma mater…?
My friend had discovered a lump in one of her breasts and got herself checked out as soon as she could. The lump ended up being malignant. Fortunately, it was caught early enough and all of the cancer was able to be removed.
Susan Rusie is actually a friend of Suzanna’s from her day-job world of copywriting and marketing.
I’m grateful to her because I know that she’s a part of the vibrant, energized community of passionate writers and creative geniuses that my daughter finds so much support and joy in.
Susan lives is Louisville, KY.
I love making tie blankets and it’s been something I like to make for friends and family to give as gifts. I knew it would be something she would appreciate and get a lot use out of and she does.
She and her brother and older sister all attended and graduated from Purdue, so her whole family always roots for Purdue anytime they play anyone else.
In your case, the materials arrived damaged. Why did you decide to “make the best of it” rather than trying for a refund? Did you enjoy the challenge…or was there a time constraint?
Have you ever had a project you needed or wanted to do, but found out that you weren’t going to be able to do it the way you planned?
This is an area where it pays off to be a creative thinker.
I had to special order four yards of material from Amazon so it would be a full-size fleece tie blanket for an adult.
When the material arrived, I checked it over.
To my dismay, a little over 3/4 of the way down, I noticed a hole right in the center of the material.
My husband asked me if wanted to return the material, but I said “No, I’m going to do something different. It’s going to be a pain to return it.”
I don’t mind a good challenge if I see a creative solution that will still give me get the result I want. Fortunately, I had no time constraint, other than that I wanted to start on it right away so she could get it sooner.
We all know what it’s like to have something go against us. How did you start the salvage process of thinking outside of the box?
So, I cut off the part that had the hole in it and turned that section that was left into a scarf and two throw pillows.
There was enough of the Purdue material to make both the scarf and throw pillows double sided.
I’m curious as to the process behind these thoughts. Did you have a scarf pattern, was that just what the strip that was left looked like? How much fabric did the hole end up costing you?
I didn’t have a pattern to use for the scarf.
I just folded it over horizontally and guessed on the amount of material I would need to make it, but I had to make sure I used enough material so I would have room to create the fringes I would need to tie them together.
Once I finished with the scarf, I folded the rest of the material horizontally and cut that piece right down the middle vertically so I had two separate folded pieces to create the two throw pillows.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the tie blanket double-sided to make it big enough for an adult.
It would have been a half a yard shorter than I would have liked. It might have worked for a shorter adult, but it would have been a better sized tie blanket for a child.
So I went into my local Joann Fabrics and bought black fleece to finish the blanket.
Why did you order the fleece from Amazon to begin with if you had a local Joann’s?
I would have purchased the Purdue fleece fabric if my local Joann’s Fabrics carried it, but it wasn’t available in my area. I had to special order it from Amazon.
I then went over to Joann Fabrics and bought another four yards of black fleece material to use as the backing for the tie blanket itself. I also bought some poly-fill for the throw pillows.
I still had enough fleece material to make a decent-sized tie blanket once I bought the black fleece material for the backing.
The overall project was probably in the $60 to $70 range after it was all said and done. It probably would have been less if the Purdue material had been on sale.
How About Getting Some More Fabric Art Salvage Ideas?
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I feel totally inspired by Susan’s story. Her natural thriftiness, her ease in circling around a problem to find a solution rather than simply sending the damaged stuff back, and her heart for her friend are all such valuable mindsets for any quilter or fabric artist to have.
Just re-reading our article I already had an idea about how to save some stuff that I’ve been thinking of either sending back or giving away.
If you’d like to hear more from Susan (not to mention all the other unique fabric arts we keep meeting), please subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter. Among other upcoming great content, we’re scheduling a call with Susan so that we can brainstorm a little bit more about salvage ideas and the thrifty mindset.