Rescue Me

Reinvention ~ Sewing with Rescued Materials by Maya Donenfeld appealed to me because using vintage and recycled materials has been my creative goal for the last several years. After watching a documentary about the enormous problem fast fashion causes with textile manufacturing and waste I thought about how I could change my ways as a quilter. Since then I've tried to mainly buy vintage or recycled fabric, and use up 99% of my scraps rather than discard them.

I was happy with this book from the moment it arrived, as it's spiral-bound so it lays flat, and offers 28 different sewing projects using a variety of recycled materials. The projects are also interesting and different from what I've seen in other books on this topic. The projects are elegantly simple, and most seem fairly easy to make. If you're new to sewing or printing on fabric, there are chapters on both with good instructions in the beginning of the book.

Of special interest to me is a section on burlap, of which I have about a yard on hand that I've yet to make into something. I'm also delighted to see some sewing projects made out of jersey, linen and wool. I also liked one idea of taking old t-shirts and a bed sheet and making them into a comfortable-looking throw blanket.

I might challenge myself to make at least one of the projects from this book as a birthday gift for my favorite person (she's all about saving the environment, and I still have five months before her birthday arrives.) I'd also like to incorporate the author's ideas into my own future designs and projects. Highly recommended.