A Bathroom Rug and Fiber Basket: Craft Success!

Cutting up tees.

I completed the rug and fiber basket that I was making for my new bathroom (when we get our new place in Columbus). It matches our new fabric shower curtain and ceramic toothbrush holder I got from Etsy.

This was the most tedious part.

If you remember, I was creating these things really frugally, as my main material were old tee shirts no one wanted anymore (and were therefore free). These were stained, bleached, holey, and ill fitting and were in bad enough shape that I would not feel comfortable giving them to a thrift store to sell. What to do? Repurpose!

The backing, trimmed in purple
duck tape, with pattern
drawn on it.

I ended up spending about $15, which in the end will get me about three rugs (one latch hook, two crocheted) and a fiber basket. All I had to buy was a latch hook tool, a large plastic crochet hook, and the latch rug backing. Hooray for recycling!

Finished!

A close up.

I'm not gonna lie, the two crochet rugs are more rough looking (because they are made using small scraps of tee that are pieced together, rather than longer pieces of tee) to make into a continuous "yarn". I had scrap that I pieced together after I was done making the latch hook rug and figured, "Why not make throw rugs out of this?" They will be be perfect situated under my birds' cage to catch debris. I will take pics of those when I am done and show you those, too. But bird cage rugs don't have to be gorgeous- they have to be there to catch parrot poop. So I am pleased.

The basket.

The latch hook rug is gorgeous and awesome and ready for display (if only we had moved already!). It feels luxurious underfoot and will make an awesome bath mat. Rowan likes it too. It is being put away today, but everytime he saw me working on it he would say "Mommy rug- for NEW bathroom!". 

Yesterday, I went to the craft store and got a few more items that I am going to need for projects I have planned. I got some good fabric scissors to take with me (I have been borrowing the ones you see here!), as well as some waste canvas- for folks that do not do needlework, this allows you to embroider a patch onto clothing of anything that you want- making your clothes colorful and unique as well as mended in one fell swoop!

Another view of the basket.

I got some silver sequin trim and the letter "K" (the sequin trim is going to deck out the K - our family's last name initial) and will then be put into a baroque style frame (updated by spray painting with contemporary colors). This will be a part of a wall display of pictures and other memories of our family, which will be above a beloved dead altar and house altar for the main living space.

(I prefer beloved dead altars in dining areas- so that food and water offerings to ancestors are a natural extension of what you are already doing- feeding the living.) We may also place the piano in the dining room (We have a piano!) and place pictures of our living and dead there as well. If you remember, my beloved dead altar is pretty large and intense.

What are you working on?