It's been ages since my last needlework post, I can't even remember what it was, but today I'm here again with something crazy, as always.
I'm not a fan of covering the whole floor with carpets, but having a carpet under your feet has its benefits. Winter is coming and temperatures are going to drop till a point where heating will be needed and that will be the time when the carpet will come in handy. There's no carpet under my desk, so knowing that I need one made me think of the options.
The first and the obvious one was to buy one, but the fussy I am, I knew right away that going carpet shopping would be a wild goose chase, so I decided to make my own. At least there was a chance to create something unique and enjoy the process as well.
The main idea was to use it during winter and put it away for the rest of the year. This is why I decided to go with waste material as I'm also a huge fan of recycling. The other reason to choose waste materials was to create a mat that I can wash in the washing machine.
I had this huge, green rubber mat that I got with a huge carpet, serving as anti-slip material. Rubber can deteriorate in time, so it's best to use it till you can. So I thought I would use denim on both sides and as "lining", or isolation I would use this green rubber thing.
After taking the measurements I cut out a 48cm x 48xcm piece.
While checking my denim materials, I found these two pieces, that were not quite the size I needed, but were a starting point. The truth is, I wanted my mat made of different pieces, first of all because it's fun and secondly because I love the different colors. It makes the piece unique and interesting to.
Next I selected different shades, to make it colorful.
The truth is I missed sewing and this seemed like an easy project to practice sewing again. The truth is I had to think about how to handle the tread as I almost forgot.
These were the two pieces I got after sewing the small pieces together.
So after getting the 52cm x 52xm denim pieces, I thought let's make it unique with something and pockets seemed the best ides.
I had one pocket cut out but somehow it looked awful, so I decided to go with two.
This was a Levis, original. How is that for a mat?
Don't ask me why but this is the setup I thought would be right as I did not want symmetry. This whole project is anything but symmetry.
I said pockets but basically these pieces don't function as pockets as I sewed them on all sides.
And this is where the challenge began. At first I thought I'd make it like a pillow, I mean sew the two pieces together like when you make a pillow, but having the rubber mat as well complicated things a little. I had to make sure to sew the rubber mat to the denim, to be washable in the washing machine.
After some thinking the best solution seemed to sew the front part and the rubber mat together and add the back after.
This is how the front looked like at that point.
For the back, I thought I would go without pockets, but somehow it seemed like not a good idea, so I decided to add two pockets to the back as well.
This is my pocket collection. I didn't want to use the most beautiful pockets as the denim piece I got was not so nice, but didn't want to use the ugliest either.
After some thinking I decided to go with these two. A bit darker that the back piece, but still good.
And voilà! This is the final product, my mat I'm going to use during the winter.
And this is the back.
It is definitely not a piece that I would participate at the Milan Fashion Week with, but it serves the purpose, it's unique, washable in washing machine and it's recycled. Perfect for me. It was a good practice too.
So this was my fun for today 😀
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