I’ve always loved Maya Donenfeld’s Maya’s Made blog. I love the organic feel of her crafts, photos, and idyllic depiction of her life in the country in upstate NY.
I once asked her permission to use one of her beautiful images when I wrote for Crafting a Green World and not only did she give me permission, but she sent me a very ‘personal’ and gracious reply. Normally, it’s hard to tell how a person is via email but I sensed her down-to-earth and genuinely nice warmth, like a fresh baked apple pie, from her email.
Her blog became even more attractive after that exchange of emails. Not surprising, though, that a person behind crafting reusing materials and being gentle on the planet would be as nice as she.
Then, if her lovely blog wasn’t enough for me to drool over, she wrote a book called reinvention
How cool is the concept and the title! I’m loving the term, “reinvention“, maybe more than ‘repurpose.’
Again, shamelessly, I emailed her to see if I can review her book. How forward of me, right? Just the title of her book drew me right in and wanted to find out what she was going to show us to repurpose.
reinvention Review
The book came a few weeks later and I was blown away. Not only does the book have step-by-step directions for projects and basic skills in the beginning of the book but it is categorized according to different materials for repurposing and why they are good for the planet. Teaching me what’s good for the planet while giving me instructions to craft awesome projects is just my kind of a book.
Maya shares her tried and true resources of where she buys her earth friendly fabrics and notions. She generously includes templates and stencils too.
reinvention is not just a crafting tutorial book but a passionate project by an earth saving artist who happens to be a seamstress, living a repurposed country life.
This hardcover, metal spiral bound book is going to be a keeper for sure, long after all the projects are done.
Here is one of the projects that I’ve been meaning to start but haven’t, until I read reinvention.
reinvention inspired vision/ organizer board
The instructions are self-explanatory but as with other fabric sections, she describes the history of burlap, where to get them, what type of burlap is better for sewing, how to deconstruct, and what environmental impact burlap has. I always liked working with burlap but now, more than ever, since learning the facts from her book.
I made a little variation from her board but you get the idea what this project is for.
I used the leftover coffee burlap sac that I made fabric box with last year and fabric scraps I got from a reupholstery store. I made so many projects with this stash of burlap that I got from my local coffee roaster. Now I have one more item to add to my burlap crafts collection.
If you don’t want to sew pockets, you can just wrap burlap around a cardboard, foam board, or even an old photo frame to make a vision board. But I wanted to add a few pockets to keep track of my sewing tools that I always seem to misplace. So used pinking shears and just sewed around the edges of the pockets.
You can wrap all sides to make them cleaner looking but I think having a couple of raw edges makes it look more shabby chic. OK, that’s a lie. Sorta. Truth is, I was too lazy to cut the cardboard to fit perfectly so I left two side edges unstapled.
I’ll pin images, prints, letters, along with items I want to keep track so I’m sure the board will get filled up pretty quickly. It beats sterile looking cork board, doesn’t it?
reinvention have more sewing projects but she has many projects that do not require sewing skills as well, like this vision board.
This will be my next project.
Here is how to enter to win your own copy. Make sure to enter using Rafflecopter form below if you want your entry to count. If you don’t want to wait to see if you won, you can buy it by clicking the image of the book at the bottom.
Giveaway Rules
- Must be aged 18 or older and live in the contiguous US to be eligible to win.
- Giveaway is open to email subscribers only.
- Giveaway will end at 12:00 AM EST on Monday, August 13, 2012
- Rafflecopter will be used to keep track of your entries and choosing the winner.
- No purchase is necessary to enter the giveaway.
- You must respond within three days after giveaway is closed to be eligible.
Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of reinvention for review purpose only. No monetary payment was given for this review or giveaway.
If you want to purchase reinvention from Amazon, click the image below or on the sidebar. (affiliate link)
