It’s moving day!!

Naturally I’ve been awake since 6:30 and have already had my coffee, and I’m just waiting for the GS to wake up and help me.

To be fair, we can’t pick up the U-Haul until 9, so my impatience is completely unwarranted.

To keep myself busy for the next hour I figured I would fill you in on my latest DIY project, a little wall art for my new apartment. I recently read an article titled “No One Wants Your Donated Clothes” which basically said that there are enough textiles to wrap around the earth a few times and that they aren’t being recycled the way they should.

There was no solution or suggestion for what to do with said clothing, but rather it was a commentary about how people probably shouldn’t be donated their pit-stained t-shirts from 2005 JV Soccer to the Rescue Mission. Point taken.

Obviously I’ve made my fair share of quilts to preserve some clothing memories, but in an effort to get rid of a bunch of my old stuff before the move, this seemed like a worthy project.

I saw this photo on Pinterest and figured it would be pretty easy to re-create. So I cut up a bunch of old clothes, as well as some fabric scraps I had from other projects.

I bought a 24″ x 36″ canvas at Michael’s (70% off, I might add), some paint, and some Mod Podge. I bought the stuff specifically for fabric, but it wouldn’t shock me if all Mod Podge is the same and they sell it in different varieties just for the hell of it.

I painted the canvas black, and while it was drying I laid out my “petals” to get a general idea of the design.

Then you just stick them on with the ‘podge.

I ended up going over the whole thing with another coat of Mod-Podge once it was dry, because otherwise you end up with that shiny outline around the petals and not in your free space. If you use a glossy paint you might not have this issue.

And there it is! I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s obviously a lot crazier than the Pinterest one, but you could use neutral clothing or just buy fabrics that are all in the same general color scheme. At Jo-Ann they sell little packages of fabric remnants that all kind of match.

But I guess that defeats the purpose of saving the world by re-purposing/recycling clothing.

If you want to be a REAL humanitarian, you could absolutely do this on any old piece of fabric or wood or any other flat surface. You don’t even need the canvas! Hell, you could attach the fabric straight to the wall. If you do it that way, Marilyn recommends you use liquid starch rather than Mod Podge. Listen to the expert.

I’ll get on that once I’m a homeowner.