by Contributing Columnist Kimberly Barnes aka  TeaTowelCreek

I am utterly addicted to fabric and although I love shopping for fabric, it can become quite expensive. A few months ago my mother and I had a garage sale and during the set up of our sale I spotted a green table cloth and a cream table cloth she was going to sell. As soon as I saw them I knew I had to have these table cloths so I scooped them up before anyone would have a chance on getting their hands on them, plus I knew that eventually they would probably end up in some land fill somewhere. I didn’t know at the time what I was going to do with them but I knew that eventually an idea would hit me so I put them in the closet until they were ready to be turned into something fabulous.

I didn’t have to wait long as a few weeks later I was struck with an idea to create folk art out of them. I took out some computer paper and starting sketching my folk art characters. I love Halloween and since it is the season I decided to do a folk art witch. I ripped a piece of the cream colored fabric into an 11 x 14 section, I then free handed my witch head onto the fabric and then ripped apart small pieces of the green table cloth fabric to make her clothes. I the machine sewed them onto her, used coffee to give her and aged look and did a few other things which shall remain secret to give her more of an aged look and WaLa! My new folk art creation came to life. I put her in my Etsy shop and 2 days later she sold.

I am now utterly addicted to scouring thrift stores and as well as online vintage shops for table cloths, curtains, pillowcases & etc to use in my art. I call them my “Traveling Cloths” as each table cloth, curtain or pillowcase that was created for a certain purpose has traveled somewhere and they will eventually be turned into art and travel yet again to a new destination. I also feel that this is my way of helping the planet as I feel eventually these cloths will have eventually ended up in a landfill somewhere.

Although my creative venture has only just begun it is a venture I am looking forward too.

Image courtesy of Marthasattictoo

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Tags: cloth, curtains, decor, dish towels, garage sales, map, pillowcases, primitive, repurpose, tablecloths, tea towels, thrift stores, vintage

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