I Dream Of Jean Socks: The Beginning, Part 3

Taking a first step in the right direction…in “THE” socks

Alrighty folks, now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. Part 1 and 2 filled you in on how I’ve decided to make some life changes (tiny house living, here I come!) and the beginning of my plan of action to accomplish that. Acquiring no new things is a good start to making the move to live a simpler, mostly thing-less lifestyle, but that’s not enough. The next phase of the plan has to address what to do with my existing stuff.

As I mentioned before, donations to local charities has always been (and will continue to be) part of my method for dealing with extra stuff. But there’s more I can do. Using inspiration I gained from the many sites I visited (as mentioned in Part 2), this phase of the plan entails me taking a look at my existing stuff and figuring out how to repurpose them. THIS IS THE FUN PART! I love being creative, making things, and finding new and sometimes surprisingly different ways to use things.

This used to hold paper towels. This is now a chair. This is not a good example of my repurposing skills, but you get the idea.

Actually, my son made that cute little craft in the photo above, but you get where I’m going, right?

I can figure out ways to remake and reuse the things I already have into things I can use in my new tiny house life. The things I can’t or won’t use will go on to find another home.

In come “the” socks…finally!

My first project was to create some new socks. I think I mentioned that I love socks, didn’t I? 🙂 Well, as I started looking at some old things that wouldn’t be making the journey with me to the next phase of my life, I came across a sweater that used to belong to my youngest, now too small for him to wear and riddled with holes (no donating that).

forgot to take a pic before I started ripping it apart, so I pieced it back together for the shot. Can you tell? Am I fooling anyone?

…and some jeans that didn’t fit but loved the pretty pockets, so I knew I’d use them for something

pretty pink butterfly pockets

Looking at the sleeves on the sweater, what did I see? Socks! Comfy, cozy, new to me socks. And so I began.

Cutting…

watch the toes!

tearing…

pulled apart quite nicely

tracing…

a monkey can to what I do

more cutting…

they look like ghost prints to me

sewing…

ma machine

*A quick note on my sewing skills. I have none. Quick enough? Seriously, my skills are very limited, but I have a machine (gifted to me years ago that hardly gets any use) that I will be learning to put to good use as part of the plan for my new tiny house life.

And after 4 hours of work (four hours?!?!), I had me some socks.

“THE” socks!! Bird’s eye view

the soles of the creation

Unfortunately, they were a huge disappointment. They didn’t look the way I wanted, not what I originally planned at all, and not comfy or cozy in the least. I was so sad.

Oh, hey. Here’s me. Really, I’m sad.

So after I cleaned everything up and put it all away (not being a seamstress means not having a dedicated work space, which actually works well for the new tiny lifestyle), I made myself feel better the best way I could. I donned a pair of my fav, comfy socks 🙂

Yup, them’s pigeons

I will address “the” socks again at a later date (they will not defeat me nor keep me down!). But for now it’s time to contemplate the next project. Wonder what other cozy things I can make?

Until next time,

Maila

I Dream Of Jean Socks: The Beginning, Part 2

The plan…and some more socks

Ok. So in Part 1 of this story, I shared with you my love of socks, and the idea and inspiration for this blog: making a life change and living the tiny house lifestyle. With this major change was the need get rid of some things in order to fit into my new, tiny life. This would be no easy task, so I needed a plan.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail

My mental wheels began turning and I came up with a few ideas. First and foremost, I don’t like waste. Any kind of waste. I reuse and recycle everything and anything that I can, so I knew just throwing things away would not be an option. I’ve donated things regularly to my local charity organizations, and while that is most definitely still an option that I will be using, I wanted to explore some other creative options as well. So I turned to the internet.

There are so many folks out there doing so many great things to reduce and eliminate waste, and I love it. I wish I could name all that I saw (in the future I will take note and list them here on the blog), but since the idea for actually writing this blog came way after I had made my way deep into that rabbit hole, I have no names nor sites to pass along to you. Except one. I came across one of the best blogs and truly the inspiration to get to writing my own. Said blog is REFATIONISTA , penned by the wonderful Jillian Owens. She takes some old and usually hideous $1 thrift finds and turns them into awesome new garments. Not only is her creativity impressive, but her willingness to be open and share some of her personal story is commendable as well. Please do go check her out when you get the chance.

So, back to my socks story (almost there, folks). As I read page after page of Jillian’s refations (I was seriously hooked and read 3 years worth of posts in 2 days!), I was reminded of myself and how I love, love, LOVE recreating old things into new, as well as what I call “double duty” items (ie an ottoman that opens up for storage space). So how does this tie into my plan? Well, the first part of my plan is to not bring in new things to the existing house that I don’t absolutely need and will not be used right away. To say it another way, don’t bring in things that will need to be stored somewhere. Seems simple enough, right? Well…I have a bit of a problem. I love new things. New things are exciting, and interesting, and…well…new. I have a tendency to get bored easily and like to change things up, and the easiest fix for that is, you guessed it, new stuff. So I figure the best way to continue get my “new stuff” fix and still be able to work towards moving into my new tiny house life (and use my creative juices) is by making my old stuff new. Yay! My plan is starting to come together.

Rest assured, there’s more to this plan. As difficult as it’s going to be to resist bringing in new stuff, I have to do more. Part 2 of the plan coming up next. But first…

You may be Batman, but I’m Wonder Woman!

Let me get out my cape. This is going to be a job for Wonder Woman!

(Still not “the” socks. Soon, I promise)

Until next time,

Maila

I Dream Of Jean Socks: The Beginning, Part 1

Backstory…and some socks

I have a thing for socks.

Funky socks, tall socks, cozy socks…I love socks. From my love of socks stemmed the idea for the first post for this blog. Actually, let me back up a little and tell you about the idea behind this blog. We’ll get back to my socks in a minute.

I’m a self-employed single mom working on a tight budget (as us single moms do), and as of late have been finding it a little tougher to make ends meet (gas and milk prices suck!). So I started thinking about ways to squeeze more out of my budget. My largest monthly expense by far is rent. At first I didn’t think moving into something less expensive would be an option (my employment is based on where I live), but after more consideration, some hemming and hawing, soul searching, and other circumstances (I’ll break down the deets on that another time), I’ve decided that I will make the move. BUT this will be no ordinary move. I’ve decided to move into a tiny house!

Not THAT tiny!

Now if you’re unfamiliar with the tiny house movement, I encourage you to do a quick Google search and see what you see. In short, it’s a very affordable way to own your own home,  live a sustainable lifestyle, and maybe even travel! Really, you should Google it.

So, where the heck do socks come into this thing? Patience,  I’m getting there.

In order to seriously make this move and live this happy,  tiny, sustainable little life, I have to get rid of some things. Ok, a lot of things. The premise of a tiny house life is to be mostly “thing-less”. I LOVE this idea. Living a simple, mostly thing-less life is sooo for me. But it’s going to take some work. Ok, a lot of work. While I don’t have a whole lot of things, (I live in a three story townhouse with storage space that could rival that of a jail cell) I have way too much to cram into my future tiny house life. So I came up with a plan.

Unfortunately, as this post is already longer than I’d originally planned, I’ll have to share that plan with you in the next post.

Oh, but I did promise you some socks…

Tie-dy pair of toe warmers, they are

No, these aren’t “the” socks, but I figured they’d TIE-D you over until we get to them. 🙂

Until next time,

Maila