Soule - Handmade home: simple ways to repurpose old materials into new family treasures

Amanda Blake Soule makes me want to run to my sewing basket and pull out needle and thread.

Barbara Mahany, Chicago Tribune

ABOUT THE BOOK

For many of us, our home is the center of our life. It is the place where our families meet and mingle, where we share our meals and share our dreams. So much more than just a space to live, our homes offer us a place of comfort, nourishment, and love for us and for our children.

In Handmade Home, Amanda Blake Soule, author of The Creative Family and the blog SouleMama.com, offers simple sewing and craft projects for the home that reflect the needs, activities, and personalities of todays families. As Amanda writes in the introduction, As a crafter, Im always looking for the next thing I want to make. As a mama, Im always looking for the next thing we needto do, to have, to useas a family. The coming together of these parts is where the heart of Handmade Home lies.

Filled with thirty-three projects made by reusing and repurposing materials, all of the items here offer a practical use in the home. From picnic blankets made out of repurposed bed sheets to curtains made out of vintage handkerchiefs, these projects express the sense of making something new out of something old as a way to live a more financially pared-down and simple life; lessen our impact on the earth; connect to the past and preserve a more traditional way of life; and place value on the work of the hands. Also included are projects that children can help with, allowing them to make their own special contribution to the family home.

More than just a collection of projects for handmade items, this book offers the tools to create a lifeand homefull of beauty, integrity, and joy.

Projects include:

• Papas Healing Cozy: This hot water bottle cover becomes a simple way to offer comfort to a sick child
• Baby Sling: A simple pattern for an object that offers so much to a small childrefuge from the world and a place to lay their head next to a parents heart
• Beach Blanket To-Go: Repurpose old sheets to create the perfect picnic blanket for special outdoor meals
• Cozy Wall Pockets: A creative solution for storing a childs small treasures

AMANDA BLAKE SOULE is the creator of the popular blog www.SouleMama.com. Amanda spends her days with her four young childrenmaking things, thrifting, exploring and being inspired by their coastal Maine surroundings. Learn more about her and find her blog at www.amandasoule.com.

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H a n dm a d e H o m e

Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures

AMANDA BLAKE SOULE

Roost Books

Boston & London

2011

ROOST BOOKS

An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

roostbooks.com

2009 by Amanda Blake Soule

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Soule, Amanda Blake.

Handmade home: simple ways to repurpose old materials into new family treasures / Amanda Blake Soule.1st ed.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2106-4

ISBN 978-1-59030-595-9

1. Handicraft. I. Title.

TT157.S6365 2009

745.5dc22

2008045457

Dedicated to my foremothers, all makers of beauty

Florence, Dorothy, Millie, Edrie

To be surrounded by beautiful things
has much influence upon the human creature;
to make beautiful things has more.

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN

Contents

My deepest thanks to:

Everyone at Roost Books, who have made the process of making books a true pleasure and honor for me to be a part of.

Jennifer Brown, for the wise, encouraging, and thoughtful way in which she edited and guided this project.

Linda Roghaar, my agent, for her invaluable advice and guidance along the way.

Amy Karol, Alicia Paulson, Anna Maria Horner, and Ali Edwards, for the inspiration, experience and friendship they have shared.

Meg Rooks, Stacy Brenner and my sister Michelle Ames, for sharing their stories, crafts, newborn babies and all manner of other loveliness for this book.

The readers of SouleMama for their support and kindness each day and through the years. Thank you for helping to make so many wonderful things possible!

My familyboth the one I was born in and the one I was so blessed to marry intofor passing on a love of family history, tradition, and old-fashioned Yankee DIY that is both in my heart and at the heart of this book.

My dearest girlfriends Rachael, Jessie, Jean, and Brandie. Words cant express what you mean to me, or the many ways you have contributed to this bookthank you, and I love you.

And my deepest gratitude and love to the ones with whom I am so honored to share my everyday withmy partners in every way, in all that I doHarper, Adelaide, Ezra, Calvin, and Steve. Thanks for keeping me on the path and sharing it with me, my loves.

Each day provides us with the opportunity to create something. What can we make today? Its a question I love to hear from my little ones, and its a question in my own heart each and every day. Making things by hand is a way I share my love and a bit of myself with those dearest to me. Whether it be diapers to clothe my soon-to-be-born babe, blankets to keep us all warm on cool winter nights, or a special handbag for a mamas night out, each time I make something for my home and my family, I feel a satisfaction unlike any other feeling. I find such joy in gathering whats around me, dreaming and stitching it into something new, and putting it to use in the hands of those I love.