Purposeful Reusing- New Tuesday Elective

This quarter Calvary Christian Schools has offered a Tuesday Elective on purposeful reusing. Although I’ve never been a huge fan of crafts, I was intrigued by taking seemingly worthless items and turning them into useful treasures. The first day of class we learned how to dye long socks. First we twisted the socks into a huge ball and put a rubber band around them. Then we squirted various colors of dye on them until there were few white spots left. Mrs. Price and Mrs. Rude, our wonderful instructors, then washed them for us and they were ready to take home by the following class. Now I have a warm pair of colorful socks to wear on cold winter nights!

Next, we decorated plain brown paper bags with beautiful ribbon, magazine, dictionary, and book clippings to make them beautiful gift bags. Our bags turned out looking fantastic and Mrs. Price taught us how to make newspaper gift bows to put on them. The next week Mrs. Price and Mrs. Rude made us a cookie recipe in a jar to put inside of our bags and we decorated the jars too.

The fourth week of class we customized plain white mugs with special markers. It was so much fun to decide exactly how to design the cup, and even more exciting to see how others had decorated their mugs.

However, my favorite project so far has been making mittens. We cut out a pattern on paper and then used that pattern to cut our mitten pieces out of old sweaters. Then we sewed the pieces together with yarn. Next Tuesday we will use buttons and lace to embellish the mittens. I can’t wait to wear my fuzzy mittens; I’m sure they’ll come in handy for the last part of this winter!

I’m thoroughly glad I took this class because it has turned out to be even more fun than I had hoped. My only regret is that it won’t last until the end of the year!

            - Joelle Byers, Senior