Recently, one of my oldest friends was cleaning out his parents garage, and let me know he had several really good oak pallets for me. Now, by looking in my garage, you can immediately tell I never pass up an opportunity to snag some vintage wood. The problem with doing this is you tend to run out of room long before you are able to produce anything from the "scraps". This type of endeavor requires that you secure materials sometimes years in advance of utilizing when it becomes available. Too many times I've wanted to build something, only to realize I didn't have the right type of material at the right time, because I didn't jump on it and store it until I was ready.
In his purging of the garage of the pallets, I also noticed a sizable amount of burlap potato sacks that they had used in their gardens for many years. Knowing that some of these potato sacks sometimes had tremendous graphics imprinted upon them, I ask and his Mom said "get rid of them"! So, I became owner of several dozen sacks. When I returned home, I did a quick internet search on old burlap sacks, just to make sure I wasn't going to cut apart a rare expensive barn found sack. While a few would make the $20 range, the majority was in the $2-$5 range, safe enough for me to stretch over boards to make farmhouse chic!
However, the most interesting thing I learned about vintage and antique cloth and burlap sacks, was that they were re-purposed into multiple clothing ideas in the early to late 1800's and even into the early to mid 1900's. Because of economic pressures, many women used these sacks to cloth their families in shirts, pants, hats and even undergarments. I suddenly found a whole new appreciation for these artifacts, understanding that they were perhaps THE ORIGINAL FIRST re-purposed item that may have existed. And what better item for me to display for our little organization here, My Repurposed Self!
Thanks and enjoy!
JD
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