Crafty Gadget - Slash Cutter and Recycling

I absolutely love taking some old clothes, scraps of fabric etc. and making something lovely and useful out of them.  On Sunday after retreating indoors out of the heat, I decided to have a go at the slash cutter which has been in a drawer for years, never used.  I wanted to make a bathmat out of  OH old shirts, the backs being just the right size.  

I had an old hand towel whose edges were getting frayed, cut it to size and this would be the bottom of the mat.  Cut the backs of five old shirts to the same size as the towel, there were a couple of dark blues, a couple of light blues and one white.  If you wanted a multi coloured one then choose all different colours.  The top layer is the one that will show so for this I used some fabric left over from another project.  

Cut all the layers to size

Place the towel on the bottom, the shirts next and the top fabric in layers and pin.

Then I marked a line diagonally from one corner to the opposite and machine stitched a line in matching polyester thread through all the layers.  Continue to stitch across the fabric every 1/2 inch until the whole mat is stitched.

You then take the slash cutter, and making sure you DO NOT cut the bottom layer (the towel) push the cutter between the machine stitching.  The cutter has a foot that you push under the layers you want to cut so it makes the whole process easier, but you can do this with a scissors.

Finally I used a strip of the top fabric to make a border.

The rug has been washed once when this photos was taken, you can see it has begun to fray.  The more you wash it the 'fluffier' it gets.  The effect is called faux chenille.  It is lovely and soft to touch and soaks up moisture well which makes it ideal for a bath mat.

You can use contrasting colours to get a completely different look.

So something useful made from an old towel, old shirts and scraps, recycling at its best.

Chickpea xx

Welcome to Pam :)