Wednesday 22 February 2012

Inspiration

Yet again, I'm changing my blogging schedule.   I'm aiming for Mon-Wed-Fri for a while. 

I saw this at Ikea for only £5 back in May.




In spite of the fact that it was pretty inexpensive for something that would hold at 24 scarves, I wasn't in the least tempted.  Instead I was thinking that those plastic ring things that you used to get with six-packs of coke would be a starting point.  Only diet coke doesn't come that way over here and the occasional purchase of coke is in the cheaper 2 litre bottles.  Beer comes in 4-packs with rings, but I wasn't about to spend a fortune for a product we don't want just for craft supplies!  So I started looking at other sources for rings. 

There were some rings that were in the top of a large sample curtain that Jane gave me on our last trip to Australia (her daughter works in an interior decorating shop that was shedding loads of fabric samples).  When the large roll of tape on my dispenser suddenly came to an end, I had a nice large ring.  I cut a few small plastic yoghurt pots into almost-round slices and then realised that toilet paper rolls would serve the same purpose, as they didn't need to have a lot of strength.

I took scraps of yarn and crocheted around each ring and then crocheted each ring to the covered hanger and to each other.  I figured if the rings were connected the gaps between would form another hole that a scarf could go through.

Admit it, doesn't this have more....um, character?

After a while I realised that just using a doubled length of black yarn to tie the rings together would work fine.  And then it seemed I could have gone one forever... Believe me, I have more than enough scarves to fill all these holes and the between spaces!  But I thought this was a good time to stop.  After all, a hanger will only hold so much weight and the bulk of so many scarves would take plenty of closet space.

My creation loaded up!

Starting with the covered hanger, this took me a couple of hours, but they were fun-filled hours and I used what I already had in the house.  One could no doubt come up with a neater, more tasteful design, but actually I found yet another way to hang my scarves so that I could see them.  I believe it is intended to hang multiple pairs of slacks, but for now I prefer this use. 

Who says a slacks' hanger has to hold only slacks?

I've been moving each scarf to this second hanger as I wear them, so at some point I'll see the ones for which I don't really have any use.  

Are you ever inspired to make things rather than to buy them? 

3 comments:

BigLittleWolf said...

Such good ideas! (I have an issue not only with scarf storage, but purses which, of course, aren't as flat - and I have very very little closet space or storage space of any sort.)

As for making things instead of buying them, I'm all for it. It's usually fun. The only challenge is the time to do it, and if it makes more mess that has to be left out and about in the process... which defeats the purpose.

(I may now go hang my scarves on my pants rack!)

Beryl said...

That is pretty cute. I am always looking for good ways to hang my scarves. Most of mine are oblong shaped and work well on the multiple slacks hangers. And I have some nice racks of hooks from Ikea that John has put up on the closet wall.
I am always always inspired to make things rather than buy them. I'm just lucky I don't have any power tools. But I do have a sewing machine and kitchen.

Anonymous said...

Great idea to use the trouser rack to hang scarves. I may use this idea myself.

I'm not very talented at reuse. I don't tend to hang onto things that I don't use - they rapidly find their way to a charity or into the garbage.