Tuesday 22 July 2014

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 :)

16 comments:

  1. That's really clever I've never heard of that. I like the effect. Would it word with scissors or a scalpel?

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  2. It would work with a scissors but not a scalpel as you must make sure you do not cut the bottom layer. It is really easy to do :)

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  3. That looks so lovely, I did one a few years back to try and reduce my stash, I used a stitch guide on my machine to get and even distance between the stitched rows and cut mine with scissors, it looks a lot easier cutting it with a chenile cutter, something else to add to the list of must have tools. Thank you for sharing. :-)

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  4. Thank you Dawn, yes it was really easy with the cutter, worth getting one x

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  5. How extremely clever and creative, love it!

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  6. What a good idea, I may make one or two for presents I have a small heap of bath mats. Do the fibres clog up the washing machine filter much, I made a raggy denim quilt years ago and thought that I had killed the washing machine the first time that I washed it.I have just finished reading through your blog and have bookmarked a couple of recipes. I used to make rag rugs with my Granny ,I remember trawling round the jumble sales for what ever colours that she needed. I will have a look for one of those cutters next time I go to Crosshands.

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  7. I have seen lovely bags made with this technique as well Isabelle.

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  8. I've not heard anyone say they do Pam, but it's only a small mat and denim threads are probably tougher. Glad you found some recipes you like x

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  9. That looks brilliant, I've never seen anything like this before.

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  10. Very easy Sue, and cost me nothing :)

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  11. I think even I could manage making one. I love gadgets lol x

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  12. If I could manage it without cutting my finger off, I'm sure you could manage it x How are those carrots coming on?

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  13. FANTASTIC!!!! This is brilliant. At first I thought wow, what a lot of work to sew all those strips and keep them together and get each strip so well lined up to the next one. Now, not that it wasn't a lot of work to do what you did, but much easier with the gadget that you have for cutting the strips afterwards. A great use of the fabrics too! xx

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  14. That is so effective and looks great. It must have felt really satisfying to have finished... Free, fast and fun!

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  15. Thanks Amy, it is really quick and easy so not much work involved, but looks effective x

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  16. Thanks Gina, it was really enjoyable to finish something in a few hours!! Quilts take me months x

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