Plans to write during the past month did not materialise as a result of trips to my mum and to attend a family funeral. All this meant that most of my making for the past weeks has had to be portable, with little opportunity for rummaging through scraps looking for inspiration. However, in my absence, Mr Snail did come across an unspeakable object that was just crying out to be turned into something else. He found this in next-door’s rubbish* after they’d had a family with children visiting:
I hardly know where to begin with my assessment of what’s wrong with this thing… the waste of resources, it’s disposable nature, the “It’s girl surf stuff” slogan, the image of the “girl”, the pink for girls design… I won’t go on. Suffice to say that Mr Snail thought that, whatever its faults, it shouldn’t be going straight to landfill after a few uses. To begin with, he thought it was still functional, but upon inspection, it turned out that the polystyrene inside was broken, so it couldn’t be used for it’s original purpose. He put it to one side for me to look at upon my return home.
I have to say that initially I was not inspired… revolted might have been a better description of my reaction. However, I decided that it might make a good scrap project and so I took it apart. I kept all the fabric and plastic bits, but I did send the polystyrene for recycling.
I specifically wanted a project that would allow me to disguise that slogan. At first I thought that I might be able to use all the bits , but then I decided to focus on the fabric for this ScrapHappy. And so, in combination with a very old, ripped pair of jeans, I created this rather jolly shopping bag. I managed to combine fabric so that even some of the worn parts of the jeans could be used and I “lost” the slogan in the handles:
The webbing, plastic washers, extra bits of fabric and velcro have gone into the scrap stash and we now have a rather jolly bag that’s bright and cheery, but certainly not reinforcing the pink for girls stereotype. I am very pleased with this particular scrappy transformation.
-oOo-
* I should point out that he doesn’t normally rifle through other people’s rubbish, it’s just that he promised to put it out for them as there was no one home on collection day.
I’ve been inspired to write this (and future) ScrapHappy posts by Kate, Tall Tales from Chiconia. On the fifteenth of every month lots of folk s often publish a ScrapHappy post, do check them out:
Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan (me), Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin, Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2 , Bear, Carol, Noreen, Preeti and Edith
If you fancy joining, contact Kate and she’ll add you to the list. It would be lovely to see more non-sewing posts, but any use of scraps is welcome.
The Snail of Happiness 
Nice Piece of Work
/ July 15, 2021Cool bag.
By the way, we only have your word for it that Mr Snail is not a bin-picker on a regular basis. Just saying.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021Who knows what he gets up to whilst I am away!
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Nice Piece of Work
/ July 15, 2021indeed….!!!
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Nice Piece of Work
/ July 15, 2021Hmmm, I left a comment and now I see it has evaporated into the etherverse. Perhaps it’ll turn up somewhere….
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Nice Piece of Work
/ July 15, 2021Okay, I’m clearly more confused than I’d originally thought. Ignore the second comment. Let me make more coffee….
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021Too late!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021Well I could see it.
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Over Soil
/ July 15, 2021I am so proud to know you Snail o’ appiness 🐌 and [Follow] what you get up to. It is all good and the bag is lovely. Also “Well done that man” to Mr Snail. 🐌
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021Thank you.. I try my best
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itwasjudith
/ July 15, 2021A wonderful reinterpretation of an awful artefact 🙂 (revolting is a term here that I agree with)
Thanks for rescuing those resources from an early landfill trip.
I didn’t know that polystyrene could be recycled – perhaps it depends on the local council rules.
Although I’m trying to reduce plastic altogether, as much of what is being sent for recycle, sadly ends up not being recycled and ever worse, sent to other countries where it is dumped or burned..
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021Our Council started accepting polystyrene for recycling a few years ago. I’m not sure what happens to it, but at least they take it.
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Over Soil
/ July 15, 2021Here in Wales they make solid 🧱 park benches of recycled polystyrene and thankfully are very hard to vandalise.
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katechiconi
/ July 15, 2021Oh dear, that really was foul. Well done on resurrecting it into something pleasing and useful! And I’m with Mr Snail on rifling through rubbish if the opportunity arises. We have a rather brilliant scheme at home: you turn up to the dump with a trailer full of whatever you can’t use or mend and they offload all the stuff, sort it into materials if recycling, and into a workshop to be mended if not. There’s a shop where you can go and buy mended bikes, furniture, washing machines, etc. The proceeds go to the people with disabilities who work on repairing or sorting the stuff. It’s called the Incred-Able Tip Shop…
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021I didn’t realise the horror of the thing from Mr Snail’s verbal description. When I got home and saw it, I was absolutely determined to make it into something useful and devoid of gender stereotyping!
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Over Soil
/ July 15, 2021{{{giggling}}} For I do get a giggle when others get negatively emotional about inanimate objects, that others have at some point obviously adored. I admit I never did get into Barbie, but some dear friends did. For yes, I was just {{{giggling}}} @ the use of the word “horror”, bless your cotton socks, you both are adorable, in a world of wastefulness (oh drats what is that word I’m looking for, give me a minute, it’s to do with affluent people being wasteful, so at some point I will comment that one word I’m looking for that is driving me bonkers) 🤪
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katechiconi
/ July 15, 2021It’s still fairly pink, but there’s not much you can do about that.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021But at least now it doesn’t specifically say it’s for a girl.
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katechiconi
/ July 16, 2021This is true, and if the bloke carrying doesn’t care, it does make a very useful bag!
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nanacathy2
/ July 15, 2021Well goodness me you didn’t like the girly thing. What was it in the First place? Nice bag. Can’t beat a bit of bin diving. I’m like that with pretty boxes and bags.
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Over Soil
/ July 15, 2021Sadly the manageress of the local Co-op says “No, you have to stop or I will have to ask the police in” which was a sad moment for my bin diving days.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 15, 2021It was a body board – for kids to play on in the sea. I really object to the ‘pink for girls’ thing -pink is for anyone who likes it!
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Going Batty in Wales
/ July 15, 2021That is a particularly inventive bit of recycling Mrs Snail! Presumably the original small owner was delighted with it – she needs re-educating!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021I wasn’t here when the visitors were, so I’m not sure, but you are probably right. I blame the parents!
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onesmallstitch
/ July 15, 2021totally agree, the original item is offensive. Well done to Mr. Snail for even recognizing it had any potential. And well done to you for making a very useful and pretty bag. Wonder what the original owners would think?
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021I suspect they would be completely bewildered that anyone even bothered.
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Sew Rosey
/ July 16, 2021I do agree Pink should be for anyone and as I tell my MOTH, Real men Wear Pink. Although I did make a predominantly pink quilt years ago and called it Girlie Girl, as I was using my PINK Breast cancer fabrics with chenille inserts.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021That sounds like a fabulous quilt.
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Quimper Hitty
/ July 16, 2021nice save, mr and ms and I completely agree with your aversions to the original…ugh.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021It’s awfulness makes me particularly happy about this transformation.
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arlingwoman
/ July 16, 2021It was so nice to read someone reacting to a bit of girly stuff the way I would. It WAS pretty awful, but you did it proud in the end with the bag!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021It just annoys me so much that there is still this level of gender stereotyping. For goodness sake, a body board is about as un-gender-specific as possible.
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arlingwoman
/ July 16, 2021Yes. I just loved the way you described it. 😉
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rutigt
/ July 16, 2021It´s a great idea and the result is also great!
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 16, 2021I’m very happy with it.
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DawnGillDesigns
/ July 18, 2021brilliant. Thank you for saving it from landfill, I bloody hate those polystyrene body boards.
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 18, 2021They are awful, aren’t they?
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polesparadise
/ July 20, 2021That’s a really snazzy bag. 🙂
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The Snail of Happiness
/ July 20, 2021and 100% scraps
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