#5 - April/May 2005

Hand-me-downs
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By MaryJane Butters

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A nest-case scenario offers nature's original model for reducing, reusing, and recycling

It was just a silly little fake nest that somehow showed up at my farm, probably part of an Easter gift sent by a relative. “Made in China,” the bottom tag read. Too tacky to keep, too substantial to toss, it ended up decorating the porch railing of the little farm building where my youngest son renovated cars. When he moved out, I moved in, turning his clunky, rough-around-the-edges shop into a design studio where my fellow farmgirls and I work on photography, book, and magazine projects. It was not the ideal building, but we made do. We replaced the double doors with a window I found leaning against a Dumpster behind a local glass shop, free for the taking. Plywood covered up the gravel floor, and a remnant of outdoor carpeting softened its lack of soft. For desktops, we used old doors covered with thick glass cut from the windows of a store in town that was changing its facade. After a fresh coat of paint, a doily here, and a curtain there, it became the place where three artists in aprons gather daily to breathe life into the ideas we want to share and distribute on paper.

One day in the early spring we noticed mud and twigs piling up inside the little nest, perched waist-high two feet from our studio door. Unbelievably, a robin was moving in—right there next to the windowed door we opened and closed dozens of times a day. Impossible, we thought, especially with all the isolated nesting trees on the farm.

Every day she came, busy with the work of repurposing the odds and ends around her—renovating her home, getting it ready for her family. Whenever we stopped to watch, she'd look us straight in the eye, unblinking. She posed for photos. Then she'd cock her head to the side and fly off, looking for more twigs, more mud, and more straw to feather her nest. Eventually, two sky-blue eggs hatched. We fussed over the birds until their wings (like my son's) took them elsewhere.

Our robin got me thinking about how we had done what she did when we moved into the studio—and how making do can be downright neighborly in a much broader sense when we use less, take less, own less. In a world filling up with the consumption of plastic this and plastic that, and the all-too-conspicuous refuse left in its wake, a little reuse goes a long way. Since we're all in this nest together, making do is neighborly. It says, I care. You matter.

We love to tell the story of our resourceful robin, citing the principles she incorporated into her home: make do, reuse, work hard. Then sing right out loud about it.

MaryJane Butters is an organic farmer, teacher, and author in Idaho. Write to her at maryjane@maryjanesfarm.org or visit www.maryjanesfarm.org.

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-Sidebar Content-

How To Make an Apron

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In my mother's day, women used to take the collar off a frayed shirt, turn it around, and stitch it back on. When that side wore out, they often used the fabric to make something else—a quilt or, in this case, an apron. Patterned fabrics from one shirt can be used to edge an apron cut from another. It's easy to make attractive complementary combinations to create a vintage-style apron.

1 | Cut along armhole and collar seams to remove sleeves and collar, cut sleeve seams. Leave side seams of shirt intact. With a seam ripper, remove pocket (be careful not to cut fabric).

2 | Iron the shirt and lay it flat, folded in half along the center back. Cut out the apron, using the pattern on page 59. (If the shirt is not long enough, sew on extra material at the bottom using fabric from the sleeves. Encase the raw edges by pressing the seam allowance to one side, trimming 3/8 inch off the bottom edge, pressing the other edge under 1/8 inch, and topstitching.)

3 | To finish the apron edges, sew on contrasting material from a different shirt, edge with bias tape, or hem and topstitch, then add rickrack. You do not need to sew anything to the top edge of apron because that is where the bib will be attached.

4 | Make a neck strap by using material from the sleeves or from another shirt. Fold neck strap in half lengthwise, stitch long side, and turn right side out. Sandwich neck strap between wrong side of apron top and right side of bib top and stitch across apron top through all layers. Flip bib to front, turn raw edges under, and topstitch to apron.

5 | For ties, use material from sleeves or from another shirt. Hem edges of ties. Attach ties to back of each side of the apron. Reattach pocket or make a new one from scraps. For personal flair, add contrasting fabric, ruffles, or buttons to pocket. Or hem and topstitch, then add rickrack.

Apron Pattern

There isn't any need to buy fancy, expensive pattern fabric. Simply sharpen a pencil, find a yardstick or a straightedge, and grab some old wrapping paper and a pair of scissors. Using the dimensions below, you can easily create a life-size pattern for making a hand-me-down-shirt apron.

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