A Craft From the Heart – The Leininger Threads

by magnolialanecreative

Today we get personal with a project just for fun, but super close to my heart.  Determined to continue hoarding my collection of my grandmother’s old sewing supplies, I found a way to actually make use of the pieces that are no longer functional for sewing…

Growing up my grandmother taught me about basic sewing, garment construction, and repair. She encouraged and inspired me to create things and helped me to bring my visions to life, so when she passed away a few years ago her collection was handed down to me. She was a child of the depression and one of nine children, she never wasted anything and could always find a second use for items others might throw out. She appreciated all the small things in life and had the most intriguing sense of creativity.

That being said, part of her sewing collection included baskets of threads that are so old and brittle they break with any amount of tension. But I refuse to get rid of them because the threads in those baskets are a lifetime of handmade memories, small pieces of all the things she made over the years and while they are no longer functional they are still beautiful and extremely sentimental to me. Using a shadowbox, I arranged the threads in a visually appealing way and then used a hot glue gun to secure spools in place.

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So today in honor of my Grandmother—creative muse and mentor—I present The Leininger Threads

Now these colorful old spools grace my walls and allow me to keep a treasured piece of my grandmothers collection for display (instead of sitting in a box near the sewing machine).  I hope this project inspires and encourages you to look at things in a new way and to challenge yourself to make something old new again. How do you show off your favorite & sentimental collections?