givio

I had a ruler that was used for a long time by someone, then put in the free box at a garage sale. I was starting out, and didn't have a ruler, so I took it. The edge was somewhat nicked up, but I used it for a few years until edge was very nicked up, and in addition, the black lines on it had disappeared, making it a little difficult to see the line that I wanted to use for cutting the fabric. Finally, I bought a new ruler. So-- what I did with the old one is this-- I asked my son, who has a scroll saw to cut it and sand it neatly into two triangles, as I didn't have a triangle ruler in the sizes that he could create from the old ruler. He has lots of types of paints, as painting is one of his creative hobbies, and he could paint lines for me too (seems impossible, but he could do it). So, I guess you could say my old ruler was refurbished?

But I think a nice use for an old ruler might be to put it in the bottom of a tote bag in order to stiffen, strengthen, and give body to the bottom of the bag. It would be good to sand the corners a little round, so as not to be too sharp in a fabric bag bottom. When my cutting mat got too cut up to use anymore, that's what I made with it, pieces cut to size to put in the bottom of tote bags. It was sort of handy to have the inch lines on the mat, as that made it easy to cut it into the correct sizes.