I had been meaning to create something in which I could carry my paint brushes to college without losing some bristles along the way. Most of my classmates have only one set, but I am so crazy about stationery, I pick up every new kind of brush I see - cat's tongue, dagger brush, deer foot. Wicked names :D

So the other day after buying some coloured ink for my calligraphy experiments, I suddenly remembered about the curtain tailor from whom I got a pillow cover made recently. The best part about all these shops is that they're either opposite or in my own building! Yet lazy that I am, I do not take advantage of them as much as I should.

Anyway after procrastinating for over 6 months, I go to the tailor and tell him my idea. I draw in his bill sheet because he doesn't have any other paper. I was surprised at how easily he understood my directions. Either he is smart or I can explain well ;) I chose my favourite cloth - khadi even though he tried to sell me some normal beige cotton fabric.

While I ran upstairs to get my brushes to measure the height and width for every slot in the case, I figured the perfect embellishment for my brush case - the blouse of a saree I had gifted my mother. It was rendered useless after it went into the washing machine instead of dry-cleaning. I loved the colour, fabric and embroidery so much that I had to keep it and my innate desire to recycle everything only pushes me to hoard more stuff.

For the next 20 mins I sat with the tailor, figured out the slots, cut pieces of the blouse that I would use, and got it all stitched up. It took a while for the tailor to digest my obsession with the blouse fabric as I picked up the scraps from the floor to reuse for something else in the future.

When I was paying him off he smiled and said, "agar dimag hai to kya kuch nahin kar sakte sadharan cheez se" (If you have the brain you can create what not from regular items)