Broken Shovel Waterfall – With No Welding!

It’s hard enough to find a use for one broken shovel, never mind six of them. But I did! I made a broken shovel waterfall with them, no welding necessary! Let me tell you how I did it because it is so freaking amazing I hardly believe I made it.

The Idea

We have a problem in my neighborhood with irresponsible dog owners leaving their dogs outside to bark. After 4 years of it I finally called by-law enforcement which has diminished the problem some. The problem is after being annoyed for so long, it’s almost impossible to ignore even reasonable barking.

Planting the hedge was step one in my efforts at noise abatement. But since it will be a few years before the hedge is big enough to pull its weight, I decided a water feature would be step 2. I wanted the tinkle of a water feature to help distract from the barking. Except it had to be unique, it had to be DIY, and it had to be amazing. Nothing I saw on the internet was working for me, and then I remembered those broken shovels!

The Broken Shovel Waterfall

Every waterfall has three main parts. A reservoir or basin of some sort to hold the water, something for the water to spill over, and a pump.

The Basin

I considered using a buried reservoir, but decided a disappearing fountain wasn’t what I wanted. An old galvanized wash-tub would have been lovely but they are rare to find and expensive when you do see them. I’ve seen a shovel waterfall on Pinterest that uses a wheelbarrow, but that wasn’t for me either. In the end I decided on a hypertufa trough.

That was hiccup number one. I had searched on the internet a bit, saw others used hypertufa for water features and assumed all would be well. Except hypertufa is very porous and water would only stay in my trough for a few hours at best. For now I’ve solved that problem by putting the plastic bin I used for my form back in the trough. I painted it gray to make it less obvious – I think I would prefer it black.

The Waterfall

My next issue was how I would support my shovels for the water to spill over them. I considered a few options like old bi-fold doors or building a fake picket fence. My main fear was that if I didn’t choose wisely, my broken shovel waterfall would look like I tried to throw every project ever seen on Pinterest into one. In the end I decided a simple arbor was the way to go.

I dug the holes for the posts on Saturday, despite a heat wave that had the ‘feels like’ temperatures flirting with 100. There were also biting flies, vicious mosquitoes, the stickiest mud I’ve ever seen and a thunderstorm. I got a blister even. But the holes were dug and the arbor assembled.

On Sunday, my youngest helped me get the arbor up. After everything was level, we just tamped soil around the posts. Next was attaching the shovels. It took me a long time to come up with a way to attach the shovels. At one time I considered removing the old handles and replacing them with dowel. Removing the handle from a shovel is not an easy job so I was happy to not need to do that. I used pipe hangers instead, the shovels balance in them perfectly.

I first tried attaching the shovels to the front of the posts. The problem with that was they weren’t long enough to have the water spill from one shovel to the next below.

I solved that problem pieces of 2 x 4 on the back of the post. It works out perfectly and keeps the shovel from listing to the side.

I used pieces of black shelf liner to stabilize and ‘tune’ the shovels so the water would fall from one to the next below.

The tubing needed for the pump was a bit of a disappointment. I hadn’t realized it would be so large and hard to hide. It is attached to the back of the post with zip ties that I stapled to the post.

The pump

I used a pump that was rated for 5 feet of lift. I wish I had gone with the next size down even though it was only rated for a 3 feet of lift. This pump just had too much water flowing through even at its lowest setting. I’ve had the pump since the end of May so there’s no returning it. Rather than buy another pump, I cut a small hole in the hose below the water line. This lets some of the water divert right back into the basin and reduced the flow to a better rate.

Broken Shovel Waterfall

I can’t even tell you how excited and happy I was last night when I finally got everything running and could see that it was really going to work. I just kept saying “My waterfall turned out so freaking cool!” on repeat and annoying my boys.

Here is the space before the waterfall.

And here it is after.

I think the space is much improved. For now, I have the pump unplugged – everything is just so muddy from the rain and me playing around to get the water flow right. Once the ground dries up some the little bit of splashing won’t be a problem and the plants will love it. Those poor gangly lilies finally have something tall to lean up against. Maybe I’ll be able to find some slightly shorter ones to help balance them out.

What do you think? Would you build a waterfall out of broken shovels?

Mini Hosta Tool Box Planter

Have I convinced you that Mini Hosta are just as cool as succulents yet? If I haven’t made you a fan yet, maybe my mini Hosta Tool Box will do it.

I mentioned a trip to Picker’s Pig Pen in my last post, what I didn’t mention was this fabulous old tool box. It was exactly what I was hoping to find. It has just the right amount of rust and it’s perfectly battered. One of the cutest succulent planters I’ve seen on Pinterest is an assortment of succulents in an old tool box. I needed a tool box so I could reproduce that planter with mini Hosta!

I only paid $20 for everything I got Saturday and honestly the table base was worth that easily! So these two boxes were pretty much free. Even the bit of tool box rubble was free! Old drill bits and miscellaneous screws. You know the stuff!

Both metal boxes were cleaned up and I drilled drainage holes in them with a drill bit meant for metal. When you are drilling in metal it helps to have some wood underneath that you don’t mind drilling into. There still might be some burrs, but the holes turn out much neater.

The Tin Box

I planted the galvanized box with creeping jenny and a Hosta ‘Waterslide’. Waterslide isn’t a true mini, but it is a small hosta. Mine is even smaller than it should be because I almost killed it a couple of years ago so it’s coming along.

The Tool Box

I planted the tool box with a green and white mini Hosta and some Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’. But I didn’t stop there…

I spray painted some brushed nickel house numbers to attach to the lid of the toolbox.

So have I convinced you that Mini Hosta are cool yet or do you need more proof?

I’m still on the lookout for an old bird cage and a metal chair so I can replicate those looks too. I’ll make a convert of you guys yet.

Make a Moroccan Style Pouf from Old Jeans

 

Leather Moroccan Poufs are all over the home decorating sites but they come with a hefty price tag, they’re listed at $395 US on one site, more than my cheap little heart can handle.

So I made my own from old jeans. It’s neither an easy project nor a quick one. Insets, where you fit the triangles together, are a bear and there are 32 of them in this pouf. But if you don’t mind a sewing challenge and are looking for pouf, this is how I made mine.

For this project, you’ll need the following:

  • Old jeans (I used 4 pairs) or fabric in enough yardage.
  • Matching thread and the usual sewing supplies including a seam ripper.
  • A nylon zipper, 22″ or longer. I used a duvet zipper and just cut the extra off.
  • Stuffing of some sort, you can use old clothes, pillows, or you can buy the bean bag pellets.
  • Patience.
  • You can use this pattern – Moroccan Pouf Pattern – or draft your own on freezer paper.

Cut out your pieces

Take each pant leg and smooth it out, with a rotary cutter you can cut the front and back of the leg at the same time. I found I could easily fit one side piece and one or two of the top pieces on each leg. Times two, because front and back. So four pants, eight legs, 16 tops and 16 sides. Done.

The bottom is a bit trickier, by this time I was out of usable denim so I dipped into my stash. I thought I would be clever and piece the pockets together for the center of the top – you’ll see what happened there later.

Assembling the top:

Denim has some quirks, worn denim even more. When sewing your pieces together, sew all of your seams in the same direction so it doesn’t twist. Since the trickiest part will be assembling all of those points and valleys of your outer edge the valleys and points of the sides, stitch from outer edge toward the center.

When it came time for me to attach my top to my sides, I wound up opening part of the seam, so if you prefer you can start your stitching 1/2″ from what will be the outer edge of your top.

The fastest way to do this is to make eight pairs, sew them, press them open and then make four pairs and so on until it’s done.

See how I sewed the pockets together and matched up the embroidery? Fancy right?

It would have been great if it was big enough to use. With 16 seams, even the tiniest inaccuracy in your sewing adds up. I had to cut a larger circle for my center.

So for your center, using a long stitch baste around the outside edge. Pull up your bobbin thread to gather it a bit so it will be easier to turn under. If you trim the seam allowance off of your pattern piece, you can use it as a pressing template.

Pin it in place (mark your quarters and make sure it all lines up).

Sew around once 1/4″ or so from the edge, and then again very close to the edge.

That’s the top assembled. Real Moroccan Poufs usually have embroidery on the top so you could embroider or stencil yours if you want to. I really think a stenciled pattern would look nice. Plus if you invest that much more time in it, you’ll be less likely to toss it in the trash once you start attaching the top to the sides.

Assemble the sides:

Next, you’ll assemble the sides of your Moroccan pouf in the same way as the top. Again sew together from the pointy end down and all of your seams in the same direction. For the last two seams, I only sewed the top couple of inches to give myself more room to maneuver, but I don’t think it was necessary. Again, I later opened up the seam, so you can start stitching from 1/2″ down if you wish.

Assembling your Moroccan Pouf:

Now replace your bobbin with contrasting thread and baste 5/8″ from the outer edge of your top and the upper edge of your side, lifting your presser foot with the needle down at each turn. Leave your matching thread in the top and sew wrong side down – I know it’s obvious, but so is right sides together and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten that wrong.

This gives you a seam line for matching the points of the outies to the valley of the innies. I found it also stabilizes your edges and if you’re opening your seams up like I did, helps keep everything together. You will also see where you need to turn your points to have the proper seam allowance on the other side. Mark this point on your throat plate, it will help you later.

This is where I opened my seams to the basted line. If you left the 1/2″ unsewn, you can skip the quality time with your seam ripper. Either way, you will need the open seam to have enough ease to match the points to the valleys.

You have to match the points of your top to the valleys of your sides, and the points of your sides to the valleys of your top. Innies to outies, outies to innies.

Use your handy stitch line to match points to valleys. Below, you can see what it looks like with every single point pinned to every single valley. Which I actually found harder to work with when I was sewing, so I would just pin every other point.

Replace your bobbin with matching thread and make sure it’s full. This is NOT the seam you want to run out of bobbin thread on. Take a deep breath and find your zen, because this is where you need to be very patient. It’s going to look absolutely insane under your presser foot!

I started on a straight edge and sewed towards my corner. As soon as I hit the point, I stopped with the needle down. Then I lifted the presser foot and turned the fabric. Thirty-two times I was convinced it wouldn’t work, and thirty-two times, I was able to smooth it all out, line it up, and sew to the next point. So I’m very confident you can do it too.

Once you’ve made it all the way around, check for any kinks or puckers. If you have one you don’t have to rip out the entire seam. Just remove the stitching far enough to each side that you can smooth it out and then sew it again. The zipper is going to seem easy now isn’t it?

Insert the zipper and attach the bottom:

With right sides together, sew 2″ together at each side. Baste the rest of the seam and press open. Lay your zipper on the seam, sew each side.

Run your seam ripper through the basting and open your zipper.

With the zipper open, zig-zag over each end of the zipper and cut off the excess. Make sure your zipper is open before you sew over the ends, or it won’t work as a zipper anymore.

Leaving the zipper open just enough to get your hand through, pin and sew the bottom to the sides. Sewing this seam will be ridiculously easy after attaching the top! Open your zipper, turn it all right side out and stuff it. I used leftover styrofoam beans and an old pillow.

Congrats! You’ve now got a Moroccan pouf for next to nothing!

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