What to do with an old road atlas

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I know road atlases are going out of fashion, but I still like to have one. GPS might be useful for getting you to a new and unfamiliar destination, but it’s just a line on a screen, it doesn’t give you any idea of where you are in relation to whatever else is around – town or country, plains or hills, any features apart from the nearby petrol stations and restaurants. When I’m a passenger I even like to browse the map just to see what’s round about and look for interesting place names! Of course anything that goes out of date means you need to get a new one every now and then, and then you end up with an old one to dispose of. So what to do with an old road atlas? This is less problematic than some things because at least it’s mostly paper and easy to recycle. But I rather like maps and didn’t want to just throw it out, so I saved it and waited until I thought of something. Every year the girls have some sort of small party or get-together for their birthdays. Big One is too big these days for the traditional type of birthday party but Little One still does, so that means party bags for the guests. I refuse to buy those throw-away flimsy plastic bags (just contributing to the worldwide mountain of plastic waste) and I’m too mean to buy expensive paper gift bags when it would be better to spend that money on the actual gift, so we make gift bags each year (it helps that both girls like to have a select gathering of generally around eight or ten friends). A few times in the past I made paper bags from old gardening magazines, with handles from a roll of ribbon that came in a box of odds and ends that someone on Freegle gave me years ago (one year, one little friend liked hers so much that she carried it about for days afterwards!). But the last few years I have been passing the magazines on to a friend so no longer have a stockpile. Last year I made fabric bags from the legs of old pairs of jeans I had saved in my fabric collection, but obviously I haven’t worn out all that many extra clothes in the past year. So what to do this time? Then I remembered the road atlas. Just the thing! I think the results are rather appealing, don’t you? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.