Repair, Recover, or Replace Your Props?
A couple of years before I met Shelley or discovered the Love My Mat brand, I was given a meditation cushion as a birthday gift (I am not sure what brand the cushion is, it doesn’t have a tag). I had recently started graduate school, was stressed out, depressed and anxious. This cushion served its purpose in helping get me back into a more consistent meditation practice at that time. It is a square shaped cushion that measures approximately 13" square by 6" tall. It has a well-made interior liner with a zipper closure and is filled with buckwheat hulls. I never really loved the cover, but again, it served its purpose and for that I was grateful.
Fast forward to 5 years later… I still don’t love the cover fabric, but more importantly it has started pulling apart at the seams from regular use, and the buckwheat hulls have compacted down making the cushion less firm.
My Options for my Meditation Cushion…
- I live with the cushion the way it currently is
- I discard the whole thing and purchase a new meditation cushion
- I have the existing cover mended or I have a new cover made, and I add more buckwheat hulls to the liner to make it more firm
My Sustainable Solution…
It is important to me that I live my life in a way that is mindful of my waste production and to consider my individual contribution to this global landfill/waste issue. That’s why I chose to go with the 3rd option.
If I really loved the fabric of this existing cover, I would have mended or patched it to keep its life intact for longer. However, I decided that the best option for me is to have a new cover made, and to top up the buckwheat hulls.
I now work as Love My Mat’s Production Manager, and I wanted to show you a glimpse into how we go about creating custom covers for existing props, from wherever they were purchased, whatever shape and size they may be. We also will happily repair, mend, restuff, or refill your products so they will maintain their life in a way that is supportive to your practice.
(Click here to watch a video of my Square Meditation Cushion repair!)
How Can We Help You Have More Sustainable Props?
It is more important to us that we keep unnecessary waste out of the landfill, so we are happy to offer services such as:
- Bolster and Zabuton Re-Stuffing: where we add in extra fresh and fluffy cotton to firm up your bolster
- Buckwheat Hull Re-Filling: topping up/adding more buckwheat hulls to meditation cushions, zafus, and bolsters to create a firmer product
- Custom Pattern Creation: for new covers for any of your props (we have custom made covers for cylindrical and oval shaped bolsters, for kneeling benches, for foam blocks, and for meditation cushions of various sizes and shapes)
Bring us your old existing covers, liners, or even better…bring us the whole product and we will custom create a plan to revive it. We will work together to figure out how dense/firm you want the inner, what fabric you would like to choose for the new cover from our stockroom of upcycled fabric options, or you can even bring in a fabric from home that we can try to use for the new cover. Whether your product is a Love My Mat product or not, well-loved yoga and meditation props will go through natural stages of wear and use. The cotton in your products might begin to flatten or the buckwheat hulls might begin to breakdown over time – we would love to help you to repair rather than replace wherever possible!
Send us an email at: info@lovemymat.com to get started!
…Because when you do good, you feel good.
