What to Do With Fabric

[so lucky]

I was just wondering if anyone has any good ideas to recycle old clothing and fabric. I have made rag rugs, used old shirts to make various other clothes, made doll clothes, cut them up for patchwork pillows and throws. I have seen people use old jeans to make purses. Of course, use in animal beds and the cotton ones for all purpose polishing and scrub rags. I make stuffed animals out of socks. What else? There has got to be a goldmine in all these old clothes--just haven't found it yet! (I just sent a huge pile of clothes to the Salvation Army. I know I am gonna be so mad when somebody tells me a killer idea I could have used!)

 

[Denim Deb]

I guess you could say I've darned a sock. I'll put it on, find a hole in it and say, Darn, there's a hole in my sock.

 

[so lucky]

Bee, I've got an old flannel shirt of my dad's, who passed away nearly 3 years ago. I have worn it way too much, and it is getting pretty threadbare, but it's the first shirt I grab when I need a little more warmth. I think of him every time I look at it.

 

[Beekissed]

These socks I darned were my dad's old socks that I like to wear. Dad is in a nursing home now with dementia and can't remember much of his old life, but wearing his winter socks kind of makes me feel like we're close in a way. Sort of like carrying him around while I get in wood and do some of the chores he used to do, so I didn't want to just throw them away. Couldn't stand to see them wear out either....they are sort of like Dad, in a way. They are still good socks but a part of them wasn't working any longer...a part of them just...wore thin. Like Dad's memory.

Couldn't stand to just put them in a drawer and keep them just because they were Dad's socks, either...that's a little TOO sentimental for me. Using Dad's socks makes much more sense to me...so I darned them so they could be used another winter. Just trying to hold onto everything that is good in this world while I can.

 

[Beekissed]

I use orphaned socks to absorb condensation on water bottles that I have recycled into drinking bottles and have frozen for use throughout the day in the summer. When I brought them to work people would ask, "Is that a SOCK on your bottle of water?". I've found it keeps the ice from melting as quickly, keeps my desk from having water rings and the cold, wet sock comes in handy for various things throughout the day.

The wilder the color, the better...it lets everyone know that water bottle is mine and it helps me not forget my water and leave it behind...makes them very visual.

 

[cknmom]

I read with interest the uses for old socks...it takes more time to darn than to wear new holes. Udder wipes make sense, but I only need so many dust rags. Are there more uses for a sockpile stockpile? Hate to just throw them out.

I take a large sock, stuff it half way or so with more socks, tie a knot. Then give it to my dogs. They LOVE it! I used to do this when I had cats also.

 

[baymule]

I have made dog toys out of blue jean legs. Cut to size, sew up, stuff, insert a squeaker, more stuffing and sew up the end. They last longer than store bought dog toys and my DD's mini-weiner LOVED his toys!

 

[Chantilly]

Depending on the kind of fabric you're working with, you could make gift wrap bags or gift wrap cloths. The Japanese use gift wrap fabric as a way to reduce waste. Their technique, called furoshiki, is very eco-conscious:

http://furoshiki.com/

If you have really sturdy fabric (and enough of it), you could make log carriers. We used to have one (that my mother-in-law bought at a craft sale) that had dowel rods as the handles. The dowels just slid through a stitched fabric tunnel. There are lots of patterns online for various types of log carriers.

You can also make scented hot pads that will give off a scent when a hot dish is set on top of them. (My MIL got me one of those, too. It always smelled great.) Again, there should be patterns online.

 

[k15n1]

I'm going to make a deer blind from some old sheets.

Cotton is an amazing fire starter. Burns and burns and burns. A 2" x 6" strip will start my fires easily. You may need more or less depending on your technique.

 

[ducks4you]

You don't have to recycle just one item to make a recycled something. a few years ago I bought 9 yards of fleece that resembled the old Hudson Bay wool blanket, the candy striped kind, except that the stripes went long instead of a few straight across. It just sat in a bag for a year until I figured out what I wanted to do with it.
I decided to just make 3 blankets out of them, but fleece isn't really warm enough for ANYTHING unless you double it. I looked in my linen closet and found an old cotton blanket that was wide enough for a twin bed, but we stopped using it bc it just wasn't long enough to tuck in at the bottom of a bed. I found it was 6 ft. long exactly, and I had 18 ft of the fleece, same width. So I made a pillowcase out of doubling the two, turned it inside out, topstitched the edges, ran stitching down the sides of the stripes to "quilt" it, and then finished by using a whipstitch with red thread. This blanket is gonna wear out bc EVERYBODY grabs it cover when we watch tv, or when DH wants to take a nap. He's 6'5" tall and needs to cover his feet.
I didn't stop there. I made two more blankets with the rest, except I used 3 layers: one fleece, inbetween and old 100% wool blanket, and then another cotton one just like the first, not long enough, and quilted them. These took a lot longer with a LOT more thread and machine quilting, but I gave each to my DD's and they won't part with them on a cold evening.
Here is a picture of the last one I made. This is the middle layer made from a wool blanket so old nobody can remember who owned it. I hand stitched the wool to the cotton blanket to really secure them together: