Upcycling

I wish I still had a sewing machine as I used to make quilts. Maybe if there were a quilting group in your town you could join and they would very likely be willing to teach you. Life is a learming experience. I have just learned how to make my laundry soap. And Ldy, I am for sure older than you. This old dog is willing to learn new tricks.

You can always make quilts with the old clothes. How about making a pillow with the material? I've seen purses made out of old jeans. You can also use the scraps of clothing for packing material too.

Old clothes can be made into quilts, totes and all sorts of things. My grandmother se to incorperate old clothes into her quilts. Old jeans can be made into purses.

This is also one of my problems... i have like a trunk full of old clothes... some of them i have already given away to those who need them more... but some are still at home... there are still too good to be used as rags... and i don't have a sewing machine i can use to like re do some of them... Well, since christmas is coming... i think i will just donate the very nice ones again...

I often do "recycle" old clothes especially shirts. This is especially true with long-sleeved shirts where the sleeves have gotten a bit tatty..LOL What I do is simply cut off the sleeves but leave enough at the shoulder part to make a "hem" and sew it up and this turns them into sleeveless shirts that are great for the warmer whether Yes old jeans are great for making hand or tote bags. Or one can cut squares from the old fabric and make sachets out of them that one can put in drawers, or even hang up in closets...there are often places where you can buy potpourri..so grab a handful, place it in a square of the material and tie up at one end

You've probably gotten all these answers by now: Patches, I patches clothes with holes with my rags since I tend to wear the same colors a lot and the patches you buy never, ever are the same color as your clothes, then I wear the patched clothes around the house. Yo, yos, cloth yo-yos are where you cut circles, sew around them and pull them into a circle, they try to become a pouch, but you play with them until they're flattened. Then you make them into whatever you want, a vest, a coverlet for your pillow or bed, stack them to make Christmas Trees and so on. If large enough, you probably could use them as a pouch if you didn't flatten them. I had a discussion about the ways to keep your garden from freezing. One was to paint the plastic jugs black and put water in. Heats up during the day and keeps your plants from freezing by releasing heat at night. Didn't have any paint that would stay on the jugs and didn't want paint in my garden. So cut off the legs of a pair of black, thread bare in the thighs, pants and put them on top of each jug. The hem, I unsewed a little bit of that and I put a cloth, shoelace, or even a strip of cloth through and around it like you do for ties on a hood. Then pulled the tie and it stays better around the neck or cap of the bottle. Hair curlers, rags can be used to curl your hair. I've never been very good at it, but then I can't even get regular curlers to come out even or right in my hair. Even straight, my hair has one side that wants to go under at the end and the other wants to flip outward, so I think it's my hair. Dust clothes and other uses instead of paper towels. Instead of paper beads, you could make cloth ones. Headbands, put elastic on the back of the cloth, fold over and either fabric glue or sew. Keep the seem in the back when it's on your head and no one will know. I don't think you're the headband type, but maybe someone you know is. I was going to have a ideas to recycle rags discussion, but you beat me to it. I will have to read all of yours, I bet you have some great ideas provided for you. Take care.

Jeans can be recycled into purses. Well, the seat part. But, pretty much anything can be sewn into placemats or something. Certain fabrics can be cut into strips then braided to make braided rugs. But, if the clothes are worn out, you have to cut around the holes and worn spots.

I use mine for dishrags, it saves me having to buy dishrags, sorry I couldn't help you with more,

absolutely. you might to check in your neighbourhood for something like a y or a church group or a workshop for handicapped individuals that take donations of such things. old purses can be turned into new purses!

I'm like you. I'll keep anything that could have new life in another form. There MUST be a use for used toilet paper rolls! As far as clothing goes, you can always make quilts, as you mentioned. If you don't quilt, you can make pillow covers, or covers to go over your small kitchen appliances. You can buy them in practically any housewares department, but why buy them when they're so easy to make? Okay, they're not plastic, but they DO keep dust and other nasties out of your toaster or grease from splattering onto your blender and they can always be washed. You can cut the material up and use for rags or shoulder bags, etc. I cut the lower legs off of a pair of jeans of mine where the seat had worn out and made clothespin bags, with snaps across the top to wrap around a hanger to hang on the clothesline and move as needed. When I was 16 I had surgery on both heels and needed to use crutches for months afterward. I made a shoulder bag large enough to hold my notebooks, textbooks, etc. from an old woolen skirt. You can cut strips of material and glue them onto empty cans (like vegetable cans, soup cans, etc.) and make pencil holders. Cut two pieces the same size and line with thin batting, or cut four or five pieces the same size for the thickness, sew up one side and sew on a bottom and you have can or bottle cozies. There are patterns for all kinds of small things like dog coats, Halloween costumes, etc. where fabric from old clothing can be used. I make necklaces and bracelets out of strips of material and some beads. You can use fabric from old clothes to make picture frame matting instead of tagboard. There's probably a gazillion ways to reuse fabric of all kinds. Have fun!

Quilts are lovely with old clothes - as long as they're not so old the fabric is deteriorating. It's nice to use squares of different types of textures - like cotton with velvet and corduroy - makes a really interesting look and feel. You could also make lovely cushions, as they don't need a lot of fabric - or little stuffed animals. Also, lots of people make rag rugs - they look fantastic, and are hard wearing and look very warm, cosy and rustic. I'm not sure how they do this, but there must be plenty of instructions on the net!

Hi Ldyjarhead, Yes you can saw and make it lik a quilt if you like cause it will take a long time to saw and last for a very long time too. Tamara

Turn your favorite flannel shirt into a trendy pillow. Cut off the arms and the shirt tales to adjust length. Patch the arm holes and neck, leaving the collar, with soft fabric that matches the plaid, flannel shirts are always plaid right? Sew the seam along the button holes and stuff. Top stitch a strip of fabric or a zipper to close the bottom. I did similar with jeans. One time I put pink ruffles at leg openings and waste. The applied girlie patches here and there. I made it for for my little niece, she loved it. She put little stuffed animals in the front pockets. LOL

My mother took all my Dad's clothes that she didn't donate and make quilts for the greatgrand kids. And yes you can use almost anything for quilts. Then there is the garage rags. For when you check oil on car. and so on. A box of rags in basement by washer for spills. under sink for spills in kitchen. Replace's paper towels. There are all kinds of use's for them. can be used for dusting. cleaning bathroom and so on. Your friend onlydia

If you don't know how to make quilts, why not just do patchwork? You can use it for a lot of things like curtains, tablecloths, pillow covers and so on. All you do is cut square pieces of uniform size, then sew them together in strips, then sew the strips together. You don't need a sewing machine, you can do it by hand. Another thing you can do by hand is make potholders from old material. Cut two pieces the same size, a little bigger than what you want the potholder to be. Cut three or four pieces about an inch smaller all the way around to use for padding. To start, tack the padding together by using a big running stitch. It can be as ugly as can be because it won't show. Take the two bigger pieces, place them together insides out, and stitch firmly around three sides. Turn it right side out again, insert the padding and make sure it's in place. Do a running stitch in an 'X' pattern (or make up your own pattern) to keep it in place, then fold the last raw edge under and stitch it down. It's easier to do than to explain! You can make hot pads the same way. One more: Make heating pads for sore muscles from old clothes. Again, cut two pieces a little larger than you want the finished pad to be, turn inside out and stitch three sides. Put rice, cherry pits, buckwheat hulls or anything that will hold heat, inside. Don't stuff it too full or it won't be comfortable. Go ahead and fold in the raw edge and sew it down. Then, smoothing the content, sew channels or broad shapes to hold the content in place. This can be heated in the microwave and placed on cold feet in the winter, aching muscles or tummy aches or to keep pets or babies warm - any number of things. (They make good gifts!) I don't remember the last time I threw out old clothes. I keep them all and eventually use the material for something.

[i]Hi Ldy, I don't have any idea really, in my case, I am using our old clothes as rags! I remember my Mom before, she used to make a pillow case out of old rags or make a pillow out of those old clothes, she will cut it into small pieces! [/i]

I do reuse some clothing, like blue jeans make for great patches..I reuse everything I can, but for things I can not, I use freecycle, that way someone else can use an item that is perfectly fine..

My daughter took her old t-shirts after reading about this in a magazine and made a t-shirt memory quilt. It didn't hold up long because she wasn't much into sewing at the time. But I thought it was a neat idea. Basically cut out the picture or wording on the t-shirt and use that as the square. Or go further and make it a really crazy quilt by keeping a sleeve or two in the square along with the neckline. It's all up to your imagination. The magazine article told about saving all the kids's t-shirts over the years from when they were babies until they were teenagers and then making this quilt full of memories. My great aunt had a rug loom at one time and she was always tearing old clothing into rag strips, tying them together and rolling them into balls. Those strips of clothing made the rugs. You can do that today but use a big crochet hook and make crocheted rugs. This is something I have wanted to try to do myself but have never had the ambition to do it. (I have heard you can do this with old plastic shopping bags too.) Those are just two ideas I have heard about. I am enjoying reading all the other suggestions.

Some of my favortie quilts my grandmother made were made from scraps of her dresses. And it is fun to look at old photos and see those dresses and then see the fabric on the quilt....it makes me feel like she is stil around. She grew up a farmers daughter with thirteen/fourteen brothers and sisters so they were very frugal people and did this quite a lot. I have seen a lot of people reuse other fabrics (like wool sweaters) upcycle them to cushion covers for chairs and even for pillow coverings. If you put your mind to it you can create just about anything. Have fun.

Well when I was younger I would make dolls out of old clothes in fact when ever my mom had a shirt she wanted to throw away or donate I would ask her to give it to me and then I would make it in to a doll or anything I wanted, and even to this day when I see someone with shirt or some kind of interesting material I find my self imagining what I could make with it lol.