Fabric

[Green-Moo]

I'm looking for ideas for recycling fabric around the home. I'm talkign about fabric primarily from clothes which are not in good enough condition to pass on to anyone else. If there is enough fabric to make something else from then it goes in my sewing bag, but I end up with allot of old stained t-shirts and the like. Apart from using as cloths, what else can I do with them? I've recently started using some cotton under mulch in the garden as a weed supressant, but I've not been doing it for long enough to report back if it's effective or not yet.

[jazzgrrl]

Two ideas:

1. You could make creative quilts or pillows from the material.

2. I saw a blog site about making baby/kids pants from old t-shirts. This was really cool! Click here to go to the blog.

[berlinlife06]

I think you can make quilts, blankets for when you are watching TV, and even table cloths for picnics for the summer time, or even blankets to lay on the beach. You can make them as big as you want and it is very easy to make.

[Kitten]

If you're just wanting to use the ratty stuff, then rags are the only thing I can really think of. That's what we always did with ours if they weren't good enough to turn into quilts, bags, etc.

[tater03]

Yes, I have cut up old clothes and made quilts for each of my sons. I actually used all their old baby clothes that they had.

[mollyL]

Didn't people use to braid their rags into rugs? I remember seeing instructions at one time, they'd have to be on the net by now.

[Green-Moo]

Funnily enough Molly, I actually have a bags of rags put aside for exactly this. I just haven't got round to learning how to do it yet!

[SageMother]

Have you tried dying the stained fabric?

Once dyed, it could be used to make purses or shopping bags, or even cloth beads.

[Green-Moo]

To be honest, I haven't. It just doesn't seem worthwhile as i'd have to dye a fairly large quantity to make it practical.

I'm interested in the idea of cloth beads though. Do you mean something like felting?

[Sally]

I turn my old stuff that isn't large enough for refashioning into other clothing into handkerchiefs and cloth napkins. If you have small children, you can also make doll clothes.