How to Use Recycled Clothing in Craft Projects

 

You can use fabric from old, worn out or stained clothing for craft projects in the same way that you would use new fabric. 

With 700,000 or more TONS of clothing being tossed in the landfill each year, every time you can reuse clothing helps.

Tips for using worn clothing for craft projects.  (Note:  there are lots of people who need clothing, so if you have perfectly good clothing you simply do not want anymore or that doesn't fit you, consider donating as a first option.)

1.  Left the clothing intact until you know what you are using it for.  Cutting apart the clothes actually won’t make sense until you know the size of your project.  Or maybe you’ll come up with a creative idea for a sleeve that you wouldn’t be able to make if you already cut apart the sleeve.

2.  Use the little pieces of clothing for little projects.  This is fairly obvious, but to get the most out of a piece of clothing for a project, use the smaller pieces (i.e. the collars, sleeves, etc.) for smaller pattern pieces of your project or for smaller projects and leave the bigger pieces for bigger projects.

3.  Launder the clothing prior to using it in a project.  I often have friends give me clothing to use in my projects in addition to my own old clothes.  I’m pretty sure that they probably washed it already, but instead of finding out after-the-fact, I wash it prior to use. 

4.  Look for small holes or stains that will be in the way of your project and work around them.

5.  Denim is fabulous!  You can always find an awesome project to do with it.  It seems like it’s one of the most popular fabrics, so there’s always a lot around!

* Make sure to save your denim for a new tutorial I will be launching next week!  It combines denim and simple sewing skills, plus lots of other basic and easy-to-learn skills to make unique and artful pieces of jewelry!  To be on the list to be one of the first to know, sign up for my Tutorial Newsletter.