Do you repurpose fabrics from clothing?
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the cost of fabric going up while the quality is going down.

Here are some of the things I use fabrics from the local thrift stores for. I often only pay $.23 per item.

I buy the man's all cotton shirts for quilts, woman's usually have spandex and too many darts to be of any real value. Out of the man's 3x long sleeve shirt you get over 1 yard of usable fabric. The cuffs, collar, pockets and yoke get donated to Girl scouts for crafting.

Here is my #1 tip on buying shirts, if it has NO label, so not buy it, no matter how good you are at knowing fabric, feeling it alone is no guarantee that it is cotton.

My #2 tip is this, the lighter the color, the more polyester it will have! Fact of life, lighter is harder to keep to clean so it has to be more durable..hence polyester. I only buy 100% cotton for quilting, but if it is really a neat print I might use it for a craft item!

I buy the wool slacks and skirts to cut into strips that are used to make woven/braided rugs, wool blazers get felted and cut into sizes to make craft items to sell, wool blankets make batting.

When the items have cool buttons they get sold and or collected, the everyday buttons get donated back to the thrift store as they also have a shelter and use the buttons when they to replace some on clothing given away.

I buy silks that get cut up and then I save some for myself, swap some, and the rest are sold in scrap bags at crazy quilt shows!

Denim skirts and jumpers are being used to make garden planting pots, jeans get made into shopping bags.

They all have a RE-purpose!

:-)

:thumbup: Love to re-purpose!

you are good

You are doing such a good thing! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Smart lady !!!

I should have taken pics of my DGD yesterday. We were re purposing Papa's work pants (Dockers) I cut them into strips and sew them together to make woven rugs.
I use his socks too. I cut them into loops and loop them together to make rugs, his jeans too. My SIL is 6'8" and his jeans are great for making rugs.
I'm saving his work shirts to make quilts for my grandchildren someday.

Wonderful!

I love going to thrift stores just for the purpose of finding dress shirts to use for repurposing. I can get very nice 100% cotton shirts for $1 each and some times some really great prints!

Our local thrift store offers really great deals on adult clothes. Since they practically give them away, I'll use the mens and womens shirts. Darting is annoying but it's hard to find "pretty" prints on mens shirts.

I also use skirts, dresses, scarves, napkins, place mats, table runners. Anything I can harvest COTTON fabric from, I will. Cause I can get it for next to nothing, its about impossible to pass up. Kids clothes aren't the best for getting alot of fabric, but they often have cute applique or shimmery pockets or ruffled collars etc. All things good for doing doll quits and other crafts.

isn't it just FUN to take a cast off item and make it a NEW item?

I use a loom for my wool rugs, but want to learn how to make the tubes and braid them!

You have great ideas! I have used men's shirts from Goodwill to make clothes for dolls that I sell. I like stripes and plaids.

our goodwill has gotten expensive, many times the shirts are $4-5. Have to really watch for good deals.

As long as it is 100% I take all the scraps and use it as fire starter.

I often get men's shirts at thrift stores. Also, most of the denim I used on the back of my husband's raggedy quilt was from the thrift store. I found a very large denim skirt that I was able to cut out A LOT of squares. Like someone else said, Goodwill is getting kind of expensive for shirts.

I just spent the afternoon cutting up 12 old pair of blue jeans to add to my stash for a denim quilt someday! It feels good to be able to repurpose and make something useful out of something I would normally toss out!

Same here!

here too...but on Friday they pull the older items and sell them for $.23 each....luckily what I look for nobody seems to want, so I can usually haul out about $5.00 worth of stuff...

When it warms up again I am going to host a huge cutting party!

I have no problem saving money but I would feel bad cutting up usable clothes when there are so many people who depend on thrift stores to clothe their family. I have bought sheets and tablecloths from those places. One near us gives you a 30% off coupon on anything if you bring in a bag of clothes.

All of this sounds great, our thrift stores are very pricey tho, but in the summer you can find all kinds of deals at garage sales, i will have to look for denim and mens shirts.

I wanted a large amount of a plain colour to contrast with the patterns I am using. All the cotton I saw was about $18 a yard!

Then in a shop have a closing down sale, I saw Egyptian cotton sheets the right colour. I got 2 of them giving me about 4 yards of fabric in pure cotton for only $3 a yard. Bargain :thumbup:

Great topic!!! Thanks :)

I think I love my quilts msde out of recycled clothing better than the others. I love working with different textures and blends. It's amazing how beautiful an ugly or unfashionable item of clothing can become.

I thought about this once..and only once...after that the lady told me that those clothes have been there 6 months and if by then nobody has bought them, then I should not feel bad cutting them up, because what does not sell goes to the landfill!

I remember working on my grandmother's sock rugs. I wish I knew where the frame when.

You must have the patience of a saint! I do a lot of re-purposing but you must be the queen of green!!!

We never have good deals at Goodwill. One price everyday. I will buy a shirt there if I need just a bit of something "different" in my quilt, but $5 for about a yard of fabric in pieces is not "thrifty". I'd love another thrift store close by. The next closest one is 35-40 miles from me. I am hunting.

Wow, these are great ideas and tips. I did buy some men's cotton shirts last week for a quilt I'm making for my husband. They were more than .23 cents though. More like $3. Thank you for sharing these ideas. I'm going to bookmark this so I can refer back.

Great topic! I guess I need to get with the times and start thinking green! I can't wait to go to a thrift store now! LOL! Thanks for sharing!

I've never bought clothing to repurpose but do buy fabric from thrift shops and yard sales. I have bought a few aprons to repurpose too. Here is a link (one of many out there) to "fire test" fabric for fiber content. Since I do buy the fabric at thrift stores this has came in handy for me many times. http://www.diychatroom.com/content/f...-8e225c257434/

Some of my best scrappy quilts were done from recycled clothing.

Great idea!

I hit send too quickly. It seems different fibers burn differently, this also works for yarn.

Sock rugs? I'd love to see how these are made. I have a bunch that have holes in just the heels that I keep thinking there has to be something to do with those besides dust rags.

No, I don't repurpose anything. I figure their are other people that need the clothing at the thrift shop. Why buy it to cut up when other need the clothing to wear.

You are amazing! I have thought about visiting the thrift store many times for just this purpose..now I am going! I did repurpose once...I bought a woman's tunic(?) at a garage sale and turned it into a baby quilt. The woman had worked as a veteranarian technician and had those cute shirts with animals all over them. I bought an unused one with penguins, and it was adorable!

A lot of the items given the thrift shops never sell, especially the all cotton ones (mainly because no one likes to iron, lol). The money made goes to charity and if you buy the item, your money goes to it. I would shy away from usuable childrens clothing and nicer clothing that people would actually buy and wear. I make dolls, restore antique dolls and yet until now, I never thought of looking for the vintage fabrics needed to make the authenic period clothing in the clothing at thrift shops.

Just to add to your information, I buy 100% wool items and wash in high temps. and use for felted wool designs. Eiltcoq.

I also repurpose. I buy wool blazers and make bags and Christmas stocking out of them. It is time consuming to take them apart but the result is worth it.