When will you throw a "usable size" piece of fabric in the trash?
 

I've decided that we have different ideas of "usable size" - so the criteria for this question is - when will you throw away - in the trash - so that no one else can use it - a piece of fabric that is "usable size"?

I now try to avoid bringing home "unsuitable" fabrics, but I have gotten stuck a few times.

For me:

If it bleeds and bleeds and bleeds. No sense in passing on a problem.
Yes, I have heard about Retayne and Synthrapol.

If it ends up being very limp after the sizing is washed out.
Yes, I have also heard about starch/sizing - but if I want gauze or cheesecloth, I try to buy that "intentionally".

I have gotten more selective about what I will buy.

From what I've been reading, it's the "gifts" that are passed on to others that tend to have unusable/unsuitable fabric in them.

I do have a stack of fabrics that have polyester in them that feel nice and are pretty. I am in a bit of a quandary about what to do with them.

For me it's the bleeders that I will toss. I don't want to pass something along that will ruin someone's project. Limp, loose, thin fabric, I will pass onto the Guild's free table. I figure someone else can see those flaws and if they want to work with it, fine. I also pass along poly blends. Someone will like them.

If it's been soiled or gotten smelly to the point where I can't clean it or get the smell out- I'd toss it. Otherwise, if I can't/won't use it, I'd either give it to someone who will, or donate it. I've never encountered a fabric that was a bad bleeder, but if I did, I'd probably try it in an experimental art piece (something that would't get washed) and then if I didn't like the piece, I'd toss the whole thing LOL.


Rob

I think in the last seven years of buying quilting cotton I have only had one bad bleeder which is pretty good. I didn't try to rescue that piece, it was only about a half a yard. I tend to keep all fabric I get even if it is ugly or thin because I can use in other projects, like headbands, bags, wristlets, pillow covers, hanging dishtowels, or pet beds.

I don't do it so much any more but sometimes I buy bags of mixed fabric from the thrift stores. I go through it and I do trash some of the contents (junked up little scraps mostly), but most are just unsuitable for me and so get folded up nicely and put back in the bag and then I just donate the bag back to the store :) Or, I collect other non-quilting fabrics until I have a bag ready to go. We are all looking for different things -- someone else is going to see that gorgeous piece of black brocade I left folded on the bottom of my most recent bag so it could be seen and want to buy it. Or someone else will want the felt pieces I put on top, or be thrilled with the solid poly blend broadcloth in the middle.

Bleeders or known problems should be put out of everyone's misery... Here in the Seattle area we do have last stop textile recycling too, for things like gross pillows. It's rare that I consider something bad enough to toss, but I shred the fabric to make sure no one snags it out.

I have save the pile of poly/cotton blends in a place of their own. After I have a larger number of them I will use them to make a charm quilt for the outdoors. Like a beach quilt that it won't matter if something gets spilled on it or one of the grand kids throw sea weed on it or baby accidents. This kind of utility quilt doesn't require any kind of special quilting and doesn't need to be very large either. Totally scrappy. Bleeders I toss or wish I had. I use to have a barrel of such fabrics. I gave it away on our local "Freecycle". Someone came for it right away. I did post that the fabrics were not suitable for quilling.

My usable size is over 2.5 inches so smaller pieces are tossed without guilt or picking back out of the can. LOL!
The pieces trimmed from binding ends just bug me so out they go. Scraps, bad blocks or project mistakes can be tossed freely.

There is no guilt allowed in my sewing room.

I've used cotton/poly fabrics and never have had any problems with them. As for sizes/fabrics that aren't "usable" I use them in pet beds, along with other trimmings, such as batting pieces, strips, etc.

I don't throw fabric in the trash. I give away scraps I know I won't use, and what I call 'trimmings' (the edges one cuts away when straightening fabric for cutting) I put in a pillowcase and when full, sew it shut and DH takes it to our favorite animal shelter.

1. When i find it somewhere on the floor under furniture, too dusty to use or give away.

2. When it’s gotten on my last nerve just looking at it.

I do throw away some fabrics of usable size if the fabric is so thin that you can see thru it. That is not fair to the person you are giving it to or selling it on line or at a garage sale. I have had fabrics given to me that are just not good for anything except the trash.

Rob's aunt used to love getting garage sale sacks for me, which was very kind.
But if it was permeated with cigar or cigarette smoke, you know the kind, greasy yellow, into the burn barrel it went.
The same with musty/mouldy fabric. It is dangerous to be around, and not worth health to try to bring back to useability.

I haven't had any cross my cutting table for years, but I've never kept poly and poly cottons. I don't like the feel and once stained seemed impossible to clean when I used to wear it all the time.

Time and place for everything I guess. That said, I cut fabric down to 1.5" squares and have used thousands and thousands of them...bring 'em on ;)
Good question Bearisgray, usable is different to all of us!

I will save scraps for awhile and then I start feeling like I should do something with them. When the scraps start sending me guilt vibes. Out they go at any size.

I would never throw any fabric larger than an inch in the trash. If I don't want to use I would donate it. Someone would be thrilled to get it.

Since my quilts are baby and kid donation quilts that probably be tossed away when the baby outgrows it, I am not fussy about using poly-cotton fabric, or poly batting, but I donated a lot of too-thin stuff back to the thrift shop. And, I have to admit to throwing out scraps smaller than 2"x2".

Red bleeders. Smaller than 2.5" square. Strips narrower than 3/4". Thin/loose weave fabrics. Ugly/lost appeal yardage gets donated to guild grab table.

I laughed reading this but I'm the same way. Sometimes I get tired of a fabric and try to put in a bag for the thrift store or just toss it in the trash.

Fabric covered clothesline baskets are my new use for otherwise unsuitable fabrics. Carol Ann Wilbourne spoke at our Guild recently and taught a workshop on making them. Yesterday I started my second basket— this one using a great dark blue that I couldn’t get to stop bleeding. Since I don’t expect a basket to be washed I think it will be put to good use this way. It is really just color you see so an unsuitable print would be great too. Carol Ann painted some with Shiva Paintstiks when she was disappointed with the color, so even bad color might not be unusable. They were fun to make and popular enough that each month our members bring a few more baskets for Show and Tell. The results have been beautiful, useful, and easy to construct. You might search for fabric covered clothesline baskets to see examples and tutorials.

I pretty much only throw away trimmings, strips less than 1" wide, odd-shaped bits that are too wonky to be useful to me, and lousy-quality fabric that I know I'll never use. Very occasionally I'll throw away fabric that's particularly hideous-looking, but I do try to find a use for it first. (I really hate throwing anything away!)

I pass narrow strips, selvages, and crumbs on to someone else, as I usually don't have the time (or patience) to work with them.

Anything I can get a 2-1/2" square out of, I keep for my own use or save for swaps. :)

Number 2 is high on my list of getting rid of fabric:)

Our guild has a free table and bags and boxes of scraps will sit on it rarely taken. Every one has more then they can use. It's given to Goodwill after two times on table. I volunteered to take the un gotten items to Goodwill one month. The employee who helped me unload said inside won't keep these cloth pieces, you want me to throw them away for you? I said I didn't know you didn't keep these. He said we don't keep a lot of things. Our dumpster is always full but I'm not suppose to refuse any donation. Inside will cull them out.

Different stores and areas have different policies. It will help the fabric get out on the floor if it is large yardage or is already neatly in bags when donated. Those heavy plastic clear zippered bags that sheets and stuff come in are great for small scraps. I can imagine that if a box of assorted scraps comes in it does often get sent to the fabric recycle.

One of the Goodwills near me always has lots of fabric. Small pieces that no other store would sell separately are priced separately, they bag lots of stuff in to comic book sized bags as well. One of the other locations seemed to have a sudden shortage of fabric a few years ago, was talking to the clerks and they have a donation quilter that they just give the bags of scraps to, they don't even get out on the floor. Bummer for me, but good for the scraps getting used. At the Goodwill near my mom's house all the fabric is either bulk yardage or in the comic book sized bags. All I can say is the person who puts those packages knows what they are doing to make them appeal to a broad range of people! Nothing like sticking a non-quilting suitable piece of something to get people to buy them like putting it in with quilting suitable material.

csstexas, I would worry that if the clothesline basket contains actual clothes that are wet, the bleeder fabric might bleed onto the clothes.

That would be the dumpster here. The county decided it cost too much to have recycle centers and the ones that were open rarely got anything to recycle. I think because it was almost 50 miles out and no one was driving over an hour round trip to recycle anything. A few of the larger cities have a recycle center but are very picky about what can be brought in. No glass at all and no colored paper and no plastic grocery/dept store bags. Tin cans and old tires are okay.

Being the Seattle area, we are a bit environmentally concerned and we have a large population base with lots of people still moving in. But there needs to be a market and the transportation costs need to be factored in as well, and it is just not feasible for many places to do much with a lot of our leftovers. You also need to have the budget to put in processes/facilities/pay for people and that can be a hard sell in tough economic times.

Latest push here is a TV ad campaign reminding people to clean out their recyclable containers. Seems to me people wouldn't need a reminder that a partially full container of something isn't really recyclable yet but so it goes.

In my town, a working class suburb SE of Seattle proper, we have been part of a "test" project for about the last 5 years. I know it varies in different locales but here the towns negotiate the trash pick-up and the home-owner is required to pay for trash pick-up whether or not you use it. We have mandatory recycling if you live in a house, they can refuse to pick up your trash if it is full of recycling and you get a naughty notice, and then a $50 fine, and then they refuse to pick up your stuff if your recycling has trash in it. So we have one standard on-wheels "trash" can that is picked up every other week. Mostly what goes in there is stuff like plastic wrap. Yard waste gets picked up weekly, we are supposed to put all food tainted paper based things like pizza boxes in the yard waste, torn up a bit. We are also supposed to put all food related things like bones in the yard waste because we do have a super composter set up. Then all recyclable plastic, glass, cans, etc. go in one big bin that is picked up every other week along with trash and gets sorted after arrival at the local area processing plant where it is binned up and ready for industries who use the various things.

It's interesting to me to see some of the uses, like the foam used in couch cushions is largely made from soda bottles I think. Recently I got some fiber packing, small shreds in a sealed pouch instead of bubble wrap. I believe that can even be composted in a home compost pile once removed from the plastic.

Goodwill has a contract with the County and accepts dead appliances, old tvs and monitors, etc., you can't take electronics to the dump or put in your trash. Again, those items are broken down and hazardous wastes removed from the trash chain.

Mmunchkins,
These baskets are not large enough for laundry. My basket used 100ft of 3/16th inch clothesline to make a basket that is 7 inches tall and 8.5inches in diameter. A guild member used twice that much and made a larger basket for her daughter to use for magazines.

Who checks every trash bin for these? Are they picked up by manually and each one gone through?

I do not permit shame of any sort in my sewing room. If I like it only to pet it then it stays. If I find any reason to pitch, out it goes. My local resale/goodwill/thrift shops do not sell any sewing related items. The local AWL refused homemade pet beds (! What?) I do save narrow long trimmings to use as colorful ties vs twine or rubber bands.

I don't know how often they are checked and by who or how, but you do see the orange refusal tags stuck on the yard waste cans pretty regularly. I think that's mostly trash in the recycle, and not recycle in the trash. It can also be over-weight or otherwise non-compliant.

The funny thing (to me) is that although I seriously have a list of rules two pages long I'm sent each year, if I lived in the apartments just down the way I wouldn't have to do most of the things. Wouldn't even have to separate out my cans much less wash them.

#2 of Zozee’s post
Sometimes a piece of fabric will end up in a couple of quilts and by the time it gets to about the 2nd or 3rd scrappy quilt I get tired of seeing it so I put it in a pile to toss or donate.

It all depends on what we call scraps. There are the pieces that are trimmed off to square up yardage--that goes in the wastebasket. Then there are the short ends of binding strips, etc. Those get folded and put with the yardage that is left over. Sometimes I need just a short piece to put into another project and I recognize it better with that "larger" piece. If it falls out, not picked up and has become a dust bunny collector, it goes in the wastebasket, too!

Clothesline baskets are not actual baskets to hold clean or dirty clothing. They are made from clothesline rope and are covered in fabric. Fabric scraps are wrapped onto the rope and sewn together row by row. I have made some, fun and really cute.

My kind of person. I've made at least four quilts out of such stuff. Just sew all those little bitty pieces together and you have beautiful squares of every color under the rainbow. Then put the squares together with sashing and it's beautiful

I do have a stack of fabrics that have polyester in them that feel nice and are pretty. I am in a bit of a quandary about what to do with them.

Bear: find a small box, label it "polyester" and put all those pretty pieces into it. When you think you have got most of them, make a quilt. To donate if you wish. Try to use it all up, and if there is anything left, put it on the back. It will make you feel good when it's gone and someone else can be warm with it.

I do the same, nothing goes into the trash, it all gets used in some manner. So very easy to make the pet beds for the animal shelters.

I have a quilt store nearby that has workshops for making dog beds for an animal shelter. I don't really toss any fabric I donate it.

I have tossed fabric that did not feel like cotton. If I have a blend, I put it on the "free" table at our local "lock-in" where it is available for everyone there to touch and feel it. The next day I make a trip to Goodwill with everything left on the "free" table. In case you are wondering our "lock-in" starts on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and ends at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Never! If I can't use it, which is rare indeed, I will donate it to the thrift store. If it's a "problem" fabric that I can't fix, then I would put it in the bag of unusable scraps for bundling and recycling. For me that's the tiny pieces less than 1" x 3".