soccertxi

I bought a ugly straw bag at goodwill just for the handle. Later in the day, our son came over for dinner. He saw the straw handleless bag waiting to for the garbage and said "this is a cute bag, but it does not have a handle!" lolol

I love to use any old white or off white, stained (as long as its clean), muslin, old pillowcases etc for the foundation on my string quilts. I square them up, roughly to just larger than my block size and pile them up for later. Of course anything I trim off goes right in the dog bed stuffing bag for the next dog bed! I have very little fabric garbage out of that sewing room. Feels good!

soccertxi

why not piece them together and use as a batting in a string quilt or charity piece? A quilt where the batting will not show thru? Dog beds are nice and toasty made from fleece..and the pups will not care about the pilling!

mountain deb

Men's ties into prom dresses, purses, quilts. Men's dress shirts into little girls dresses, skirts, halter tops, quilts. If I become overloaded with buttons, they go to the nursing home. They forever need them. Zippers, I made into chic purses, teens love them. Sweatshirts into jackets. Light bulbs into christmas ornaments (have to post that one when I find them again). Cardboard that fabric comes wrapped on, I turned into portable ironing boards (just wrap with towel), cheer leaders paint them for there schools, or cover them with batting fabric for bulletin boards for there lockers, rooms, or dorm rooms. Good grief I think I could go on and on....

GloBug

My sister and I turn old jeans into jackets using a sweat shirt as the base. They are very warm and are a great donation idem at shelters.

SharonTheriault

Great ideas! I really need to use a few of them. Love to go to thrift stores, will have to look at the shirts they have and other fabric things.

Grace MooreLinker

nothing should go into the garbage dump, there are to many things they can be used for, all the suggestions here are great ones. I learn this when I was a child of share cropper family in the 20 &30's, if you waste you do with out later.
the threads of life keep us whole.

GlitzyMe

As a seamstress for 25 years I recycled anything possible.....zippers, shoulder pads, buttons and many other items. I recently went on a hunt for plaids, checks and stripes for a quilt and men's shirts were my prey.
And when my daughter was in jr high and high school name brand clothes were a 'must' to the kids. Her Izod alligators came off her father's old golf and tennis shirts - she had to have been in her 30s when I finally told her that one. I even bought a pr of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans from the thrift store, made her a brand new pr and used the old ones as a guide for the stitch design. Jeans become bags now and working up an idea for a small denim rug for my grandson's bedroom.
Oh.....and lately I've been using old towels, backing them with fabric (seasonal and other) and using them beneath the dish drainer.

athomenow

Just passed up some red and green tablecloths at the GW. Good idea for the placemats. Maybe they're still there on Wed senior day!

dljennings

the old staple sheets as backing has always been what i used..

took a class w/pepper cory in nc, needed shirtings.. went to savers thrift store & bought 6-7 mens dress shirts for $8..

cut them up... from a mens xxl you get just about a yard and the back of the shirt is a huge pc to cut from..

i washed everything on the sanitize cycle on my washer...

still working on that quilt.. but need more shirting... going to savers AFTER the shop hop next weekend..

sassey

Thanks for all the ideas I bought some new bed skirts for 25 cents each took them apart have used most of the skirting fabric in quilts the thinner body of the bed skirt foundation for string blocks and some had prequilted lining that I am making bags out of they are perfect for the linning and add extra body to my bags