Repurposing fabrics

"Use it soon, or let it go right now."

If you find yourself decluttering your wardrobe, it’s often hard to let go of certain pieces because you love the design of the fabric, even though you will never wear the item any more (it may not fit or no longer be your style). Now what?

In my decluttering practice, I have found that the attachment to our belongings can be based on very different elements: the way they look, they smell, how they feel to the touch, how they are arranged, even the way we have acquired them. For books, it’s often possible to take pictures of the front covers to remind someone of the book and its meaning.

With fabrics the attachment tends to be more often about texture and touch, and while a picture may NOT speak a thousand words in this case, there are many ways for an experienced crafter to repurpose fabrics and old clothes that allow the colours, designs and texture to shine in a different way.

First of all, really dramatic pieces make for great wall decorations or complete items could be displayed as part of your home décor.

The most obvious use for scraps of nice looking materials is to make patchwork quilts or weaving strips of fabric into durable, colourful rugs. Creating stuffed toys makes for great crafting projects and uses the most interesting bits of fabric to make unique gifts for kids. Why not consider making banners or bunting for parties or simply to decorate your home?

Larger thick pieces of fabric can be sewn into pillow covers, while thinner fabrics make lovely reusable cloth napkins. In a more practical arena, certain non-stretch fabrics make good shopping bags or tote bags for everyday use. Be creative!

Fabrics may not come to mind immediately when you think about general decorations, but you could consider making covers for plant pots or book covers for the most precious parts of your collection (I admit, this may be a little far-fetched).

Not all fabrics and clothes will be good enough to be used in creative endeavours, but if the material is not quite as precious there are still options, including turning suitable materials like t-shirts or threadbare bed linen into cleaning rags. Ragged strips of thin materials could even serve as padding for throw cushions or to stuff the above-mentioned cuddly toys.

Of course, these uses fall into the category of “using up” instead of “creative time”, but ultimately all those materials will reach the end of their useful life and will have to gradually slip down the scale from exciting to lovely to useful to rubbish. It is crucial to recognise where fabrics sit on that scale and act accordingly.

A word of caution: avoid hanging on to fabrics (or anything else, really) “for future use”. Unless you have an exact idea what they will be used for, make sure not to clutter yourself up with excess fabric samples.