Ways to reuse worn out clothing.

In my last entry, I mentioned things that you can do with all sorts of stuff you can get from thrift stores. But before going to thrift stores, you may want to take a look at some of the things you have lying around the house that you don't use any more, especially clothes. There are a lot of uses for clothing too worn out to wear anymore.

Aside from cutting them down to rags, I mean.

Old sweatshirts and sweatpants can be used in place of quilt batting, if you're a quilter.

Sweaters can be unraveled for their yarn, and you can knit, crochet, or weave that yarn into something new and wonderful.

I mentioned that blouses can be cut into squares and embroidered with initials to make personalized handkerchiefs. Men's dress shirts can be put to the same use.

Got a pile of t-shirts sitting around that no longer fit or have too many holes in them? Cut them into strips and use them to weave or crochet a squishy rug for your house. Cotton t-shirts turn into very good absorbant bath mats with a little effort!

Any old material can be cut into strips and then braided and sewn into lovely rag rugs, too.

Want to improve your sewing and embroidery skills? Use an old pair of pants or a shirt and embroider something on it. Maybe a sampler, or a bright design in contrasting colours. Then hang it on the wall for a nice homemade decoration.

Cut old pairs of jeans into squares and sew them together to make a heavy-duty denim blanket. It's good for anything from a cold night to the perfect thing to sit on when you have a picnic.

Old towels? New facecloths or dishcloths!

Done all this stuff and ended up with a whole load of oddly shaped pieces of scrap material? Make a crazy quilt!It's a good way to use up those little scraps that can't be used for anything else, and you get something useful at the end.

Got enough scraps to take up space but not enough to make a quilt? Use those scraps to stuff a handmade rustic-style doll.

Take the threads from scraps and very thin strips of material and spin them into new and unique yarn for your knitting/crocheting/weaving pleasure.

Cut up old pantyhose into rings and weave a potholder on a potholder loom.

Even though something may not be in a condition to be worn again, there are still a great number of things you can do to old clothing before even thinking about consigning them to a trash bag.