No Sheet! Really?

Sorry, couldn't contain the pun!

After reading my last post, Dreaming commented that she uses twin-size sheets to make duvet covers (brilliant!)

Allie shops in resale shops for vintage sheets and uses them as quilt backs.

As a military wife, I used sheets to make simple garment bags for my then-husband's uniforms and shoe bags for his dress shoes.

I have a friend who uses them to make ironing board covers. Because they were often worn out at this point, she would cut an oblong piece of Teflon fabric and use the sheets to border it/cinch over the board.

What other uses for sheets?

I'm interested in this topic of reusing/recycling because it's everywhere, and I'm making another memory quilt with every type of fabric thrown in.

Things I've learned (in addition to my t-shirt tips) when using clothes are:

• A good stabilizer makes almost any fabric usable.
• Careful of the stabilizer you select - sometimes it makes fabric flexible in one direction and unforgiving in others.
• Bonnie Hunter (who has fabulous books in this topic) was right... If you cut the pieces small enough, every fabric is beautiful!
  
• To take apart a shirt, cut out the neck, the sleeves, the waistband, and the side seams before stabilizing. I was told I hadn't clarified it in my last post.
• Save the sleeves - if you run out of fabric pieces when cutting up the main yardage, you can turn to the sleeves as an emergency stash. You can also save them for "emergency repairs" at a later date.
• I find stains are more noticable after stabilizing so give your fabric another check before cutting.
• My favorite patterns for memory quilts made from clothes are enlarged baby quilt patterns. They are simple enough that you don't have to worry about bulky seams (quilt I'm working on now includes blue jeans) and the pieces of the loved one's clothes are big enough to be recognizable.
• If the clothes (or sheets) have a lingering smell, I found these great skunk-away pouches (look like the powder bags for bowling) at BB&B. I tried enclosing them in a sealed garbage bag with fabric softeners but everything smelled flowery and musty.

What other tips do you have for re-using, repurposing and recycling? How do you use leftover clothes, sheets, towels?

 

I wanna know!

Elisa