Scrappy cloths

Since we moved to the North Pennines, and since Missy watched an offering from the wonderful Sir David Attenborough which left her in tears and determined to lighten our footprint on the planet, we have been on a mission! 

We started small and are getting better at cutting down on plastic, reducing the rubbish we send to landfill, buying all that we can second hand, finding ways to use what we have until the end of it’s life and above all being inventive!

Of course, with a child, clothes are something parents seem to buy lots of!  They grow so quickly!  Missy is the 5^th of 5 children, but the youngest of the older 4 is a girl, but 10 years older than her, so there aren’t too many hand-me-downs.

We don’t go mad with a full school uniform for every day, but clearly you have to have one spare set!  And it all gets a good deal of use.  So, by the time the school year ends, the sweatshirts and trousers are usually OK to pass on, but the shirts are pretty grim!  Paint, lunch, biros and grass stains take their toll.

So, what can we do with them?

Well Missy had 3 pretty polo shirts that I held on to wondering how they could be repurposed and then the lightbulb came on in 3 ways….

1 – they have pretty buttons that can be reused.

2 – from the underarm to the hem, they are square

3 – there is an amount of ‘scrap’

I cut the side seams off, cut horizontally across the chest from underarm to underarm and removed the buttons.

 

The buttons went into my button box.

The 2 squares from each body of the shirts was overlocked around the edge to make cleaning or spills cloths (instead of paper towel) and all the ‘scrap’ including that created by overlocking will be joining my ‘stuffing’.

‘Stuffing’ is all the offcuts of fabric and threads from projects that are too small to even use on patchwork and they go into an offcuts bag kept at the side of your workstation. 

Many dressmakers are now employing the ‘Make do and Mend’ ethos of their Granny and making a stuffing bag which is simply 2 squares of scrap fabric (or old sheets or curtain, hubbys shirts etc), seamed on 3 sides to make a pouch and into that putting waste.  When full it can be used as a cushion pad, or smaller clumps of the waste can be used to stuff doorstops, draught excluders, toys…..the options are endless.  I often find I have more projects than stuffing….and nothing to put into landfill!!

Mine swallows up offcuts from cutting patterns out of fabric, threads, selvedges, the ‘trim’ from using the overlocker…..and more recently laddered tights AND….yes, you know whats coming…the chopped up scraps from those school polo shirts!

I’ve recently got back into knitting and apart from keeping a small ball of the yarn (with the ball band) for repairs, all the offcuts from sewing up my projects will be heading for my stuffing bag!

So, there we are…..cleaning cloths, buttons and stuffing!  No waste!

I have to say that I have become ridiculously excited when I find a new use for things and can keep my bin free of unnecessary waste.  Things in this house get used, used and used.....if they are made of natural materials, they may find themselves added to the compost heap....or like a rather dodgy looking wooden spoon, used for lighting the fire!!

Let me know what new and inventive ways you have found to reduce your reliance on landfill and take responsibility for your waste.

See you very soon,

Toodle-ooo

Nora

xx