Earth Day

With earth day come and gone, let's check out some ideas.  I know everyone else is hot for recycling.   I am as well, but my ideas run a bit different from others.  Here's a post from last year with ideas.  Knit or crochet reusable shopping bags.

Recycle jeans. 

If the jeans are in good shape, donate them to a resale shop.  This way someone else will be able to wear them and for an affordable price.  Also I will feel better about helping people who need it and my closet will be more trim.  But say those jeans are not so great and can't be resold to be worn.  What then?  I'd suggest creating blocks from the good parts of the fabric in specific sizes and using them for quilts or patching.  Another idea is to create a fabric from the blocks and make purses, wallets and other small things.  Pinterest has many ideas to inspire you.  I've done this for each of my sons'.  As an added interest and type of scrapbook, I sewed all the patches they had from scouts and various adventures they went on growing up. 

Replace swiffer cloths and other disposable cloths.

I have a person in my family, ok many people, who must wear steel toed shoes and boots.  Because of foot configuration, I have a lot of socks with holes on the top of the toes but are otherwise in almost new condition. Darning them is a waste of time. I have tried that. It lasts a shorter time than the new sock does.  I use these for disposable jobs.  I start with cutting the elasticized part from the foot. Cut the toe off. Now I cut down the side of each part.  Flat rags waiting for a mess.  If the mess is washable,  I'll clean these for re-use. If Not, no tree was cut down to make a cloth that I'm paying for just to throw it away.  As for the swiffer and other dusting tools, there are plenty of patterns to knit and crochet. See Pinterest again for more ideas. And Pinterest also has green cleaning solutions to stop poisoning the planet and ourselves.  Pinterest has an amazing array of recycling ideas for the viewing.

Shrunk and felted sweaters.

It's a sad thing when a beautiful sweater gets shrunk because it got mixed in the regular laundry rather than the hand washable basket.  You can use this as a basis for many things.  Have a small dog?  The sleeves can be used to create dog sweaters.  The body has a myriad of ideas.  How about a small shopping bag? Just sew across the bottom and remove the sleeves. How about a pillow? Cut off at the underarm and seam. Stuff and seam the other side. Make pillows for a myriad of places. Cut the neck pieces from the pillow-pa-looza apart to be joined into a cowl or scarf of your favorite sweaters.

These are just a few ideas to get you started.  What ideas can you share?