Karenmay

I dont throw anything away if it can be used again to make quilts....and I find quite a lot of stuff in charity shops...especially pillow cases! Theyre great for quilts!

Karen

Norah

We don't seem to wear out clothes that are suitable for quilts, so I wait for $1 bag day at the thrift stores to buy my scrappy clothes quilt fabric. There are a lot of practically new clothes there.

Celeste

$1 a bag? And I thought I was doing good to have the days where items with tags of a certain color were 99 cents!

foxxigrani

Yes we have a place here that does it also, $1 a bag. I haven't done it yet, but now will. May have a new thing.. Woo hooo.

Rita

OnTheGo

Soooooooooooooo glad to hear that you guys reuse and recycle. I have picked out the seams in jeans, but it's not worth it........fold lines and are a different color, but I started throwing all my tiny scraps, seams and strings into a bag...will stuff a doggie or kitty pillow when I get enough.

I remember a long time ago, that my aunt saved the trimmings from her quilting, tied them together and crocheted them into little throw rugs that looked like the braided rugs.

Has anyone heard from Sharon about her husband since he had the stroke?

Celeste

New question - - what size do you usually cut up the shirts and jeans?

OnTheGo

I've got a pile of little boy's jeans now. I hope to be able to get enough 6-1/2 inch blocks to make the twin's mother a rag purse. Sewn with a 1/2 inch seam, that would give 5-1/2" blocks.

Flying_V_Goddess

As far as jeans go, I cut off the seams at the bottom of the legs (or a little bit more if the bottom of the legs are terribly worn out) and the waist line, cut the zipper out, and cut along the rest of the seams...you should get four large pieces of denim when you do this (the front and back of each leg). Definatly don't pick out the seams. You get so little fabric out of them that it isn't worth the time picking them out. Is it really worth getting that extra 5/8" of fabric?

You can seam rip out of the back pockets of jeans and use the fabric underneath if you need smaller pieces for your quilt (I got a 4 1/2" square out of the jeans I cut out...you might get more or less depending on the size). Just remember the fabric inside the pocket will be significantly darker than the rest of the jeans. And you could save the pockets and sew them onto a fabric square to make an interesting block for your quilt.

Oh, and cut around any part of the clothes that are terribly worn out or have holes in them. Obviously, you don't want that going into your quilt so cut around that and save the good stuff.

Celeste

Thank you! :mrgreen:

butterfly

OTG
I would use the boy's pockets as pockets on the purse :)
Do you have a pattern for the purse your talking about? cause I have lots of jeans that do not fit anymore that I could do that with! :)