Upcycling Fiber Stuff

Any food-safe fabric

• Sew Grow Bags Tutorial at Empress of Dirt You can also do this with any food-safe fabric, including old cotton sheets, canvas, burlap coffee sacks, flour sacks, plain white cotton. It's actually been done in Israel in its early farming-heavy years, think like the 50s, 60s. However in Israel they made much larger grow sack beds, to the point that they were essentially in the shape of raised beds, maybe 3' across by however long rows by 1' tall or so. I imagine you could also make beds like 4' round in diameter and 2' tall, with webbing to brace across and hold the sacks together when filled. If you do this I also suggest putting a couple layers of cardboard box or couple inches of gravel beneath to prevent weeds from finding their way into the soil. Note: due to increased evaporation all grow bag setups require a lot of water. I suggest using plenty of straw or mulch as a topping and also setting up an irrigation system on a timer. Unless you live in a relatively low-drought area with a lot of rain you lucky sod.

Old Pillowcases

• Use to store up fabric scraps
• If plain white cotton or polyester, wash in pure water, then use as grow bags for any crops, propping them up between rocks or a wooden frame to keep them stable if you choose, or rolling down the sides halfway to help stabilize. Same basic idea as grow bags mentioned above.

Burlap Sacks for Coffee

• Good grow bags, same basic idea as above

Old Blankets, Towels, Sheets

• These can be donated to homeless shelters, animal shelters, thrift stores, veterinarians.

Old Sweaters

• Sweater Throw Pillow Tutorial at Sustain My Craft Habit

Old Towels

• Line vehicle backseats to prevent crumbs, pet hair, and so on from settling into the upholstery
• Cut these up into rags, and optionally sew or hem their edges, to use for cleaning outdoor areas, especially for dusting or wiping down things like railings, door frames, doors, windowsills, glass bits of porch lamps, plant pots, and so on. Or, if they're already mini towels or washcloths that got super ratty use them as they are. If possible hose them off or dump a big bucket of water on them before you launder them so grit doesn't get into the washing machine.

Old T-shirts

• Machine sew into grocery bags
• Machine sew into pillowcases
• Machine sew into throw pillow cases

Old falling-apart T-shirts

• Same idea as the old towels. Cut them to roughly 12 by 12 inches, or whatever, with scissors or a rotary cutter and hem them if possible. Unlike gross towels can be used both indoors and out. In fact, these make okay dusting cloths. Gently dampen one, wring it out and dust with it. Follow with a dry T-shirt rag wiping the same area. It will do the job.
• Dry your hair in one of these or a couple layers of these if it's curly to see if it causes less frizz and breakage than a towel
• Look at all this stuff you can do to crochet with yarn made of T-shirts, list collected by Sustain My Craft Habit

Old Sheets

• I tried to find that Instructables tutorial by Sunshiine about making quilts out of thrift store sheets but I can't find it for some reason! But that's the basic idea; any sheet-sized fabric you have can be put together in layers and quilted together in essentially any sewing pattern you choose as long as you fold fabric over the sides to create borders so your quilt sandwich doesn't fall apart in the laundry or when you use it. Personally I find it strange and kind of sad that the American quilting tradition has evolved from an activity of necessity and thrift into a status symbol only the upper-middle-class to wealthy can afford (in both money inputs and time) but it is what it is. And, you can absolutely buck the trend if you happen to like quilting. ANY spare fabric can be a quilt, that's the whole idea.
• A kajillion projects on Creative Jewish Mom using yarn made from sheets Mostly knitting, as far as I can tell
• Easy To Sew Curtains at Sustain My Craft Habit Handy, considering curtains these days are usually at least $40 a piece.

Any spare fabric as long as it's clean

• Quilts, as mentioned
• Versatile enough to sew into clothes, accessories, household items, bags, hot pads, oven mitts, aprons, haute couture, pillows, bean bags... I hate being so general here but fabric is just that versatile. Do yourself a favor though, get a sewing machine and learn how to properly use and maintain it. And be open to learning more. Hand sewing is hands down the most awful and mundane and boring activity ever and it makes me want to gouge out my eyeballs with the needle. I'm not alone, hence the invention of the sewing machine. As always, opinions are my own and not necessarily helpful LOL. Could also be that I just never learned how to sew step by step and have all the wrong ideas; Kids Sewing Projects might help
• Dyeing can revitalize an otherwise super-ugly piece of fabric or clothing into something fantastic. It does not need to involve environmentally harmful mordants or dyestuffs either. You should know I have very little experience with this, beyond the lusciously fragrant (not) and mediocre results from RIT dyeing stuff, but enough research into it tells me it's possible. It could be fun.
• Can be cut into patches for applique. Or, apply any of the same techniques you'd use to make paper flowers or greenery to make synthetic flowers of fabric. It'll last a lot longer. You can find tutorials for all of these things at Sustain My Craft Habit, Instructables, and DIYnCrafts
• Get an embroidery hoop. I think they're usually about $7. Practice embroidery or cross-stitch techniques using the scrap fabric instead of going out to buy fabric.

Clothes

• Now there are myriad tutorials for improving on clothes using the official methods like needle and thread, fusible adhesive and an iron, tacky glue, etc. But the truly no-sew experience uses one thing: Scissors. You might think that this will make you look all ragged. Yes it will. Some options here include cutting the sleeves off a T-shirt so it's a cutoff tee, cutting jeans into shorts, cutting up the side of a T-shirt so it can be tied together strip by strip, making that no-sew blanket with 2 fleece blankets, and cutting the back of a T-shirt into something you can tie up into a complicated contraption. I've done a lot of this and all I can say is: even cuts matter. Measure twice cut once.
• Repairing Holes In Clothing by Sustain My Craft Habit

Socks

• Double check the label. If it's 100% cotton, you've struck gold. Either fill with rice and tie a knot at the end or fill with rice and sew shut by hand or with a machine. Microwavable hot packs. Should last for years.
• Wear old socks on your hands to dust stuff, including venetian blinds or other surfaces, such as windowsills as long as they're lead-free. Clap your hands outside to de-dust a bit, then throw them in the laundry machine. NO NOT YOUR HANDS, the SOCKS. Jeez!
• Get a tool handle then proceed to make a ridiculous looking contraption. Cover it with a few layers of hole-riddled socks and then optionally a paper towel or a nylon pantyhose. Fasten on there with a rubber band. Dusting tool for hard to reach areas of the home. Removes cobwebs. Can also dust baseboards.

Old Mismatched Socks

• This might be a little ridiculous, considering I think everyone's heard of this idea already, but if you celebrate Christmas, get a nail, and just nail up some of these for each member of the household. They will not look fancy, but technically they're festive. If you wanted to embroider or applique stuff on there you could do that too. And if you really wanted to get fancy you could sew on loops of fabric to make these family heirlooms instead of messing up the sock fabric with a nail hole. Not that I've ever done that to fabric. No sir not I. Or, you could get this thing from SMCH stitched (for the record, I'm not being paid to say this and that isn't an affiliate link)

Cotton string

• Crochet into hot pads and coasters for hot drinks

Pantyhose

• You could probably, in a survival situation, lay this out on the ground on say a grass lawn overnight, then wring it out before dawn and it would get you at least a little water

Denim

• DIYnCrafts Upcycling Projects List for Old Denim Jeans
• You can weave small coasters with strips of this stuff
• Picnic Blanket from Sustain My Craft Habit You can pack this along with a shower curtain for the bottom to make it more water resistant, or a nylon parachute, or even an old tent fly. Or make a smaller version and put it on top of an old raincoat. Anything goes, but bear in mind nothing ruins a picnic faster than wet blanket. Or fire ants.

Any Fiber

• Loose fiberfill might be the most comfortable stuffing for stuff but any fabric scraps will do. It's more comfy if you shred 'em up somehow first but that isn't strictly needed. In fact for things like pincushions, door draft blockers, stuffed animals and other items where you won't actually be contacting the item, it's fine.

Used Bras and Swimsuits

• Some places you can donate them are here in this Glamour magazine article

When All Else Fails

• Make a scarecrow or some variant thereof. Or a snowman depending on the season. Just about anything can look freakishly weird with boots and a shirt put on it.

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