Fabric is Not Garbage

I sure hope everyone had a Christmas filled with joy and adventure. 

This is the week where I reflect on the past year and plan for the upcoming year.  All of the people in the know are predicting the black and white trend, polk dots, anything french, animal prints and bling will still be the trend.  Teal is supposed to be the color of the year. 

Those trends make it very easy for me to create items.  I would like to include something new in our repetoire of items but I haven't figured out what it will be yet.  Hopefully by the end of the week, we will know.

I still plan on making lots of handkerchiefs and have a plethora of ideas on new hanky creations.  We really need to get back to cloth hankies and stop throwing away tissues.  The same is true of cloth napkins.  We need to learn to reuse, recycle and reduce.

I urge everyone to shop at thrift stores for your cloth items.  You can always take something that is used and change the buttons, trim, neckline, etc., to create something new and exciting.  Embroidery is a great way to change something old into a new look.  Add pockets.  I love pockets and have some beautiful pocket designs that can be embroidered.  Add collars and cuffs.  Or, take them off. 

Go through your wardrobe and separate the things that you like and want to keep just as they are.  Make another pile of items that you simply no longer like.  Things that are too tight, too loose, don't fit right.  Make a third pile of clothes you like but they are out of date.  Put the things that you like, fit right, and you want to keep back in your closet.  Now take a good, hard look at the items in the two remaining piles.  Would a pretty collar look good on this one?  Maybe a pocket on that one.  Have you seen a picture of an outfit that you would love to have?  Is there something in the 2 piles that with a few adjustments could turn into that outfit that you want? 

If you don't sew, your local seamstress will be glad to help you revitalize that outfit.

Don't throw away old towels.  The worse case scenario is that old towels can be cut down and make wonderful rags for dusting, washing cars, etc.  If the towels are in pretty good shape, perhaps a bit of embroidery could spruce them up.  People who work with animals, such as our local Wildlife Sanctuary, always need old towels and blankets for the animals. 

If it's cloth, don't put it in the garbage.  A century or so ago, people in Europe used to put their old cloth items in front of their homes for the rag man to pick up.  Of course, they didn't have the poly type fabric in those days that we have now.  The thing was that the old rags could be cut down and remade into fabric or paper.  Have you ever stopped to think about very fine paper?  Really nice paper has a high linen content.  Yep, that is fabric linen. 

C'est tout, mes amis.