We’ve covered wool jumpers/sweaters on the site before now – what to do with them when you accidentally shrink your most favourite jumper ever in the wash. But what about acrylic jumpers? They don’t get ruined in the same way but cheaper ones tend to lose their shape and look a bit washed out over time. That’s the position I’m in now with a few things from before I brought in my “at least 50% natural fibres” rule (in practise, it’s usually a minimum of 80%) – they’re approaching the end of their wearable life even by someone as scruffy as me.

Since they can’t be felted (either accidentally or on purpose), they can’t be used for a lot of the same reuses as wool jumpers – they’re too thin (and anyway, not heat resistant enough) to be turned into a pot holder or something like that, and I don’t think they’d be absorbent enough to be used to make a soakers/nappy covers for babies.

If they were prettier jumpers & cardigans (rather than just boring one colour ones), I could use the less washed out ones to make a cushion cover – I love the stripes and matching stripy draught excluder in that tutorial and actually, that’s another idea – I could use the arms to make a draught excluder, stuffed with the shredded material from the body. But what else could I do with them?

Have you reused, recycled or upcycled acrylic jumpers in any interesting, practical or fun ways?

We’ve had an email from Mel asking for a bit of help with a university assignment about green things and I thought it might make an interesting discussion:

I have a uni assignment where I need to market an ‘imaginary’ green product – I believe my time would be better spent marketing an ‘actual’ green product – but that is unfortunately not the brief!!

Each product I have thought of seems to already exist when I do an Internet search … so I though I might pose the question to you all … ‘What green product do you wish someone would invent?’. I’d love to hear your suggestions and hopefully find a subject for my assignment. It can be as simple or wacky as you like – it does not have to be based on actual science since it is for a marketing subject – but I would prefer to spend my energies on something useful and thoughtful.

Thanks! Great site, by the way :)

We greenies tend to be pretty resourceful at making our own green versions of things we need if we can’t buy them already (either because they don’t exist or because they’re too expensive) but there must be some things we’re still clamoring for. Plus, I suspect someone of us might be wishing for things that already exist – and hopefully by expressing our wishes we can find out about them!

My only ideas are business-to-business ones such as genuinely green food packaging for shops & supermarkets to use — yes, we can take our own containers to some places and reduce the amount of packaged stuff we buy in the first place, but it would be good if supermarkets had more affordable-to-them, greener options as an alternative to formed plastic or vacuum-sealed plastic containers. Or, more of a service than a product but a way for more packaging to be returned & reused like milk bottles or pop bottles in ye olden days.

One of my other “why can’t you get…?” pet peeves is the amount of times we’re transporting water around unnecessarily in products that could be made more concentrated or in a dehydrated form — but all the examples I can think of right now are available, for example powdered milk and shampoo bars.

Do you have any “why isn’t there a green version of that?” items?

Following on from my recent “how can I revamp a kitchen so I don’t need a new one?” question, Janet has asked a similar (smaller scale!) question about curtains:

I have ordinary plain curtains that need to look snazzy. I like the “wacky” type of design,whether it’s adding on old buttons,bits of fabric etc. Any ideas? Many thanks,Janet.

I think you’ve already got a few good ideas on there: cover the bottom quarter/third of the curtains with a strip of contrasting fabric and decorate the join with a row of buttons (mmm, buttons on curtains) – or go shabby chic with a whole row/section of buttons and misc (badges, charms, pompoms, bows, rosettes – whatever you can find). Or use scraps of old fabric and yarn to make a bunting design higher up – old patterned clothes or bedding would be fab. I’ve seen curtains that looked like they had tufts/short tassels of yarn every 15cm/6ins or so in lines down the length of them, which would be easy to replicate. Or sew on ribbon/thin strips of scrap fabric to add stripes or wiggly lines – for thicker stripes, this chevron idea is nice and I’ve seen a similar appliqué idea using strips of a design cut from old lacey net curtain. Alternatively, you could make reverse appliqué patches – cut out simple shapes and add a contrasting shape/fabric behind to peek through (reverse appliqué tutorial). A simple no-sew idea is to attach ribbon/yarn/strips of scrap fabric to each curtain ring/clip – like the idea (about a third of the way down) on this page.

If the curtains are 100% cotton, you could try dyeing them – ombre/dip dye ones would look interesting (as if all the dye from the curtains had slid down to the floor ;) ) – or if they’re too dark for that, selectively bleaching them. (Obviously do try a test patch first.) If they’re too big to be manageable in a dye bath, you could try printing onto them instead (possibly using a linocut technique or an even simpler stamp for something like polka dots — or for a fun or kid-centric room, hand prints ;) ).

How would you revamp or embellished plain curtains using recycled/upcycled stuff? What did you do? Have you got any tips or suggestions for Janet? Any non-sewing idea or ones that use alternative materials to fabric/yarn?

Inma has emailed us about betting chips:

Hi! I’ve found a lot of chips to bet, and I wonder if anyone has some use for them.

There was a fad for playing poker with betting chips a few years ago and all the shops were stacked full of them as cheap/easy Christmas presents – so I bet (ha!) there are lots of unwanted ones lying around people’s houses.

As is just about always the case, the first suggestion should be to pass them on if you can: gift them to a charity/thrift/op shops or jumble sale, or sell them yourself at a car boot sale/garage sale.

If the set is too depleted for that, I’ve seen them used for various little craft projects – turned into keyring fobs or wine glass charms, or for smaller ones, used to make fun costume jewellery (drop earrings, necklace pendants, or even oversized ring decorations).

For bigger projects, I’ve seen basic coffee tables customised with dominoes or Scrabble tiles – I wonder if betting chips could be used in the same way… They could certainly be used to decorate photo frames or other items for a poker/betting fan.

I’d probably throw a couple into our tool box just in case I ever needed something like these plastic discs but I’m not sure what I’d use them for – perhaps, if they were thin enough to open cans of paint (a painter I used to work with recommended using 2pence coins instead of screwdrivers so I’m extrapolating from that), or instead of bits of paper to level up wobbly furniture.

Has anyone else got any crafty reuse/upcycling ideas? What about other practical suggestions?

Kathryn has emailed us asking about reuses for a solid deodorant bar:

I recently bought a solid deodorant from Lush (this one). It smells nice, but it’s not right for me. Other than using it to keep my sock drawer fresh, could I do anything else with it? The ingredients are listed as including chamomile vinegar, bicarb and essential oils, so I’m thinking I might be able to use it in some other cleaning function… crumble it into the washing machine?

Any thoughts?

Lush has a full ingredients list – and info about each ingredient – on their website — can any cosmetics experts give us their reuse opinion based on those? Most of the key ingredients are also used in their soap bars but I’m wondering if the combination of astringents in this bar might get in the way of cleaning power… anyone know?

I like the sock drawer idea – I also wonder if it would be cut in half and used as a deodorant in undesirably aromatic trainers. Any other reuses to take advantage of the nice scent?

What would you do with it?