We’ve covered old jeans before – and again when speaking specifically about making bags out of them – but these are a bit different.

I was sorting through my “in storage” clothing last week – stuff that’s in limbo, I don’t really think I’ll be wearing it again but can’t bring myself to take it to the charity shop/fabric recycling bin just yet – and I found my favourite work trousers from back in the day when I actually wore trousers for work. These were THE BEST WORK PANTS IN THE WORLD. They fitted me perfectly – hanging low, with long wide legs just as I like, had deep pockets at just the right place/angle and given the heavy, woolliness of them, they looked suitably work-y even when teamed with a never-ironed black shirt. I remember being really quite distraught when the fabric wore through at the bum. *nostalgic sob*.

So, anyway, I found these trousers last week and it was fun remembering all the good times we had together – all the time we ran up the stairs together, or sat at my desk together, or even those times when we soaked up puddles together – so it felt heartless to just send them off to be recycled.

Even with the worn/holey bum being out of action, there is quite a lot of good fabric because of the wide legs. I thought they might make a fun clutch purse or something – but wanted to run it by you crafty people first, in case you had any more awesome ideas. I am thinking crafty stuff primarily but any reuse suggestions would be great.

So ideas?

We’ve had an email from “fay bee”, saying:

I had some ankle-high sheepskin boots (australian “Ugg boots”) that are now past their prime. I’ve cut the soles off and now I have 2 pieces of lovely sheepskin (long and thin).

What can I do with them?

Given the wool lining, you couldn’t really use them like, say, old scraps of thin leather to make a purse or wallet but depending on the dimensions and condition of the pieces – and how crafty you feel, you might be able to turn them into a lovely warm pair of mittens or something — anyone know of any good sites that could help get her started?

Any other suggestions?

We’ve had an email from Derek asking about large scale recycling:

hello. i work in heavy industry and we use thousands of pairs of work gloves, most are thrown away when torn, but a lot are thrown away when covered in substances like oil or just dirt. could you tell me if these gloves could be cleaned and recycled or cleaned and used for other purposes.

I don’t know for sure but I suspect the fabric of all the gloves, whether torn or not, could be reclaimed – shredded up to make insulation if nothing else. Anyone know for sure?

Any other ideas about recycling – or reusing them on a large scale?

(Photo by Penny Matthews)

We’ve had an email from Heather:

I have old ripped worn tablecloths and runners and such and I would like to know how to recycle them or donate them. They are not in good condition to donate to the goodwill or such, but don’t want to just throw them into an already overfilled landfill.

I was hoping to find something besides “use them for crafts”, so whatever you can come up with please help!!!

Heh, crafts would be the obvious answer of course – I quite often buy ugly-cool old tableclothes from charity shops for quilting or whatever.

But non-craft ideas… Cleaning rags? Protective packaging around parcels? Pretty drawer liners?

If you don’t want to do anything with them, many council/municipal waste collection sites (and bigger recycling stations) have fabric bins where the textile fibres are collected for reclamation and reuse.

Any other suggestions? Non-craft ones for Heather – but feel free to leave crafty suggestions for those more inclined to that sort of thing.

(Photo by ngould)

Like the post I did about joysticks, I’m not sure whether this one was actually a suggestion or another spam message.

I got an email from one Bradley Boericke with the subject “wetsuit” but without any explanation text (or text at all) in the message itself.

But whether it’s a genuine question or a really, really obscure way to sell me penis enlargement pills, it’s a good question: how can they be re-used or recycled?

I suspect, like swimsuits, they have a tendency to degrade at key pressure spots and in order to keep those key pressure spots covered up (since they’re usually the bits that people like to have covered up), you have to replace the whole suit even though the vast majority of it is still in a good condition.

So ideas? And also any suggestions for lengthening their lifespan?

(Photo by simmo333)