We’ve had an email from frequent commenter Caroline:

I love your site and am always on there looking up new ideas. You have me rescuing other people’s umbrella’s from bins and saving all sorts of stuff that I previously would have thrown away. And sometimes I add my ideas but this time I am stumped.

Someone (knowing I like to reuse things) gave me a bag of yellowed cloth napkins. Some have the odd spot on that looks like the napkin served it’s duty but most just seem to have turned yellow all over. How can I reuse them? I could use them for rags but I save lots of other scraps for that. They are a sort of damask satiny material so not sure if they would dye? Could I bleach them? Would love to hear any ideas you have for reusing them.

The bleaching/dyeing question depends on what type of fabric they are – it’s best for napkins to be cotton to allow for furious washing/boiling out stains but of course that doesn’t mean that they all are. How Stuff Works has a pretty comprehensive guide to removing yellow stains from fabric but again, it depends on what type of fabric it is. Apparently the best way to identify fabric is to see how they burn – while it might be worth burning one to allow you to work with the rest, does anyone have any less destructive suggestions for finding out what fabric they are?

Any suggestions for reusing them – as things other than rags – in their current condition? I imagine the yellow is not uniform enough to pretend they’re supposed to be that colour – but any suggestions where the colour doesn’t matter?

(Oh and off topic but what the hey, frequent commenter and friend of Recycle This, Three Beautiful Things‘s Clare got married on Saturday – congrats to Clare & Nick, and I hope you have a wonderful life together. :))

We’ve had another question from Ruti:

How could I recycle a wedding dress? I sewed it out of white satin and it is a skirt, bodice and separate train, also quite a bit of spare material and some small bits of netting (I’ll keep the veil).

I don’t really want to give it away, but I’m not going to wear it a second time!

So far I’ve thought of christening gown (if I ever had a girl), undies/nightdress and kiddy angel costumes. I’d kind of like to make some really frilly baby room accessories if I ever had a girl, but has anyone got any non-clothing suggestions?

If you’re want to keep it – but not bothered about keeping it in one piece, I’m sure there are loads of lovely keepsake craft sections – the satin might make a nice cushion or as the lining of a jewellery box. Or to pull in a suggestion from last week’s post on picture frames, you could use the net in an old frame to make a jewellery display for earrings and the like.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by lumix2004)