Used Recycled Clothing

Easily make bags from shirts and jeans!

Used recycled clothing is a widely available resource for anyone to use to make bags. Many people wish to eliminate closet clutter by having all their old clothes recycled. This can be accomplished in many ways.

One way is to make bags from your old shirts, jeans or other sturdy fabric items, like tablecloths or even old placemats. In the following pages, you can find instructions and step-by-step photos for many ways to put your used recycled clothing to work:

• How to Make Bags from Shirts - your old business shirts, and denim or khaki work shirts make terrific reusable bags! Check out the pocket, too
• How to Make Bags from Recycled Used Jeans - a great final purpose for your favorite jeans
• How to Make Bags from tablecloths or medium-sized fabric remnants (5/8 of a yard)

Making bags from used recycled clothing may turn off some people, but consider this: When cast-off old clothes fill up our landfills, nobody wins.

Many people feel good about donating their wearable old clothes to Salvation Army or Goodwill. That's great, but when the clothes have defects or are so out of style, nobody wants them, what happens then? Well, here we have your answer!

I challenge all of the visitors to this site to invent other ways to use old clothes to make useful objects. I already have new bag designs that will be displayed here soon, and I also have ideas for cloth napkins. Contact us if you'd like to share your ideas.

If you are doing this as part of a Rags-to-Bags Fundraiser, your fundraising efforts could include special items: Do you know any local celebrities or public figures willing to part with their own personal items? It would be a way for them to have their clothes recycled for a worthy cause! A celebrity's recycled used jeans would make a great reusable bag for your worthy cause.