Natural Family Living: Keep your clothes and be a good consumer

By Teresa Youngblood

The green consumer has many choices these days when trying to find outfits for everyone in the family. Organically grown, fairly traded, cruelty-free threads abound. But as friendly and earthy as all those clothes sound, the greenest choice of all saves the raw materials and the energy used in production: it’s reusing clothing.

Buying used clothing at thrift stores or their classier cousins, vintage shops, is fun and often keeps money in the local economy or supports local charities. But if your main goal stems from simple and frugal living – to make the most of what you already own and to keep your textiles out of the landfill – then you might want to consider altering your clothes or finding new and different uses for them.

With the least amount of effort, old clothes can be passed among family members or friends. Old button-up shirts make great kid smocks, and the roomier cut of many men’s tops make them good for the early stages of a woman’s pregnancy.

T-shirts, which pile up after years of recreation sports, charity fundraisers, and any unlucky attendance at a corporate-sponsored event, can go through levels of use as they age: exercise clothes, beach cover-ups, pajamas, and finally paint or yard-work clothes.

If you move a lot, it’s worth it to keep some old clothes around as soft, light packing material for fragile items. Tie-dying covers up even the oddest stains or discolorations; make a big batch of dye and invite friends over for a nice-weather, outdoor get-together.

Tie-dyed old sheets make nice tapestries, curtains, or room dividers. If you possess even meager sewing skills, you can alter sleeves, collars, and hemlines and finish off the new edges. (And if you don’t mind the rough edges, sewing skills aren’t even necessary.) Stitched-on patches cover up blown-out knees and elbows in jeans and jackets. Your options expand significantly with a few more sewing skills.

You can make your own cloth grocery bags, sew pockets on old sheets or tablecloths to turn them into organizers for toys or shoes, or transform really well-loved clothing into quilts, pillows, aprons, patches, or pockets. If you have a dog or cat, make a pet bed or pillow from your old clothes. Don’t wash them before you do – your pet will be especially comforted by your smell. If you are using or plan to use cloth diapers, old t-shirts, sweat shirts and wool sweaters can be easily converted into diapers, soakers, and cloth wipes. See fernandfaerie.com/frugaldiapering.html for full instructions.

If your clothing is beyond reusing in its purchased state, you can always save the buttons, elastic, or trim to use in other projects and use the fabric for rags or first-aid kit bandages. If your clothes are well, well beyond saving, and are made from undyed natural materials, you can even compost them. And when you have exhausted all other possibilities, you can always seize the spirit of the season and use your old clothes to dress up a Halloween scarecrow. You could even double up your political actions and have your recycled-clothing clad scarecrow holding your candidate-endorsing yard sign. (Practice a good-natured laugh for all the pun hounds who will undoubtedly make jokes about straw men and recently past elections.)