the life cycle of a shirt

I’m an avid recycler. I was brought up before recycling was so easy – we have regular collections of waste paper and glass, not to mention the big bins to deposit unwanted plastic, aluminium foil and textiles in carparks and the such. But I was taught not to be wasteful from the youngest age. Be imaginative and think what something can be repurposed into.

A shirt has a life-cycle after its time as a shirt:

Unwashable stains? no problem for a decorating shirt. Brushed your elbow on the newly painted gloss paint? is still ok.

It becomes a gardening shirt. One sleeve gets caught on brambles and ripped? We really don’t care. Like a snake sheds its skin, a shirt sheds too, and leaving in its wake floor cloths and rags for mucky cleaning. Servicable scraps are useful for textile projects and test stitching and collage and patchwork (and more!).

Even the littlest cloth bits feed the clean rag-bag for snipping up into stuffing for cushions, made-up animals and all manner of stuffables. (I find snipping is as theraputic as it is productive, and goes well with TV or radio listening)

Buttons are harder to destroy through overuse, but will come off and be reusable in a future something.

Oh yeh, and that wholesome feel of self-satisfaction? you get to keep that for free! 😉

Author: Mixy

artist, thing maker & idea magpie. I am making it all up, one bit at a time. View all posts by Mixy