Give Your Used Bed Sheets New Life By Reusing Them!
What to do with bed sheets when it's time to replace them? Reuse them, of course! No need to trash them when they can continue enjoy a useful life as something 'new'!
Anyone can use the ideas here, but if you're a bit crafty and like to sew - so much the better! Sewing opens up a universe of ideas for reusing used bed sheets.
I can't say that I'm using all these ideas myself YET, but I sure have bunches of them in my crafts notebook, ready and waiting for that next set of sheets to come along and find it's new use! I've collected these ideas from all over the internet for years. Squidoo means I can sort through my bookmarks and share my favorites with you!
Ready? Let's take a look!
There's Always The Obvious...
The Most Common Uses For Old Sheets
- Cut Up For Dust Rags
- Drop Cloth For Painting
- Bedding for pets or farm animals
- Donated to charity
- Covering furniture in an unused room or closed house.
- Covering plants in winter against freezing temperatures
Best Ideas For Reusing or Repurposing Old Bed Sheets
Vote for the ones you like and add your ideas!
Make Reusable shopping tote bags, drawstring bags, etc.
Now that's being green!2 points
Make Pillowcases
Use an existing pillow case as a template and cut more...1 point
Make Aprons For Yourself & For Gifts
Aprons are hot right now and sheets would make gre more...0 points
Summer Dresses, Pants & Shorts
Some prints especially lend themselves to Summer d more...0 points
Make Curtains & Valances
There are even no-sew ways to make these! Use iro more...0 points
Make Matching Tablecloth & Napkins
Super easy and you can use coordinating prints &am more...0 points
I got this...you gotta get one too!
Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed & Organic Materials
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 11/29/2009)
The projects are: aprons mades from men's shirts (cute!), coasters from wool, (cute and different than other things I have seen), vintage napkins and rings from ruined old tablecloths,lounge pants from old cute sheets, pillows, an adorable draft-buster that looks like a branch, sweater-slippers, a wallet made from a shirt-cuff,a reversible wrap skirt,lunch tote, reusable sandwich wraps,more bags, a pillowcase skirt and MORE!
Super Simple Curtains From Sheets!
Great Way To Use Sheets!
Just cut the ends of the top hem on either side of the sheet so you can get a curtain rod through and you have a curtain! If they are too long, measure how much hem you need to take up and turn up a hem with your sewing machine.
Make some cute tie-backs by using fabric remnants that match. How about velvet or velveteen? Or use hair accessories! Think out of the box!
If you want a more finished top, sew a line across the top hem, still leaving room to fit a curtain rod. This will give the curtains a ruffle on top!
What's even more fun about making curtains with sheets, is that it makes it so easy and inexpensive to decorate childrens' rooms with their favorite fun themes. Barbie? Transformers? Spongebob? Did you find an extra good deal? Make pillows too!
Cool Craft Book
Quirky And So Much fun!
The Big-Ass Book of Crafts
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/29/2009)
The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is packed with ideas for sprucing up your living space; concocting fabulous, all-natural body products; designing your own unique stationery; and creating countless other crafts that will convince your friends and loved ones that you're the secret love child of Martha Stewart (only much, much cooler).
Forget crocheted doilies and itchy knit sweaters -- TLC's While You Were Out top designer Mark Montano has created stylish and imaginative projects that range from a Warhol-esque Ultrasuede iPod case to photo-adorned boxer shorts to African mask patio chairs to wooden night-light boxes. Divided into sections that include Outdoorsy (ideas to enhance your backyard), Dishing It Out (decorating plates using different techniques), You've Been Framed (innovative picture framing ideas), and Can I Have a Light? (creating and decorating lamps, lanterns, and chandeliers), it's as entertaining to read as it is endlessly inspiring. With more than one hundred and fifty inventive and fun projects, The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is the perfect activity book for readers of every mood, budget, and skill level.
Make A Giant Game "Sheet"!
Use fabric paints to paint big color dots to make your own Twister game, then make your own color dial out of the back of a cereal box.
Or, paint a checkerboard on the sheet and re-use old CD's (painted red and black) for your own giant checker game!
How many more giant games can you think of?
Add This To Your Wishlist!
Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts ( Leisure Arts #4802)
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/29/2009)
See My Other Crafty Lenses
I'm just a crafty chica and I especially enjoy the challenge of thrifty crafts that reuse or recycle materials. Here are a few of my crafty lenses so far. Enjoy!-
Reusing Household Items For Green Crafts
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Wait, before you throw out all those paper towel rolls, popsicle sticks, old broken crayons, unwanted towels, holey jeans and t-shirts and plastic shopping bags...did you know that they can be reused to make other fun things? There's a really fun mo...
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Crafts For Charities
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Part of the joy of crafting is being able to share the finished project with someone we love. An extension of sharing that loving effort is to share our crafting efforts with those in need. With the economy in its current state, many charities are l...
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Soldiers' Angels Help Troops Beat The Heat With Cool Ties
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As I'm writing this, it's 3 AM in Iraq and 91 degrees. From what I understand, the daytime temperatures can reach 110 to 120 degrees. Afghanistan is pretty hot right now too--about as hot as it is in Texas, although not quite as warm as it is in Iraq...
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Learn To Knit On YouTube
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Yes, I confess, I learned to knit on YouTube. Who would have thought I could learn to knit after more than 20 years of trying to figure it out? And who in the world would have thought I would finally learn to knit on YouTube? I'm a certified y...
Creative Crafty Sites With Even MORE Ideas!
- Future Craft Collective
- We want to help kids return to the scrape, scrounge, dig, build, create approach to things. For the earth's sake we offer projects that utilize holistically sound materials through upcycling, recrafting, green materials, etc.
- Fun In The Making
- Looking for lots of crafts made from recycled materials? You've come to the right place. I go beyond soup can pencil holders here. It is all about greening up your crafting and moving toward a more sustainable way of living. (Be sure to check out the Cool Tipi Fort on this site - It's AMAZING!)
- How to Turn Old Sheets into Shopping Totes - CraftStylish
- Vintage linens are a great source for fun fabrics! Here's a project to turn them into great reusable shopping bags for your next grocery outing.
- Toothbrush Rugs - Complete Video Instructions (Part 1 - Beginners) | Rag Rug Cafe
- Toothbrush rugs! On this page you will find explicit step-by-step instructions that show you how to make a toothbrush rag rug! Yes, everything a beginner needs to know!
Toothbrush rugs are one of the easiest and quickest rag rugs to make. They are easy to learn, inexpensive to make, and the result is gorgeous!
Featured Re-Useable Lenses
I love the idea of being able to re-use what we can to keep as much as we can out of the land fills. Use it up! Check these lenses by some fine lensmasters for more great ideas!-
How to Reuse Paper Rolls
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Before you throw away a paper roll, do you consider what it can be used for? Never thought of that? Or you already reuse them? Although our society urges people not to throw out but recycle and reuse as many common household items as possible, we st...
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How to Reuse Popsicle Sticks?
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Your kid just love to eat popsicles? Can't get out of the store without buying some? Who can blame them - I love them too! This page is a collection of possible uses for popsicle sticks and here you'll find how it can be reused in house, garden and...
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50 Things you can Reuse
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Recycling is very important, but even better is reusing. Recycling actually uses energy and transport time and fuel to get the items to where they need to go. If you can reuse an item yourself, that's more energy, time and fuel saved, as well as less...
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How to Reuse Old CD or DVD
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Do you burn CD-ROMs on your computer and get errors, where you have to toss the CD-ROM? Do you get tons of CD-ROMs in the mail from Internet providers and trial programs? I do and all these unwanted CD-ROMs are piling up. You can recycle them but it...
You Can Crochet Rag Rugs Too!
Ready? Set? Grab some used sheets to re-use!
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Reply
- poutine poutine Sep 1, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
- Great lens with very helpful ideas.
I like the tote bags one.
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- a_willow a_willow Aug 14, 2009 @ 4:14 am
- Useful ideas... now, only if I knew how to sew! ;) Thanks for feature Sylvia!
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- ClassyGals ClassyGals Aug 6, 2009 @ 8:12 pm
- Fabulous suggestions on how to reuse old sheets. Five big ones for you!
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- squidom squidom Jul 31, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
- Great Lens! My mother in law goes crazy making pillow liners with sheets and old fabrics. Some great ideas here. :)
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- BevsPaper BevsPaper Jul 26, 2009 @ 9:33 am
- Love this lens! Some great ideas given here. Lensrolled to some of my recycle lenses.
by boutiqueshops
Hi! My name is Sylvia! I'm retired & doing what I love--selling online, crafting and gardening, reading, watching movies, crochet, learning to knit... (more)
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