I receive a lot of other people’s worn out textiles (and their new ones, for that matter). One use I’ve found for a range of different well-worn fabrics that do not lend themselves to any kind of upcycling, is to make insulating covers for worm farms. I’ve made quite a few of them, but finally it was time for our worms to get their own. The image above is the outer layer of the cover, layered up with dead jumpers, fleecy fabrics and such. I usually then layer over them, worn out t shirts, sheets that are too thin to be made into anything else–so I can stitch them down and hold the main insulation layer in place. Technically, I guess I am constructing a quilt!
Here I am foundation piecing stretch denim onto these other layers. I turn dead jeans made from “rigid” denim into all kinds of things, but stretch denim is not so easy to put to use, and I now receive many pairs of stretch jeans that have clearly had only short lives in use before wearing through or tearing, because the quality of the denim is so often very poor. And, news flash, the the thing that makes those jeans stretch is plastic. Made from oil. Fossil fuel. I would still prefer to use them than have them go to landfill, so here I am, using them. Below is the rectangular side of the cover, with a cut-open t shirt of unknown origin holding down layers of moth-eaten wool and mohair jumpers.
And here is the result, lined with a part-sheet that was gifted to me and still had wear in it. I’ve got to admit that these are hard to make–there are stages in the process where all the seams are thick and some serious wrestling is needed to sew them. And sometimes there are some broken needles and yet more swearing.
But–they do the job well and they keep all kinds of fabrics I can’t find other uses for, out of landfill. They always look wonky, but seriously?? They will now spend years in the sun, wind, and rain. They will be pooped on by possums, birds (and rats, probably). We have two worm farms, because someone down my street dropped by one day having never spoken to me, but having decided I was the type of person who would keep worms. Clearly, she was a good judge of character! She wanted to give me her worm farm, worms and all, and I accepted. So, I made a second cover!
Here is the top of the worm farm insulating blanket in construction, layered up in wooliness. In answer to your question, yes, it does make me sad to cut up jumpers that have sometimes been hand knit with love (and often for specific beloveds). In this case I am not privy to the details. To be honest, I think people give me things that they can’t bear to dispose of, or don’t know how to re-use, in hopes that I will find a way to use them. And the quantity of such things that come to me now motivates me to use them without being too precious. Thanks to ShamselDin Rogers (@shamseldinrogers) I now think of this as #trashsewing.
This is the tricky stage: sewing the sides to the top. Yes, I know that is a beautiful Tiwi Islands fabric in there. I don’t know what it had been used for–perhaps a curtain or a wall hanging in full sun. The printing on it is all that is holding it together, the fibres are so weak. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t use it for something lovely showcasing it, but–I couldn’t. The bright print on the right has had a long life as a pair of pants before ending up with me.
This model has an outer constructed mostly from the canvas I harvested from a duffel bag abandoned in the neighbourhood, and some more harvested from a pair of dead deck chairs I took apart for re-use. A year ago! It feels good to have these fabrics off the floor of my sewing room!
Another progress shot, where you can clearly see how lumpy, bumpy and chunky this is!
And finally, the worm farm has received the disintegrating moth eaten blanket that was covering it before (which the worms and microbes will now consume), and has a nice new covering that will keep the temperature inside a bit more to the liking of the worms through the chill of winter and the heat of summer.
Local & Bespoke 