Quilting Ideas: Reclaim Fabric from Thrift Store Clothing for Use in Your Quilts

The thrift stores close to me have an abundance of clothing. Much of it is stained, torn, not my size, and unwearable, but that doesn't stop me from buying it. Why? Because I can reclaim it and turn it into beautiful fiber art projects, including quilts, fabric paintings, patchwork clothing, wall hangings, rag rugs, and other things.

I discovered these methods when I was teaching surface design to fashion design students. At the time, I was teaching them how to dye fabrics, and how to paint on fabric. So, my methods focus on creatively transforming the reclaimed fabrics, which is not always a necessary step in the process.

I will explain my approach, but this is not the only way to reclaim fabric. Feel free to adapt these ideas to your own quilting or fiber art.

Turning Skirts, Dresses and Shirts Back Into Fabric

When I shop for reclaim-able fabrics at thrift stores, I look for long cotton skirts, the kind that are gathered at the waist but don't have actual pleats. I think these were popular in the 1980s. These skirts have lots of useable fabric, and there is not much waste when you cut them apart. I try to buy these skirts in sizes large and extra large, but I'll buy cotton skirts of any size if the print is beautiful or if they have a decent amount of fabric I can reclaim.

Extra seams like darts and pleats mean that the fabric in these areas may go to waste, so in most cases I prefer skirts to dresses. But, I do sometimes buy dresses also, if it looks like a particular dress will have enough fabric that can be reclaimed.

Sometimes large-sized cotton button-down shirts are also worth buying, if the price is low enough and the fabric nice enough.

Over-Dyeing Reclaimed Cotton Fabrics

If you intend to quilt with, or dye, your reclaimed fabrics, I recommend using only cotton garments, and avoiding blends and most synthetics.

I don't worry one bit if the colors are ugly or the prints outdated; using my methods, the fabrics will look completely different by the time I'm finished with them anyway.

Many people don't realize that fabric can be over-dyed. I learned this while working in the textile industry. Often, if a commercial dye house is not able to achieve the correct color the first time, they will take the same roll of fabric and dye it again.

You can use this to your advantage when you are reclaiming thrift store fabrics. Most printed cotton fabrics can be successfully over-dyed.

When I want to use a bunch of skirts in the same quilt or project, I like to over-dye them all the same color; I pick a color that is likely to harmonize well with all of them. Use your good judgment here. One tip: Avoid using light colors, because in most cases a light color will not be powerful enough to tie the diverse prints together successfully. Use a strong, vibrant color, or perhaps a dark color. Usually, the color you choose will not completely obscure the existing print on any of your skirts or garments. So, when you are finished dyeing, the fabrics in the garments will harmonize, but in most cases they'll still be pretty different.

After I have a bunch of assorted skirts and other garments, I take them home and sort them. I decide which item will be used together. I sort them into various piles for dyeing.

Then when I've finished dyeing them, it's time to cut them apart. Usually I do the dyeing before I do the cutting, but you could reverse this process. I dye first and cut later with skirts, where there isn't much fabric that will be wasted. With dresses, it's often better to cut first and then dye, because you don't want to waste dye on fabric that will be tossed in the trash. But if you cut first, you risk having the cut edges unravel during the washing and dyeing process.

I cut each skirt open at the seams using either a seam ripper or pair of scissors, whichever is more appropriate to the seaming method used. (Serged seams get cut with scissors, usually.)

Then if I am going to use the fabric in a quilt, I'll use my templates and patterns to cut out my quilt squares and quilt blocks.

You can also paint on the fabric or embellish it in other ways. The possibilities are vast, and fun to explore.

Happy creating!

Learn More About Dyeing, and Over-Dyeing, Fabrics

How to recycle a stained t-shirt by tie-dyeing it

The story of an ugly tie-dyed T-shirt, with lessons on how to avoid having your tie-dyes turn out ugly

Product review: Jacquard tie dye kits

How to tie-dye a spiral

How to tie-dye a heart shape

How to tie-dye a stripe