Apr. 9—Upcycling and downcycling have turn out to be easy methods to reuse attire that also have some life left in them.
Heather Winn, Cherokee County OSU Extension Workplace household and client science educator, mentioned artificial materials and textiles take a whole bunch of years to decompose in a landfill.
Apart from taking the objects to a second hand retailer, downcycling and upcycling are two choices that may assist this concern.
“Downcycling can be taking clothes that you may use which can be 100% cotton or some [material] that’s actually absorbent and utilizing it for rags or one thing like that,” Winn mentioned.
Making clothes into rags isn’t the one option to downcycle. Winn mentioned a number of previous shredded T-shirts can be utilized to fluff up the within of a canine pillow or by creating them into canine toys.
Whereas downcycling usually breaks down a garment for one more use, upcycling permits the clothes to be reused however usually with a special look.
“However what you consider extra so far as upcycling is definitely taking a garment that does not match or is not trendy anymore and dong one thing to it to make it extra trendy or fit your needs higher,” Winn mentioned.
Some examples of upcycling might be dyeing pants ruined by bleach, including colourful patches to holes on varied attire, and even fashioning a sheer skirt into a shawl.
A preferred upcycling technique for pale black T-shirts is taking the clothes by means of a bleach course of to create varied results. Quilts may also be created out of previous clothes, comparable to from sentimental T-shirts or denims.
The act of upcycling not solely helps the earth, but it surely additionally permits for folks so as to add their very own twist or artistic aptitude to issues. Most clothes might be upcycled in varied methods, as denims might be tailored into shorts or skirts. Winn mentioned attire even have varied methods to be upcycled both by making them shorter or by including a special kind of cloth to the collar or sleeves.
Winn mentioned she believes upcycling can be extra fashionable if extra folks knew tips on how to sew, which is the primary manner somebody can upcycle. These eager to discover ways to sew can achieve this by calling the Cherokee County OSU Extension workplace at 918-456-6163.
