Make it yourself fiberarts Crafts from repurposed materials

I remember my Grandmother telling me of her life during the great depression- many of the things she did back then, are now chick (again) due to the growing awareness among consumers of the crippling environmental effect of our wastefulness. During the depression It was almost considered UN-American to buy new things. The purchase of non-essential or new items was for special a birthday or event only.

Clothes were routinely passed from sister to sister, brother to brother and then as that family grew out of those items, they were given to relatives and neighbors to wear. If you needed a rug for your bedroom you sat at night by the radio with your basket of scrap fabric (clothes that were torn or not passed on) and cut strips, sewed them end to end and then you braided the strips into rag rugs... flour sacks were turned into kitchen towels and cooking aprons, nothing was overlooked for alternate use (repurpose).

Here are some sites offering instruction or ideas for taking unwanted items and turning them into hand crafted treasures:

1. http://www.youcanmakethis.com/index.htm
Get instant access to digital scrap booking and machine embroidery files in digital format. Learn how to make a twirl skirt, hair bows, and boutique clothing. Easy tutorials for kitting, quilting, and craft projects....sewing, sewing patterns, applique, machine embroidery, twirl skirt, hair bows, crochet, knitting, quilting, boutique clothing, craft projects, digital scrap booking, etc.

2. http://www.squidoo.com/make_yarn%20
unravel an old sweater to re-knit or crochet something out of it's yarn: how to prepair the used yarn,reuse project ideas.

3. How to convert your old T-shirts into yarn, step by step video (a bit funny too):

From Rags to Riches (fabric recycling)