How to Find Nice Fabric from Used Clothing

Finding Used Clothing

Because we have a lot of kids, people give us a LOT of clothes. Trust me, I am grateful for every stitch of it, but sometimes, we have an overabundance or the kids just don’t wear what we have to choose from.

So, instead of pitching it in a yellow bin, I save the clothes I think I can use for sewing something else. A bunch of people give away very nice dress shirts, you know, the kind they had dry cleaned every time they wore them? Those are prime fabric candidates.

If you are not given clothing like we are, it is easy to find these dress shirts in all kinds of thrift, secondhand stores. We like GoodWill, the Discovery Shop, and Savers.

Look for the largest sizes you can find if it is available because you’ll be getting the biggest bang for your buck. Seeing as though nice quality, plaid or printed poly/cotton fabrics are running around the $14 to $20/yd range in the fabric stores, this is a huge money saver.

When you think about how much fabric you buy when you want to sew a man’s long-sleeved dress shirt, you are looking at 3 yards minimum. Multiply that times just $14 and it is ridiculously expensive.

What I Am Making from Dress Shirt Fabric

You can make so many different things from the fabric you find. It is great for children’s clothing or quilted bags or even pincushions or backgrounds for embroidery. Whatever you choose, the cost will be minimal.

I am planning on making a quilt called Crystal of Indigo from the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine. I probably chose it ten years ago when flipping through some quilting magazines I had.

All told, it calls for 25.5 yards of fabric. Even if I could find fabric for $10 a yard (nice quality striped or plaid poly/cotton) I would still be looking at over $250 in just the quilt top. That is way too much for me!

So, even if I only have a yard and a half of fabric from each shirt, which is lowballing, that is still more than enough to make this great sized bed quilt.

I know I will want to see this pattern come together much sooner than the time it will take me to make the quilt top so I have a plan.

I will be making a quilted project bag first and get my feet wet again with paper piecing. That is another great idea to test a quilt pattern before jumping in head first while still having a nice finished product.

What Other Kinds of Fabric Can Clothing Give Us?

I know that I love working with linen, denim and suiting fabric because they are all sturdy and finish up crisply.

Linen would come from linen dresses, shirts or even linen tablecloths. Now, THAT is a big score if you can find one of those.

Denim, of course, can come from blue jeans but you can find some huge denim skirts and jackets that lend a lot of fabric for the money.

Suiting fabric would be anything that feels like Dad’s church suit. It can be in the form of dresses, jackets (men’s and women’s) or pants and skirts.

Keep your eyes open. Anything is possible.

What is a Good Price for Used Items?

I always try to buy when these stores run their sales. You learn when they have them the more you frequent the thrift stores.

For example, GoodWill has special colored tags 50% off on certain days. The Discovery Shop sometimes will have 50-75% off the entire store if they are getting full. And I prefer to shop Savers on Mondays when everything in the store is 50% off.

Try not to buy anything full price even at a thrift store. Stay in touch by getting on their mailing lists or social media platforms.

Keep a running list of items you would like to have and then frequent the stores only picking up those items when they are on sale.

I can say that $4 is a good price for a man’s dress shirt. I know a lot of places charge $6 but I always shoot for $4. Dresses, I never pay more than $10 depending on the amount of fabric potential.

I have gotten entire three-piece suits from the Discovery Shop for $10-$15 but would only pay that for the entire suit. And, again, go big or go home. Size it up for maximum haul.

Since the trend for thrifting began growing, the prices have gotten a little high, like jeans for $12. If I wanted to pay that for used jeans, I would go to Walmart and get a new pair. I don’t like more than $4-$5 for a pair of jeans.

Be astute and keep your eyes on the prize. Don’t look at them as clothes, see bolts of fabric and you will enjoy the thrifting experience.

The Process from Shirt To Quilt

Cut off the collar. Remove the button from the collar and throw the collar away.

Cut off the cuffs. Decide if they are sturdy enough to use as shawl cuffs if you want, or not. Remove buttons.

Cut off the continuous lap. (The stitched insert right above the cuff) Remove the button if there is one and pitch the rest.

Cut off the front bands. Remove buttons. Pitch the bands.

Cut up the side seam from the bottom of the shirt through the armpit to the cuff. It is prudent to cut as close to the seamline as possible to reach maximum output.

Cut off sleeves at the shoulder seams.

Cut off the front pieces at the shoulder yolk seam.

Cut the back off at the yolk. You can save the yolk pieces if you think they are worth saving. Some are a little sparse and those I pitch.

Lay the back piece down and layer all the other pieces in the center. Fold the back in thirds around the other pieces into a strip. Roll that strip up and put a rubber band around the middle.

Voila! Put your newly acquired quilt fabric away until you are ready to sew! Enjoy!