Creative types use lateral thinking when reviewing the usefulness of any old coats lurking in your wardrobe, back door or opportunity shop.

Off-season or damaged coats are often available for just a few dollars at op shops, yet they have metres of useful fabric when cut up and repurposed as a craft resource.

I removed the lining and cut up a beige wool coat (see photo in Sew 339 how-to) into pieces, throwing out the small damaged sections which had led to the demise of its usefulness as a garment. I had the fabric pieces stored in a plastic bag, waiting for their moment to shine. 

Some of the wool was used for the Christmas stacks, see Sew 338, while the leftover scrappy pieces that remained after those circle/triangle shapes were cut can then be upcycled in another way. For Sew 339, these remaining offcuts were roughly trimmed into pointy random shapes, threaded into random stacks using a needle with fishing line (for strength), They were secured at either end by buttons or bells, and a piece of coat seam is used as a hanging  rope.

These Christmas decorations are definitely #nowaste and in keeping with the 1 Million Women campaign No Waste festive season campaign encouraging individual actions to reduce resource use and waste. Keep your eyes wide open for ways to recommission old clothing into useful craft resources – much better than have them become landfill.