A creative seamstress turned an old duvet into a beautiful kimono and shared the final result to r/upcycling.
"Just a day with me, myself and an old duvet cover and here I am, rocking this upcycled kimono/suncover/robe," wrote the original poster.
"This was my first big project since high school! It was scary! But I just went for it and reeeeeally trusted the process!" she continued in the replies.
She relied on materials she already had kicking around the house and got support from friends to keep going on the project.
Upcycling textiles is a great way to keep them from going to landfills. Fabric is difficult to recycle, and when left in the trash heap, it produces loads of atmospheric pollution and leaches chemicals into the local soil.
The methane produced from fabric breaking down traps heat, which can melt ice caps and raise sea levels. It also increases ocean surface temperatures and exacerbates destructive weather patterns.
Clothes and fabric include a lot of plastic, which is also bad news for the environment when left in landfills. These deteriorate into microplastics, which get washed out into waterways, and eventually out into oceans and the fish we catch.
Once people start ingesting microplastics, they can have an effect on the endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems.
Upcycling has the added benefit of saving a few bucks that would be spent buying something new. The manufacturing of clothing has its own significant ecological costs, so avoiding those is an added bonus.
Even if you can't find a new use for the stuff you have, it's possible to earn rewards for donating all sorts of items. Plenty of companies make it their business to find the best home for used items and to ensure those doing the donating get a little something in return. Trashie, ThredUp, and GotSneakers are just some of the companies doing something like this.
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Giving me money back 💰 Reddit commenters were impressed by what the original poster had put together with their duvet cover.
"This is so beautiful!!" said one community member.
"So creative!!!" said another.
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