What to do with an old shirt?

That's what you end up with.

My husband works in a traditional office and has to wear a suit and tie everyday.  He doesn't mind.  It's easy and men's business attire is comfortable compared to women's.  No hose, no high heals, etc.  He does go through an awful lot of shirts, though.  Generally they tear in a small line across his right elbow.  When that happens: bye bye shirt!

In the past, I've taken them to the charity shop, or given them to my mother.  A school teacher who wears them with jeans on casual Fridays.  She is 5'3" and rolls up the sleeves so far that the tear never shows.

This time I thought I'd harvest the shirt for the buttons.  I got 12 buttons off of it.  Then I realised that most of the fabric was in fine shape.  So I managed to cut 19 6x6" squares and 14 5x3" rectangles.  It's not an exciting print for a quilt, but I like scrappy quilts with a little of everything.  And this fabric is so much softer and smoother than quilting cotton.

Mens' work shirts are made from long staple cotton (pima, sea island, egyptian, etc.) whereas quilting cotton is rougher, short staple stuff.   So this will feel quite luxurious in a quilt.

When you buy quilting cotton it's pricy because of the designer's input, not because the raw materials are so fine.  I don't mind, I think this is fair.  Designers like Anna Maria Horner or Amy Butler need to get paid, and I value their contribution.  I think it is kind of cool that contemporary, female artists can make a living selling their designs to other women, who then go on and create further from there.

Do you put your old clothes in the charity bin?  Or do you "harvest" the buttons, etc.  If you do, do you feel a little guilty that the charity misses out?  I kind of do.  But I am still glad to have my buttons and scraps.