Lately at BeadStyle, we’ve been talking a lot about the three R’s – reduce, reuse, and recycle – in order to create eco-friendly fashion. I’ve found that reusing is particularly doable for those of use with a sentimental attachment to, well, just about everything.

For instance, I have a huge stack of old T-shirts featuring whales, dolphins, fish, and other sea creatures (The Little Mermaid has had a profound effect on my life!). I don’t wear the shirts anymore, but I’ve never been able to get rid of them because many were given to me as presents or bought on family vacations. This week, I decided to reuse those T-shirts to make a quilt. I cut the shirts into blocks, backed them with fusible interfacing, and have picked out the sashing, backing, and binding fabric.

This week, I also came across a squishy stress-release ball containing little floating dolphins and some nasty black “gunk” that had built up in the ball over time. I didn’t want to just throw away the ball because I loved the dolphins (see The Little Mermaid note above) and because the ball was part of a care package my parents sent me in college. So, using scissors, I punctured the ball and rescued the dolphins. Then I strung them on head pins with blue flower beads that look like water spouts and attached each dolphin to an earring wire.

And not only am I reusing, I’m reducing – the clutter in my home!