Breathing a New Lease of Life into Our Brollies
Concerns of the environment are trickling down into virtually everything. At the moment, there’s a growing emphasis being placed on tackling the ‘throwaway culture’ in the UK with the 5 Rs; refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle. Every gesture helps when it comes to combatting climate change, whether customers choose to buy longer lasting products or simply make a habit out of upcycling goods that are of no use anymore, we could all make a huge difference. Here, we’ll look at some clever tips for you to upcycle your umbrellas into new household products.
Flower Vase
Perhaps you bought a new windproof umbrellas, replacing your old and battered brolly — you don’t want to just put it in the bin and contribute to the growing waste in our landfills, so what can you do instead?
You can turn your brolly into a quirky flower vase wall decoration. Everyone loves flowers, so you could give this as a thoughtful, homemade gift to your loved ones, or use it to make cheap bespoke decorations for your own home. Simply wrap a pretty ribbon at the point of the umbrellas to keep the fabric held tight, placing your favourite flower arrangement inside — if your umbrella has a hooked handle, you could use this to hang as a fixture on the wall.
Party banners
Whether it’s a birthday, anniversary, baby gender reveal, graduation party, or baby shower, this nifty little trick will save pointless amounts of money on party decoration when you could be DIY’ing! Craft your own banners or streamers from the fabric of your umbrella to hang up around your home or the venue you’re partying at. These will add a unique touch to your parties as the banners won’t be like generic decorations from the store. They’ll also be a great backdrop for some fun mid-partying snaps!
A unique skirt
Umbrellas come in unlimited styles, colours, and patterns, and can be a great fashion accessory in the sun and rain if you have one that matches your style. But what if you could wear your beloved umbrella pattern in a new way? You might be wanting to switch things up or your umbrella has just broken, but luckily for you, you don’t need to be a sewing master to rock this look. Particularly useful if you have a pretty patterned ladies umbrellas, simply remove the canopy of the umbrella from the frame, add a belt and you’ve got yourself a one of a kind skirt that nobody else will have!
Scrapbook material
If you’re an avid arts and crafts fanatic and are looking for new material to use in your scrapbooks or photo albums, create swatches and shapes from your broken umbrella material to add a touch of individuality to your memories!
So, what upcycle idea will you use? Umbrellas are a lot more versatile then you might realise…