Old becomes new with Lynchburg woman's skill

What do you do with leftover ribbon from your sister’s wedding? Or an old shirt that no longer fits? Or that too-cute sundress with a hole in the middle?

Shyla Pontius, a mother of two from Lynchburg, found a use for each of those castaways. She used them to make one-of-a-kind garments that are eco-friendly and easy on the wallet.

Her most recent creation was a pastel sundress for her 6-year-old daughter made from an old linen shirt, scraps of cloth, leftover thread, vintage tea towels and ribbon she saved from her sister’s wedding nine years ago. She didn’t spend a dime on new materials.

“I don’t throw many things away,” Pontius says.

Her industriousness paid off. The whimsical dress won first prize last month in “Replay on the Runway,” a contest sponsored by Lynchburg Parks & Recreation where contestants were challenged to create something new from recycled clothing.

Though Pontius still buys new clothing and fabric for her sewing projects, she makes a point of recycling scraps and ill-fitting garments. It’s a small but meaningful step toward reducing the amount of waste her family produces each year.

“I think we live in a society where if something new comes out and it’s a little different than what you have, you have to have it,” she says.

“We’ve just become ultra-consumers.”

Repurposing clothing can also save money, especially as the recession puts a strain on our finances, says Elizabeth Ford, the Parks and Recreation employee who organized the contest.

“Forget the environment for a minute and start thinking about the economy. I think it’s going to become necessary for people to reuse and repurpose what they have. I think it encourages people to think creatively,” Ford says.

Laura Dooley of Forest won second place in the contest for a purse made from a pair of girl’s jeans. Dooley, an avid sewer for 35 years, became more conscious during the past year or so about using recycled materials.

“It’s fun because it’s guilt-free,” Dooley says.

Now, she visits Goodwill, and she rarely throws anything away. If she can salvage a 4-by-4- or 5-by-5-inch scrap, she saves it for a quilt.

In the sewing workshop in her basement, there are piles of recycled materials for future projects: belts and jeans from Goodwill, books of fabric swatches salvaged from upholstery stores that were getting ready to send them to the dump.

She makes purses, dresses, aprons, quilts, scarves and whatever else her imagination dreams up.

Her latest project, a reusable coffee cup sleeve made from recycled cloth, is designed to replace the cardboard ones that get thrown away after one use. She calls them “Greensleeves,” and plans to sell them online and local coffee shops.

Dooley, who has two teenage sons and works part-time at the Centra Foundation, is bursting with eco-friendly ideas. There is just one thing holding her back.

“You can come up with a millions ideas. It’s the time for execution that is hard to come by,” she says.