In with the old: Utah woman finds great purpose in re-purposing

Thrifty is nifty — especially the way Jenny Wilding Cardon does it.

As budgets get tighter and means get leaner, more people are looking for ways to stretch the dollar. But you don't have to give up style or creativity, says Cardon.

"Recycle, upcycle, refashion, repurpose — whatever term you use, turning secondhand cast-offs into smart, stylish stuff has become a popular trend," she says. "The term 'handmade' isn't a word to cringe at anymore. It's coveted. People want to learn how to make it themselves — to lower their expenses, to feed their creativity and to be part of a warm and inspiring community. Handmade is cool."

Cardon, who lives in Kaysville and is the author of "ReSew: Turn Thrift-Store Finds into Fabulous Designs" (Martingale & Company, $24.99), is among a growing number of women looking at fun ways to find new uses for old things. Popular websites and blogs such as BurdaStyle (with 454,000 members), Sew, Mama Sew! (21,000 subscribers) and One Pretty Thing (11,000 subscribers) show there's a lot of interest in this crafty area, she says.

For Cardon, it's a trend that has come full-circle. She became a thrift-shop fan when she was in college.

"I put myself through school by working, so being thrifty was very much necessity-based," said Cardon, who maintains a website at www.thewildcards.com.

When she moved out of the dorms into her first apartment, she looked for inexpensive and creative ways to fill it, and found them at the thrift stores.

After she married and started a family, her husband had a career in retail and was doing well, but eventually decided it wasn't what he wanted to do with his life.

"He did some work as a substitute teacher and totally fell in love with teaching," Cardon said. "After 20 years in retail, starting when he was in college, he decided he wanted to go back to school to become an elementary school teacher."

Cardon is very supportive of that decision, "but it means we have to be a lot more creative with money," she said. "We both work part-time, but he still has a year-and-a-half of school to go." They also have two children.

So, she says, it was back to the thrift stores.

It started with quilts. "I had been a quilter; and I really enjoyed that creativity. But fabric was getting way too expensive. I discovered that I could find inexpensive sheets and linens at the thrift store and make quilts out of them." Then one day, she came across a sweatshirt that cost $2, and she began to think about what she could do with it.