I've posted about my quest to use the ~50 umbrellas I picked up off the street in NYC, and about my process for turning umbrella fabric into aprons. This post takes a step back to go over the process I use to prepare a discarded umbrella for the next life.
WARNING: This process involves opening umbrellas inside!!!
Picking up trash during a pandemic
Even though the main mode of transmission of Covid-19 is through person-to-person contact, one should obviously take precautions when touching random objects from the street. I stopped collecting materials at all for a long time. Now I'll pick something up occasionally, but only with the following precautions:
I'm always wearing a mask when I am outside of my apartment
I will only pick something up with a gloved hand
I inspect the item for bugs or anything very gross before bringing it home. Then, aside from maybe a quick wipe-down or rinse, I leave it alone for a week. (If I had a garage or yard, I would leave it there).
You'll need:
A broken umbrella
A hose or shower
A seam ripper (or you can use a small pair of scissors)
Pliers
Gloves and safety goggles (especially if working with a carbon filter frame with broken pieces!)
Disassembly & Cleaning Process
Step 1: The first thing I do is usually a general rinse to deal with any caked on mud or dirt. I might also wipe down the staff and branches with a towel or rag. Leave the umbrella to dry.
Step 2: Assess the damage. Can you fix it? If so, maybe this isn't the umbrella to disassemble! A few easily fixable umbrella scenarios are:
There is a tear in the fabric: You can probably patch that.
The frame is intact but the fabric has become detatched from it: Sometimes you can just re-stretch the fabric and pop the endcaps back onto the metal pieces.
The link between two branch pieces has broken: You may be able to replace with a piece of hardware or a new link made from jewelry wire.
Other types of damage, like any major bending or breaking of the staff and branches, can be difficult to manage without replacement parts. If you can't save the umbrella, move on to Step 3.
Step 3: Remove the caps securing the fabric to the frame. These are typically plastic or metal cylindrical pieces with a hole on one end that the branch end sticks into and a perpendicular hole in the center through which the fabric is sewn on. If you break the thread securing the fabric to the cap with a seam ripper or small pair of scissors, the cap usually pops right off.
Step 4: Most umbrellas have additional loops of thread connecting the fabric to the frame at intermediate points on each branch. Use your seam ripper or scissors to break these connections. You should then be able to move the fabric freely along the staff, although you are probably still prevented from removing it by the top piece.
Step 5: The branches are connected to the staff by two plastic pieces, around which they have been threaded along a piece of wire. There is one at the top of the umbrella, which is stationary, and another that moves up and down to open and close the umbrella. Undo the twists securing the wire loops to free the branch assembly from its connection to the staff. You can remove the wires entirely if you want to separate the branches from each other, but I usually re-secure the wire so I can store them all together.
Step 6: Remove the nails securing the top ring to the staff.
These plastic and carbon fiber-based umbrellas are a pain. A lot of parts that might be secured by hardware in other umbrellas are fused together in this one. If I were able to, I would pop off the top piece on the staff and remove the fabric that way. However, I was unable to do that for this particular example.
Step 7: Pull out the stitches around the top of the fabric cone, which tighten the opening around the staff, and then tug the fabric over the cap at the top of the staff. If this doesn't work, you could also pull out one of the panel seams as much as you need in order to get the fabric over the hardware.
Step 8: Wash the fabric. I usually just let it soak in warm soapy water for a few minutes, try to scrub out any major stains, and then hang to dry. If there are significant rust stains I might try soaking them with baking soda.
Note: I should really be doing this with some sort of microplastic capture system. Especially if you are going to wash your fabric in a washing machine, consider a washing bag or machine filter.
Step 9: Again, with metal-based umbrellas it is often possible to remove either the handle or the top cap of the staff without too much difficulty, allowing you to slide all the other pieces off. In this case, I was not able to do that. However, there was existing damage that had bent and cracked part of the staff. Since I really hate the carbon fiber frames and didn't want to keep the staff anyway, I decided to fully break the staff at the weak point so I could get at the hardware. Once you have an open end, just slide the remaining pieces off. NOTE: I did this part with safety glasses and gloves on! Carbon fiber splinters are really painful and annoying. Be VERY careful not to touch them with bare skin, and to clean them all up afterward.
Step 10: Take stock of what you ended up with.
A: I decided to keep the piece with the handle in case I'm ever able to remove it with additional access to tools. I wrapped the splintered end in a piece of scrap fabric to keep it all together until then.
B: Miscellaneous rings and cylindrical pieces. I'm not sure what to do with these yet.
C: The connector piece that moves up and down to open and close the umbrella. I usually like to use these as spools for reclaimed thread, but this one has an interesting button feature on the side that may make that difficult.
D: Misc fabric details. These can be used as decorative elements.
E: Salvageable nails and pegs
F: The fabric end cap pieces. I like using these as buttons, or you could also find a decorative use for them as beads.
Add them to your stash, or jump right into using them on a project.
Step 11: Deconstruct the fabric. Depending on how you are intending to use the fabric, you may or may not want to break it down into individual triangular panels. I haven't decided what to use this for yet, but I'm going to pull out the seam that holds the strap and the tag in so that I can separate out those pieces. It may be quite easy to pull out the stitching, depending on the style. In this case I just pulled out a couple of stitches with my seam ripper, pulled the main thread through the backing, and was able to undo the rest of the seam with a gentle tug.
I store the thread on an empty spool for future use in embroidery or hand sewing projects. The amount shown in the image below is from just one panel seams, not to mention the finishing seams along the bottom edge. It works out to be a lot of thread, if you are able to salvage it all.
And there are a ton of ways to use a velcro strap - I love using them as neck straps for aprons.
Step 12: Iron! The fabric usually exits the washing & drying process pretty wrinkly. I like to iron everything out before I store them just so they fold up more neatly, although there is always a lot more ironing when I go to actually use them for something. Remember that umbrellas are plastic: start on low heat and always test a small patch first to make sure you aren't going to melt anything.
Step 12: I didn't plan to remove the decals from this umbrella, but they started to peel up on their own so I decided to just go with it. If you're going to remove decals, it helps to apply low heat near (but not ON) the decal edge. If you'd like to keep the decals, don't iron anywhere near them!
About this umbrella
I picked it up right outside of the Parade Grounds in Brooklyn. Unlike most of the umbrellas I picked up, it wasn't lost to a gutter - it was intentionally discarded in a pile of other garbage.
This was the first umbrella I have ever picked up with a "Made in the USA" tag.
It has almost no metal, with the exception of a couple of pieces of wire. The frame is plastic and carbon fiber.
The decals indicate that this umbrella was sold by the Communications Workers of America Local 1109, a union for workers in the communications industry.
From their website:
"We are the Communications Workers of America Local 1109.
The CWA wears red on Thursdays to remind people that every working person
deserves livable wages, health care for their families, and time to spend with their kids.
We are the Communications Workers of America.
We wear red on Thursdays, and we encourage all working person to wear red on Thursday too.
Because every working person deserves a good paying job with benefits."
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