You could give old sheets or other fabrics a try, but my feeling is that you would be better served not using them. In time soil blows into any mulch you may have used on top of the fabric - then weed seeds can geminate in that soil/growing medium. The edges of weed barrier can "float" up over the course of a couple of seasons and then you have all this fabric sticking up all over the place. When you go to dig in the area (move a shrub or install a new planting) you end up pulling the fabric up here and there and it can turn into a mess.

I guess I prefer to not have a layer of fabric in my soil - it gets in the way of things and often ends up looking bad. If I were going to use a weed barrier I'd want to use something durable - I think old sheets will degrade pretty rapidly and then you will be stuck trying to dig it all out to clean up the mess.

Those are a few of my thoughts on the matter. Perhaps others who like to use weed barrier fabrics in their garden beds will chime in with some other opinions.

Have fun, Chris

If you were thinking of using it around bushes - or other longterm plantings - it would be better for the plants if you just used more mulch. Earthworms need to be able to surface to live in a soil area, and they can't surface through a sheet.