Wrist Cuffs and Sugar Gliders - more clothes upcycles

With just over a week to go until the school carnival, I've been upcycling a last few things for the stall.

I've made a few wristcuffs from the jeans waistbands. I have about 50 of these cuffs to decorate - a nice project to sit and do in the evenings while watching TV.

So far I have some flower ones.

Some with beads

And there are even a few waistband parts that had pretty writing on already!

I also managed to squeeze in a couple of sugar gliders from an old pair of kids leggings!

Next week, in the lead up to the carnival, I shall be posting a clothes upcycle each day that will be added to the stall. I'm excited about it all, but nervous too. After months of planning and preparation, I just hope it all goes well and that things sell!

To see the other things I've made for the stall this year - all upcycled from old clothes, go here.

Fabric Baskets and Accessories - more clothes upcycles

I'm into the final three weeks of clothes upcycling for my daughters' school carnival. I'm starting to get down to the smaller pieces of fabric and scraps, so I've been trying out some fabric flowers and attaching them to some waistband wrist cuffs and also a necklace as you can see in the above picture.

Here are the wrist cuffs I've made so far.

I think these are a good start, but I have a huge pile of waistband pieces to make these cuffs from.

And plenty of fabric scraps to embellish them with!  This is one project I'm also going to be taking into school and getting the kids to help with. It will be fun to see what they come up with to embellish these simple wrist cuffs!

I also made a few fabric baskets with some trouser legs too!

Today is also the first day back at school for my girls' final term of the year!  It's been wonderful having them home with me for the past two weeks, but I've now got the house to myself and a BIG to do list to get through - lots of sewing and plenty to share on the blog! I hope you'll come by each day to see more upcycling, tutorials and plenty of inspiration!

To see what else I've made for the school carnival so far, go here.

Bright and colourful turtles and tissue holders - more clothes upcycling

I'm continuing upcycling the last of the clothing for my girls school carnival, which is in just 4 weeks time!

After the softie turtles I made last week were all a little grey,

I decided we needed some with a little colour!

I forgot to take pictures of the clothes before I cut them up - but they are made from a selection of shorts and t-shirts.

My girls have been helping me out today too - giving each turtle a name and a character, for example, this is Sparkle,

this is Lily,

and this is Missile.

So here are all the turtles together - a much more colourful bunch now don't you think?

My girls also did some sewing too yesterday!

They made a whole heap of tissue holders from jeans and other trouser legs for the stall.

So nice that they can make things for the stall and be so involved with it. The idea is to get is set up this year as a concept, then try to help the kids at the school do a lot of the upcycling themselves next year!

To see what else I've upcycled from clothes so far for the school carnival go here.

Fifty Shades of Turtle - more clothes upcycling

This week's clothes upcycle is a few more turtle softies for the school carnival stall.

I made my first one of these 3 months ago using fabric from a skirt and pair of jeans.

Then I made another one a couple of weeks ago after a special request for a turtle mascot for my daughter's school environment club.

For all these turtles I used this great tutorial and pattern from 

Cup of Threads.

The three turtles I made yesterday are several shades of darker greys, black, beiges and blues.

I made them from scraps left over from other projects - from a couple of pairs of jeans and shorts.

Now whilst these turtles may be cute - I'm wondering if I should make a few girly turtles to offset the shades of grey!

What do you think?  A pink turtle perhaps?

You may have noticed I have made quite a few turtle projects over the past few months.  Well, living up here in Cairns, right next to the Great Barrier Reef, I'm lucky enough to be able to volunteer to help care for sick turtles.

Even more Water Bottle Carriers - jeans upcycles

After a week off sewing to have a nice break with my husband, he's back at work and it's my girls last week of term at school, so I'm back at my sewing machine.

But first, yesterday morning I had my fortnightly turtle volunteer session -  I help out feeding and caring for sick turtles here in Cairns. This is the one I fed yesterday - a super cute green sea turtle that was unfortunately caught in an oil slick!

So after that, I sat down at my machine and made a start on some more Water Bottle Carriers for the school carnival.

I used my own tutorial (you can find that here), and cut out several - managing to sew and finish 3 more.

I really like these Bottle Carriers and plan to make several more. Hopefully other people will feel the same way and buy them at the carnival stall!

To see what else I've made for the school carnival so far - go here.

And for heaps more clothes upcycling inspiration - check out the ongoing linky which currently has over 600 projects to browse through!  Do add any of your own clothes upcycling projects too.

Scotty Dog Bag - A Clothes Upcycle Tutorial

My pile of clothes to upcycle for the school carnival is getting smaller - and I'm starting to have to piece bits together to make larger items - like I did for this bag.

I used a skirt, and the left over parts from a pair of cargo pants, together with a scrap of tartan fabric from my stash for the Scotty Dog appliqué. I made good use of the pockets from both clothing items and also used the waistbands for the bag straps.

Here's how to make your very own Scotty Dog bag, 

from old clothes.

You will need 2 items of lower body clothing - skirts or trousers/pants. Plus some fabric for the appliqué Scotty Dog and some fusible webbing to stick it to the main bag part with.

Main panels

You will need 2 outer and 2 inner side panels. 

I made mine 36 cm wide by 38 cm deep. (14 x 15").

The fabric from neither the skirt nor the trousers was big enough, so I cut pieces as large as I could - using the pockets, and then pieced together other pieces to make the size I needed:

So you should now have 4 side panels., all the same size.

Bag Straps

Next for the straps. I used 2 waistbands for these. The smallest one was 80 cm long (31.5"), so I cut the other waistband to the same size. Cut the waistbands from the clothing items - I unpicked the zips out so they can be reused too! Trim all the belt loops off. If you have unpicked the zip or any other part - machine stitch any gaps closed, and turn raw edge in to finish off if you have trimmed any length off the waistband. 

To determine the length of strap you want for your bag - drape the waistband over your shoulder as you would carry your bag and judge where you would like your bag to sit when finished.

The Scotty Dog

You can download and print the template for the Scotty Dog by clicking here. Iron on some fusible webbing to the back of the fabric you want to use for the appliqué. Then cut out the template and draw around it on the paper backing of your fabric. Remember to place the template upside down on the back of the fabric so that your finished dog faces the way you want!

Cut out the dog shape, peel off the paper backing and place on one of your outer bag panels, slightly up from the middle to allow for the base of the bag. Iron into place and stitch around the edges using a tight zig zag or appliqué stitch on your machine.

Put your bag together

All the pieces are now ready to assemble your bag.

Pin then stitch the outer main bag pieces right sides together down the sides and across the base. Repeat for the inner bag pieces, but leave a gap of about 10 cm (4") in one side. you will need this to turn the bag out at the end.

Give your bag a flat base

You now need to 'box the corners' of your bag. To do this, put your hand up inside one of your bag pieces and to the inside corner.

Now pinch the corner between your fingers on the outside so that you push the side and bottom seams together and flatten the corner into a triangle.

Pin then stitch across the corner about 4 cm  (1.5") in from the tip.

Then trim the corner off.

Repeat with both corners of the inner and outer bag parts.

Attach the straps

Take one of your bag straps and place on the front of your main bag (now turned right side out) where you want the straps to lie.

Make sure the strap sits flat and is not twisted at all. 

Pin the other strap to the back of the bag, lining it up with the front strap as to the placing. Stitch both straps into place with a stitched square and cross just at the bottom of each strap. Be careful and not stitch too close to the top open end of the bag as you need to stitch around here next!

Now push your outer bag into your inner bag like this - so the right sides of both fabrics are facing.

 Make sure the straps are both tucked in. Pin the open raw edges together, matching up the side seams. Stitch all the way around.

Turn the bag right sides out through the gap you left in the side seam of the inner bag.

Hand-stitch the gap in the inner seam closed

Finally, push the inner bag inside the outer bag and press around the top opening.

Top stitch all the way around the top of your bag.

All done!

Admire your new Scotty Dog Bag.

For the free downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here. 

Now all I have left of those two clothing items is this:

A couple of zips, some elastic, a little pocket, a decorative silver square and a few scraps of fabric.  All useful bits to be saved for future projects!

To see what else I've upcycled for the school carnival stall from old clothes, go here.

Or for lots more clothes upcycling inspiration, why not visit my long term linky:

600+ Clothes Upcycling Projects