How to use your old ties! - Clothes upcycling challenge day 31!

Do you have a bunch of old discarded ties?  Or perhaps seen a pile in the charity shop or in a garage sale?

Every wondered what you could do with all that lovely pretty fabric?

Well look no more - here are some fabulous and creative ideas for you:

 I want to show you my own creations from my husbands old ties...

First of all, some smart little pencil and notebook folders.

Just perfect for your shopping list, to slip in your handbag!

And then,with the left over parts of the ties, I made a bag..

They go well together I think!

Thank you for all your encouragement and support throughout my clothes upcycling challenge month, not only have I used up a large pile of clothes which I've had for several years, but I learned a lot about sewing clothes, provided myself and my daughters with lots of 'new clothes' and other miscellaneous items, and also learnt more about what I can achieve when I really set my mind to things and commit to doing something consistently and regularly!

Do come back tomorrow, when I will reveal my next challenge, I want to keep my motivation up and edge ever closer to success using all the creative bones I can find in my body - or anywhere else for that matter!

Hope you have a lovely day!

Scrap fabric monster - Clothes upcycling challenge day 29

Ok - we're soooo close to the end of the month - and I've finally finshed my box!  Look!

Yay!!  Mission accompished!  Clothes upcycled, reused, mended and chopped!

Although I still have my last big project to show you on Tuesday - last day of the month! So please come back then - it's a good one!

But for now - I want to show you what I made with the scraps!

I took some of the bigger bits out, chopped up the rest into small bits to use for stuffing..

And made...

erm...

well, this...

which I thought might like to sit up on a shelf above my sewing machine - as a reminder of my clothes upcycling month - to provide inspiration...

But she has already been spotted by my youngest daughter, named 'Floppy' and added to her soft toy collection on her bed!!

Ah well!  Glad Floppy has gone to a good home!

Success is good!

Upcycling - DONE!!

Fabric flowers - Clothes upcycling challenge day 28

Well aside from a couple of last upcycles that I will show you at the end of the month (still finishing them !), I don't have any full clothes left - just the left over scraps, and lots of them!

See what I mean?  It's not pretty!

So what am I to do with them?

I thought I'd pick out some of the better pieces and make some embellishments...

Lots of fabric flowers, that I can keep to use here and there when I make something - a bag, a headband, a t-shirt...anything!

There's the toadstool flower:

The by-the-pool flower..

Delicate tulle bloom..

Gecko frayed flowers...

And the I-can-pretend-I'm-real flowers...

Quite pretty - and a nice thing to have a stash of for future projects!

If you want to see what I did with those remaining scraps....come back tomorrow!!

and on Tuesday for the clothes upcycling Grand Finale - my last upcycle (for now) - with another tutorial I'm just putting the finishing touches to!!

My creative space - clothes upcycling challenge day 26

Today's creative space is a little bit of mending and a bit more upcycling!

First I finally managed to do something with a pair of my shorts.  I showed you them a couple of weeks ago, when I braved fixing zips.  Unfortunately the zip on these shorts was unfixable, so I still didn't know what to do...

Then some clever reader (thanks Danielle!!) suggested replacing the zip with velcro!  Now why didn't I think of that!

So I did!  It was remarkably easy - just unpick, remove the old broken zip, and stitch it all back in place with some velcro added!  Hey presto, I can wear my shorts again!!

Now today's upcycle (not much left in my box now...)

Is a dress we got in a hand-me-down bag.

Very pretty, and my eldest daughter loves it, but the only problem is it's a size 4 and she's more like a size 8!

So I snipped off the top of the dress, folded over the waist to make a casing, added a fresh piece of elastic and now she has a wonderful, twirly polka-dot skirt!

I tell you - upcycling clothes is the best way to learn more about sewing techniques and the way clothes are made!  I've learnt sooo much this month! 

What have you learnt about your craft lately?

Another t-shirt to kids dress - Clothes upcycling challenge day 25

Today's upcycle is another t-shirt dress, this time for my elder daughter. 

I used this old singlet of my husbands for the main body of the dress..

This old, too-small leggings from my younger daughter for the trims and straps..

And this too-small t-shirt for the ruffles..

To make a nice comfy and colourful dress!

With just a plain back!

I've almost used up all the old clothes now - and having learnt lots about clothes making along the way, I'm itching to start making some clothes with fresh fabric!!  But that will have to wait till next month!  Still 6 more days to go - got to finish this challenge and empty that box!!

T-shirt to wall art, clothes upcycling challenge day 24

Well, I thought I'd covered all the t-shirt possibilities, and exhausted my supply of ones to recycle, then at the bottom of my box I found 3 more kids ones!!

So for a quick and easy project, I made some wall art:

Sooo simple to make, and a neat way to keep a cute t-shirt that your child has grown out of.  If you have one of those personalised t-shirts with their name on it, you could use it as their bedroom door hanger!

That's what I decided to use these chalkboard t-shirts for! My girls are forever writing messages and sticking them to their doors - things like "no boys allowed"  or  "Knock and wait to be answered before coming in"  or even just "Keep out"

So I figure this will at least save paper!

So how did I make them?  Well here's what I started with:

Two chalkboard fabric t-shirts that no longer fit.

I cut out the centre square of the t-shirts - front and back, and a strip from the bottom of each t-shirt for the hanging strap:

Then cut two pieces of sturdy card slightly smaller than these squares (about 1cm less on each side)

Then with right sides together, stitch around three edges of the square- leaving the top edge open.

Trim the corners:

To make the strap, take the long strip of fabric from the bottom of your t-shirt, and double fold it in on itself to hide the raw edges, then stitch down both sides.

Turn your square right sides out, and push the card inside it.

Then push your strap into the top on either side, fold the edges down and pin closed, then stitch across the top:

For the orange t-shit, it had a design on the back, so I made sure I cut both pieces with the pictures on:

Repeated the same process as for the chalkboard shirts:

Only this one made a reversible wall art hanging!

For the chalkboards, I used a sleeve, cut then stitched close like a pocket, another strip of fabric for the strap, and popped a couple of pieces of chalk into it- so the girls have something to write their messages with!

Here's one hanging on their door to surprise them with when they come home from school!!

Too white on white though!  I might have to paint their door.......

What do you think?  Do you have any t-shirts you could turn into cute wall art or door hangers?

Click here to see my other post with LOTS more ideas of what you can make from t-shirts! 

And don't forget there's a whole page of clothes upcycling projects with well over 600 fabulous ideas now linked up!

Only a few days left to upcycle my old clothes stash! 

Fancy flip flops - Clothes upcycling day 22

Yesterday I showed you a new party/fairy dress I made for my daughter using older, stained, too-small fairy dresses and a t-shirt.

Well, I had a fair bit of left over tulle still from the old dresses, so decided to have a go at something I've seen around blogland for a while - some nice simple jazzed up thongs / flip flops / sandals- or whatever you want to call them depending on where you live!!  Coming from the UK, thongs mean something entirely different there (I think the US may be the same),

But hey, I'm an aussie now, so thongs are these.....

Here's the old thongs- used for running around the garden, worn and faded...

I cut the tulle into pieces around the size of the thong..

Then simply tied each piece around the strap in a granny knot..

Until I'd used it all up, and had a new pair of big puffy garden thongs!!

To match the new puffy dress:

And all modelled so beautifully..

Hope you're having lovely weekend!