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:

First, since it is my blog - 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!

Now - more ideas for what to do with those ties!!

Here's some ideas that my wondefully creative readers linked up on my clothes upcycling page

(which now has almost 100 fabulous ideas linked up!)

Some kids no-sew bow-ties by Olivia Renn, who guest posted the tutorial here:

Some Tie Snakes from Allie Belle Designs:

A pleated tie necklace from Of Pinks and Fairytales:

And a beautiful flower from Heavenly Handmades:

Brilliant ideas! 

But the creativeness with ties doesn't end there!

More?

Yes!!

There is an entire blog about creating art from men's ties. You MUST go and take a look! There are rugs, dresses,  lamps, quilts..... oh just go and look!  I was blown away!

http://sewingwithneckties.blogspot.com/

Here's a video I found on youtube, which describes a whole range of things that someone makes from ties and sells in her shop - take a look at this- some amazing ideas:



Is that enough inspiration for you go start cutting up those ties???  I've used up all the old ones in our house - I must admit I'm tempted to take a trip to the charity shop to buy more to try out some more of these ideas!

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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!

I'll be linking this post to some of the wonderful linky parties whose pretty buttons can be found on the bottom of this page.

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!!

Come back tomorrow for my weekly Round Tuit linky party - and link up more of your fabulous creations!

Then on Tuesday for the clothes upcycling Grand Finale!!

Oh and if you have any more of your own clothes upcycling projects - PLEASE link them up to my page - it's sooo close to 100 links - and would be fantastic to get there before the end of the month!

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!

I found lots of tutorials to help me at Tip Junkie and at The Domestic Diva.

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

Then again on Monday for the Round Tuit linky party,

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!!

Sweater refashions - Clothes upcycling challenge day 27

Phew! 27 days! I'm impressed at how much I've got through - my 'to be upcyled box' is almost empty - and I'm just finishing off the last couple of projects!

So while I do that, I thought I'd highlight a couple more of the fabulous ideas that people have linked up on the clothes upcycling page! 

It's almost winter here in Cairns - and this morning was a chillly 13C  (that's chilly for us!!) So I thought it would be fitting to show some of the sweater refashions linked up:

First of all,  some sweaters turned into pillows by Creations from June:

Next, a couple of sweater refashions from Domestic Deadline:

And here's the other one:

Some sweater wall art, from Christina's Adventures:

A sweater turned into a bag from Fairfield Manor:

And this fabulous ruffly sweater refashion from the Empty Nest:

Who would've thought you could do so much with sweaters??

You are all amazing!  I've been so inspired by everyone who has linked up their projects - but please don't stop. This linky is open until the end of 2012 at this stage - so this great resource can keep on growing!

Just a few more days to go of my clothes upcycling challenge month. I hope you'll keep coming to see my last few projects - then to see what my challenge for June is!!!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

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?

For more wonderfully creative spaces,  head on over here!

And if you haven't seen already - take a look at the fabulous links of clothes upcycling ideas and tutorials!  Almost up to 100!!

And please, please could you take a second to click on this button to move me up the fence just a little more? thank you!

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!!