Upcycled uniforms to bags

What do you do when your sporting club changes their uniform and you're left with piles of the old style uniform in all the unwanted sizes?

Make bags of course!

That's what I'm working on in my spare moments.

I've gone through my usual guilty feelings for cutting up clothes that are still perfectly good for wearing. 

But once I see the resulting bags, and know that the club can sell them and use the money to fund new uniforms, the guilt disappears!

I've started by making some simple tote bags.

I'm just using fabric from my stash for the rest of the bags, so there is going to be a variety to choose from.

I used waterproof fabric for the lining - since they are for a swimming club and very likely to have wet things put in them!

which is perfect for the bag linings, since they are likely to be used for carrying wet towels and swimmers!

The waterproof fabric is quite sturdy too, so it helps the bags keep their shape a little better.

I'm really enjoying this project. I've a few more tote bags to make, then I'm making smaller pouches with the short sleeves and some duffel bags with more of the main fabric.

Once I've got them all finished we'll hold a sale at the pool and hopefully we can contribute a significant amount towards funding the new uniforms from that.

This is a great way to 

'Use What You've Got'

which is my motto this year!

Have you ever found a use for old sporting uniforms?

Upcycling jeans again - another Birthday gift

The first birthday party of the year is in a few days, so I had to think of something new to make for my daughters' friends again this year.

This time I made a small bag and matching notebook cover. I used my bag tutorial here and my notebook cover tutorial here.

This year I'm focusing using what I've got - so making the most of the 100+ tutorials I've already made!

Of course you know I love upcycling, so thought I'd use an old pair of jeans for some of the fabric - and matched it up with other fabric from my stash.

The bag turned out really cute..

I used a notebook from a stash of them I bought in the January sales, and included a pen in the jeans pocket on the front.

The notebook just slips into the cover, so once it's used up it can be replaced with a fresh one.

Hope the girl likes her birthday set!. I think I'm going to make up a few to have prepared for upcoming birthdays - and will add them to my Madeit shop in the meantime.

What are you making for birthday gifts this year? 

Use what you've got - gift wrapping

Last weekend we were invited to a Christening and a Wedding.

It was a stunning sunny day, and the beach wedding was just beautiful - under the palm trees at the water's edge..

We bought the gifts to take - a cute cuddly dragon for the baby, and some Champagne and glasses for the happy couple.

But how to wrap them?

I didn't want to buy any wrapping paper that would then be thrown away. I like to wrap gifts in a more eco-friendly way and use something that can be part of the gift itself.

So, I had a look through my fabric stash - wanting to

'Use what I've got'

For the cuddly dragon, I found a piece of cute baby fabric.

I cut a large rectangle and finished the edges off by double turning and stitching all the way around.

The fabric is cotton sheeting, and the size I cut is around cot size, so the Mum can use it as an extra sheet for the baby or just a cloth.

To wrap the dragon I just tied the 4 corners of the fabric around the  dragon and added a ribbon and card.

Next was the wine and glasses - already in nice presentation boxes.

I found some perfect fabric in my stash - dark blue with glasses of bubbly printed on it in gold. And some matching shiny gold fabric too.

This time I decided to make a drawstring bag to put the gifts in.

Again I tied a card and ribbon to the bag.

Definitely a better way to wrap gifts than throw away paper!

How do you wrap your gifts?