Upcycled T-shirt Balloon Dog

I'm currently decluttering and working my way through my fabric and clothes to be upcycled stash.

Last week I opened a box of t-shirts I'd kept and made a simple t-shirt quilt for my girls. 

You can find more pictures and a tutorial to make your own t-shirt quilt here.

Although this was a great way to use up the front pictures and logos from all those t-shirts. There are still the t-shirt backs and scraps left over. Really so far I've used up less than half of the t-shirts from my stash in term of volume of fabric used and left over.

First I played around a little and made a mini t-shirt quilt, using the back of one of the t-shirts and smaller squares cut from the scraps of others.

Whilst this was nice and cute, and my younger daughter will happily claim it for her teddies, I'm not sure that making more of these is the answer to using up those last scraps.

Another thing I found on Pinterest and have been wanting to try making for a while is this t-shirt balloon dog.

The tutorial, from Little Inspiration is nice and clear and can be found here.

I cut two strips from the back of one of the left over t-shirts and sewed them together to make a tube long enough to try one.

 I used old stuffing from squished pillows that when pulled and tugged apart comes up nice and fluffy again for a second use!

The dog is made from stuffing and stitching your t-shirt tube in sections, twisting and stitching the sections together as you go, just as a balloon animal is twisted together!

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

I know my daughters are going to love this little doggie! It was fun to make and has inspired me with more possibilities yet!

Do come back again to see what I do with the remaining t-shirt scraps...

Handmade Christmas Softies - Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth

Christmas Softies - what a great idea!  There are so many great ideas, patterns and tutorials out there for making your own Christmas cuddly toys.

In past years I've made a few furry and other Christmas creatures for my girls. Here are some pictures of what we have.

A Santa Jem - this is a covered plastic bucket - so is great for putting presents in!

Two small Santa's Elf Jems - these are covered sections of drainpipe - and over the years I've made A LOT of these in various colours to sell and for kids presents. 

They are cuddly and can be filled with all sorts of things (tutorial here)

I also made a small Santa one year. (He's about 30 cm  (1') tall)

And together with a shoe box full of wrapped boxes and a cuddly reindeer we bought - he gets played with a lot each Christmas.

Finally this year I've added a couple of super simple no-sew sock snowmen from an old pair of the girls school socks. stuffed with fabric scraps.

Here are some more Softies that have been linked up to my Christmas parties over the years.

Snuggly Christmas Characters (with tutorial) from Brassy Apple.

Christmas Crochet Robin from Creative Chaos Art.

Christmas Reindeer from Howling at the Moon.

And a Gingerbread Man Rattle (with tutorial) from Vixen Made.

There are plenty more ideas for making Christmas Softies and lots of other Christmas Crafts on our group 

Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth Pinterest Board

Please do come and take a look - and feel free to request to join as a contributor to this board. The more the merrier!

To see what other topics I've covered in my Christmas Shouldn't Cost the Earth series - go here. And do keep coming back as I'm adding more ideas, projects and tutorials every week!

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.

Turtle Softie from Jeans and Skirt

I've got a bit of a turtle thing going on just now - with last week's Turtle Tote and my recent Jeans Pocket Turtle. I also volunteer at a local turtle rehabilitation centre where I help feed and look after sick turtles.

But back to my own made stuffed turtle!

I found the pattern through Pinterest several weeks ago and printed out the template pattern to try out. The tutorial and template download can be found here at Cup of Threads.

The shell I cut from the skirt, drew on the hexagon pattern using a cardboard template and pencil, then stitched over the lines.

Then I cut the head, arms and legs from the green jeans, and sewed and stuffed it all together.  I think he turned out really cute!

Hopefully another hot sale item for the school stall!

As always, I have a pile of left over fabric, zips, buttons etc - which will also be upcycled into things for the stall!

To see what else I've made for this year's school carnival from old clothes - go here. I'm using all old clothes from last year's carnival clothes stall, to show we can 'use what we've got' to raise funds for the school!

For lots of ideas of things you can make from old clothes - or just plain fabric, why not check out my free sewing tutorials. There are over 100 tutorials there now to make all kinds of things for all levels of sewing ability.

Over 100 Free Sewing Tutorials

Jill

Flying squirrels from trackpants - a clothes upcycle

Another clothes upcycle for the school carnival - this time a couple of flying squirrels made from a pair of old track pants and using this great free pattern and tutorial.

The track pants were a dark grey fleece pair, with a cute pocket on the back. I didn't end up using the pocket on this project but have saved it to use in the future!

The squirrels were super easy to make thanks to a great tutorial and pattern by Abby Glassenberg guest posting for Wild Olive. 

I think it's simple enough for kids to make, and I'm sure my girls will want to have a go at making their own squirrels!

The squirrels turned out very cute don't you think?

And all that's left over is this: elastic, the label, that cute pocket of course and a little more of the fleecy fabric. Definitely plenty to use in future creations.

To see what else I've made from clothes so far for this year's school carnival, go here.

And for heaps more clothes upcycling ideas, you can visit the ongoing linky which now has over 600 projects linked up.

600+ Clothes Upcycling Projects.

  Or check out my round ups of what to make from clothes item by item here.

Clothes upcycling item by item.

Jill