Sewing + Upcycling = Win

Yo, hello! I hope you have all been having a Famtastic week! Here it was the last full week of summer school holidays. Just a couple of days left and then we are thrown back into the (so very, very early, every morning) school schedule.

I truly imagined having some time to pursue my own hobbies these holidays. Yes, snigger at me, if you wish. But I really had fantasised about getting some sewing done. Leggings for the girls, a shirt for me, perhaps a shirt for Master 5. Let us take a moment to contemplate whether I did any of those things…

**3 milliseconds later**

Alas, NO. I did not. Is this how it is for you during school holidays too? Imagine squeezing in some Mama time and end up with perhaps a microscopic amount of Mama time?!?

Anyway, I did, however, repair a stack of holes in children’s clothes. “Wow!” I hear you say. Yes, I find that neither fun nor satisfying. What I DO enjoy is creating handmade clothes and other goodies. Like shirts and leggings and skirts.

What I have been experimenting with more recently though is UPCYCLING in my sewing projects.

So what is upcycling anyway? And why would anyone want to do it? Hint: Upcycling does not mean riding a bike up a steep hill 😉.

What is Upcycling?

By now everyone is accustomed to recycling as a way to reduce waste. A simplistic example: most people throw old paper into recycling bins where it will be collected, broken down and processed to create new paper and cardboard products rather than chopping down a fresh tree to produce that 4-ply toilet paper for your bum 😉.

Upcycling has become a bit of a buzz word these past couple of years, although the concept is actually not new at all. Go ask your grandmother! According to the good old Oxford Dictionary upcycling is the “reuse of (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original”.

Take another example, say, plastic milk cartons. Tossing them into the recycling bin will find them chopped up, melted down, whatever, then processed and converted into toys, clothing or other forms of plastic. Upcycling would mean not throwing it out, but rather finding a new use for the carton itself, like a pot for growing seedlings or a bird feeder.

All very simplistic descriptions, but I know you get the idea 😊.

What can you Upcycle?

Well, pretty much anything!! Let your imagination run wild! Wine bottles, old clothes, milk cartons (😉), cans, coat hangers, tyres, wooden doors… A wise person once told me to never throw out old jeans or towels either. (You’ll see why in a couple of minutes. Keep reading!) Do an online search for ideas and you could get lost in Pinterest (or similar) and get sucked in forever. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Around our house we do re-use bits and pieces of “waste”. Although to be honest a lot of it ends up being for kids crafts. OK, at some point much of that will indeed end up in the bin too *gasp!* (Oh come on people, be honest! Do you truly have enough space in your house to collect and keep every piece of artwork presented to you by your little Johnny? If your kids are anything like mine when it comes to arts and crafts, if I were to keep every.single.piece of artistic expression we would need to build a second house to store everything). We also donate a LOT of plastic tubs, snippets of fabric and ribbons, lids, buttons, coloured paper and cardboard, egg cartons and more to our kids’ kindergarten and school. OK, a lot of that will probably end up in the bin too ☹. But we do try.

Another fine example of upcycling: dear Hubby did build us a fine garden bed last spring using wooden pallets. He valiantly rescued the perfectly good pallets before they could be hacked up and turned into paper towels or something 😉. It looks amazing and was actually really easy.

Upcycling Projects for Sewing Fans

I really love sewing (when I get around to it). Any small scraps of fabric I immediately donate to the kids’ school/kindy craft collections. But anything large enough to sew a sleeve or 2 and I’ll keep it for future use. Which is super handy because our children have some pretty creative ideas about the fabric combinations I should conjure into items of clothing for them.

On the other hand, this leaves me with a couple of those gigantic IKEA tubs (you know the ones that I mean? Like this.) full of metres and squares and all shapes of fabric.

What better than to start putting them to use by creating something new out of them all? The answer is *da da da*: UPCYCLING. You want to see a few upcycling ideas? Here we go!

Loop Scarf

Who said a scarf had to be in sensible colours? Not my kids, that’s for sure. Having kept so many pieces of jersey (stretch) fabric left over from my adventures in sewing for our kids, I put them to use last winter and created the ultimate loop scarf! One for each of the girls actually. And because I sewed the scarf using leftover pieces from clothes I had already made for them (in all manner of colours and patterns), the scarves are guaranteed to match just about any outfit they choose to wear. Perfect! (You can read more about making an Infinity Loop Scarf here).

Cutlery Pouch

Inspired by a friend of mine who is a-mazing; she has been living (as much as possible) plastic- and waste-free for a couple of years now. I really need to interview her to find some other ideas for re-using and reducing waste… Anyway, when our daughters recently were camping, she oh-so-cleverly whipped up a pouch in which to store one set of cutlery for her daughter. I took the hint and sewed one quickly for my own, using an old tea towel. But you really could use any piece of firm fabric. Think cottons, linens, denim…

Drawstring Bag

Since my daughter was going camping and needed a cutlery pouch, it made sense to sew her a matching drawstring bag to carry the pouch and her plates, bowl and mug, all in one practical bag. Drawstring bags have infinite uses and can be made in whatever size you need. This project was SO easy. I had the tea towel. I had also kept the cord from an old hoodie. Voila! Nothing new needed to create this bag. Upcycled?- check!

Fabric Baskets

A while back I posted the sewing instructions for cute, small storage baskets for your home- you can get them here. I actually used some unwanted linen curtains and cotton fabric offcuts for mine. These baskets are so practical, look great and can be used for whatever it is you need to store- Upcycling triumphs again!

Denim Shorts

I did just say before, that I was wisely advised to never chuck out a pair of old jeans. Right? Well, check out these cool shorts I sewed a few weeks back for Master 5. The pattern for the basic shorts I downloaded from here and just added my own front pockets for some extra pizzazz. Unwanted denim jeans can be upcycled into a million things: shorts, trousers, skirts, bags, baskets… Find your fave pattern and get sewing!

And there you have it! Some inspiration to get you started on upcycling old fabrics in new and creative ways. Now what to do with an old, blue, cotton, king-sized bedsheet??? That is, apart from letting the 3 kids dress up as a giant, 3-headed, blue ghost…

What cool creations have you made by upcycling stuff you had around the house? Share your successes and creations with us here! We’d love to see them 😊.