Hi Creative Mamas! I am so happy to be sharing with you how to upcycle old clothes. I love talking upcycling! Upcycling is one of my passions and something that I teach and that I do myself a lot. It’s a great fashion sustainability strategy since what you are basically doing is giving a garment a new leaf of life. Therefore, you are reducing waste and you may be ending up with a garment that has emotional meaning to you (since you have taken the time and energy to upcycle it)
How to upcycle old clothes?
In this article you will learn how to upcycle old clothes and turn them into something special! No sewing machine required for this technique but if you are a lover of sewing machines it’s easy to adapt the instructions by using a zig zig stitch or any machine embroidery stitch 🙂
What does upcycle mean?
What does it mean to upcycle old clothes?
What is the difference between upcycling and recycling
Recycling is the process of collecting and changing an object so that it can be used again. There is no intention to add a higher value to it, it’s simply an exercise focused on re using rather than discarding. It’s a sustainable strategy to reduce landfill waste and to develop better consumer understanding in relation to consumption. To Recycle old clothes would mean to put your old garment through a shredding machine and to create yarn with the shredded fiber for example.
What is an example of upcycling?
As a mom I love the upcycling strategy. I am forever re using and re creating my kids old clothes, books and linen. I am also a little obsessed with shopping in thrift stores (op shops) and re using old blankets. With natural dyeing I am able to change the color of my fabrics and to create objects of value. Here are a few examples:
- Fabric flower created by upcycling old blanket fabric
- Pillow created by upcycling old linen
- Quilt created by upcycling my daughter’s baby blanket
Fabric flower
Pillow
Quilt
What do you need to upcycle old clothes without a sewing machine?
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I will show you how to upcycle an old garment by making a patch using LA CREATIVE MAMA Sewing Patterns. To upcycle a garment and give it a new lease of life with a higher value than before you need:
- An old garment that you want to work with (an old skirt, an old pair of jeans, your old over used denim jacket, a t shirt, a scarf, a shirt…it can be any garment that you love and don’t want to discard it but it’s too over used or it’s too plane and boring. I would normally upcycle anything that has a high emotional value to me so then I keep it around a whole lot longer.
- Needles
- Embroidery thread
- Scissors
- Fabric scraps
- Felted fabric or old blankets
DIY Tutorial
Step 1:
Choose your favorite sewing pattern from The Sewing Patterns Binder
Step 2:
Choose a foundation fabric. For my patch I have chosen a dyed old blanket but you can use a piece of felted fabric. Cut around your pattern shapes from your Sewing Pattern Binder image. Pin the pattern pieces on your chosen fabrics and cut around them.
Step 3:
Pin your cut out fabric shapes on to the foundation fabric
Step 4:
Hand sew around your shape. For this example I first used the glue stitch to baste my shapes in place and then I embroidered around using both a back stitch and the needle turned down applique. You can learn these techniques by enrolling in the Free Beginners Embroidery Mini Course in which I teach you step by step how to embroider like a pro in one hour.
Step 5:
Once you have sewn in place and you have embellish it as much as you want its time to cut around your patch. Place patch on your old garment. Play around with different placements of your patch. After much trial I have decided to place my patch at the back of my jacket 🙂 To attach your patch to your garment you can use Blanket stitch or whipstitch. Enroll in the Free Beginners Embroidery Mini Course in which I teach you step by step how to embroider like a pro in one hour.
Ideas of how to upcycle an old skirt with a patch
I used Embroidery to follow around the shape of the pattern. I created a patch to upcycle an old woolen skirt of mine. I manipulated the patterns by twisting the legs around and also replaced the arms with my own embroidery.
