There is something so very satisfying about taking something old, broken, or neglected and making it usable again. I try to mend or upcycle whenever possible. I tend to keep all fabric that I think I can find a use for. That means old sheets, broken or damaged clothes, and “treasures” I find along the way. I delight in shopping at thrift stores, garage sales, or being a curb gnome of Free stuff on the side of the road. When I take fabric things apart (i.e. sheets, shirts, skirts, etc.) I sit down with my seam ripper and completely dismantle everything into individual pieces. By doing this, I end up with more fabric from seam allowance and hems, or new notions like the elastic in the casing of a fitted sheet. These are all good things to have and reuse. They just take some time and effort.
Feebs pants: Every year my darling girl wears holes in the knees of her leggings. Every. Single. Year. The first couple of years, I think I just threw them away. One day it dawned on me that it makes no sense for me to throw away holey leggings, then buy her shorts when the weather warms up. So now I have an ever-present pile of holey leggings that get converted into shorts each year. It saves me money and helps eliminate some waste. I have an overlocker, but for these, I use my regular sewing machine with a jersey needle and a zigzag stitch.
Gardening Hat: I was riding my “stationary” bike recently and surveying the chaos that is the garage when I noticed my incredibly crumpled gardening hat. The brim was bent and slumped and looked very depressing. I started to consider the fact that maybe the hat was at the end of its life. I was musing that maybe I could fix it if I had some wire. No joke, I looked to my right, and low and behold there was a spool of wire hanging on one of the shelves. I used heavy-duty thread and hand-sewed the wire. I already had some double-folded bias tape, so I used that and my sewing machine to cover the wire. Good as new. Now I can look like my true quirky garden-lady self.
Reusable wine/ whiskey bags: The Husband is hard on jeans. Very hard on jeans. About once every quarter, I tend to inherit a pair of jeans with a catastrophically blown-out crotch. This blowout is not something that you/ I cannot mend. The rest of the jeans are fine though, and they result in a lot of good, strong, material that I can’t make myself throw away. For Christmas last year, the Husband bought himself some fancy whiskeys that he’d had his eye on. I was out of bottle gift bags and wasn’t about to waste wrapping paper on them. It seemed gauche though, to just leave them naked under the tree. So, I cut up a pair of damaged jeans and an old button-up shirt that the Husband no longer wore and turned them into reusable whiskey gift bags. The denim fabric was very bulky and took a lot of maneuvering. When I make more, I will use lighter materials.
Using sheets: I love making things out of sheets. I have gone through the sets of sheets that have been moved from house to house that no longer fit our beds. Do you know what these are fabulous for? Toiles and pajamas. I want to make a saltwater slip dress and don’t want to use my fashion fabric (another thrifted sheet) on the first go. So, I will pull out one of my old Ikea twin-size sheet sets and work out the pattern and my sizing first. I am also in dire need of some summer pajama sets, so what better way than with a few orphaned pillowcases found at the thrift store. To date, one of my proudest upcycles is a True Bias Ogden Cami dress hack. A while ago, we bought a new duvet cover for our bed with decorative pillow shams. I do not like pillow shams. I have no use for pillow shams. So, I seam-ripped them apart and made a dress. I love this dress and was incredibly proud of the upcycle. (Note to self: make another one of these dresses using the unlined method and a size smaller.)
Excellent resources for this type of making are:
Podcasts:
Frugalisma
With Wendy
Coolirpa
Bernadette Banner
Books:
Mending Matters; Stitch, Patch, and Repair your Favorite Denim & More
Make, Sew, and Mend: Traditional Techniques to Sustainably Maintain and Refashion Your Clothes
Websites:
Upcycle That
Thread Up
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 