Want some neat recycled clothing ideas?

**Kristina Katarina** · 06-07-2003, 10:19 PM

Hi - I hope you don't mind me jumping right in here. I was encouraged to on my "welcome post".

If some of these things have been covered, please excuse me.

Pants that no longer fit:
My DD outgrew some of her pants over the last year. She had *no* shorts this spring. So, I cut off a pair of her khaki pants. I had her seam rip the sides of the cutoffs and then I used the "leg" of the pants to add some fabric into each side of the pants. Voila...shorts! They came out great.

Wool pants for baby...
I got a very nice 100% wool sweater from the recycling center's "free exchange" area. I seam ripped the arms off - very carefully so as not to catch the knit. I actually haven't sewn them together yet, but I will by fall. I have made sweatpants for my son this same way using a man's XL sweatshirt. What I did was to take a pair of sweatpants that fit him. Put one leg inside the other so that it looked like just one leg and then cut one sleeve down so that it matches the pair of sweatpants. Then do the same for the other sleeve. Sew the crotch seam, make a casing, put in elastic and VOILA! I also made a pair of pants for my little guy out of a man's XL Rugby shirt. A man's size XL shirt will make a 3T - 4T pair of pants.

Great sources of free fabric:
I have used larger size women's skirts and dresses to make skirts and even an entire jumper dress for my DD when she was very little. I once used a denim skirt as the skirt part of a jumper for my DD. I got about 1/2 a yd. of a cute teddy bear print from Joann fabrics and that was the bodice part. When I get hold of a bag of clothing from family or friends, those items that do not fit my family in size or style are often recycled into something new for my children.

I have a new idea for a purse made of a pair of denim jeans and some "sacks" made from the legs leftover from that project.

Oh, another thing. I have cut a dress off that was not "breastfeeding friendly" to make a skirt from it. That with a blouse is much more "bf friendly",

My current project sitting on a desk behind me is a size 0-3 months "bubble" style outfit with a cute collar. I seam ripped the bottom (diaper cover part) from the bodice. I am going to make a little "bloomers" type diaper cover from the bottom and I seam ripped the side seam under the arms and sewed them back up to be a tiny bit looser. I took the buttons off the back and will sew those back on to make it looser, too. Then I will add a "skirt" to the bodice of a matching pink fabric.

!

Okay, that's enough tonight.

Kristin

edited to change some weird wording, LOL!

**voodidit** · 06-08-2003, 12:09 AM

Great ideas! I'm glad you are jumping in feet first!

**captclearance** · 06-08-2003, 12:39 AM

What great ideas Kristen, you are very resourceful !!!!!!

**SewCrafty** · 06-08-2003, 11:15 AM

Kristin, you are one frugal lady! Great ideas!!

**simplemom** · 06-08-2003, 01:03 PM

Thanks Kristen for those very good ideas! I love recycling clothes! I try to extend or transform the life of our clothes as long as I can! We can save alot of

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**Heather** · 06-08-2003, 04:35 PM

Thank you so much, those are wonderful ideas!!

**Kristina Katarina** · 06-08-2003, 05:02 PM

Thank you, ladies. I can't wait to post a picture of the little outfit I am working on. It is a dress with bloomers from that tingy 3 mos. outfit. I have my digicam's batteries charging right now.

Oh, and I meant to say in the first post that Ayla'smommy gave me the idea to post this when I read about her great Mommy capris/baby skirt post!