Ever wonder what to do with all of your unused, old clothes at home? Donating is one way to prevent them from going into landfills while also helping those in need. Another way is by upcycling them into new products, this is a fun activity that you can do at home using only simple tools and basic sewing skills. Below we show you some creative upcycling ideas:
Reusable bags
Tools:
– Clean, old fabric
– Stationary
– Sewing machine
– Sewing kit
– Zipper (optional)
How-to:
- Create a bag pattern on paper as the template.
- Place the template on the fabric, cut the fabric following the template, make two pieces. Add a 2cm seam allowance on the right and left sides.
- Pin the two pieces together and sew.
- Decide how long you want the handles to be, cut another fabric, enough to make two strips of the handles. Fold each piece in half longways and stitch.
- Attach the handles to the bag.
- Add a zipper if you want and customize the bag to your liking.
Doormat
Tools:
– Clean, old fabric
– sewing kit
– Sewing machine
How to:
- Cut the fabric into small pieces, size options: 4x4cm, 8x8cm or 12x12cm.
- Fold each piece diagonally to form an isosceles triangle. The right end should meet with the left end of the fabric, and sew.
- Provide a larger and thicker fabric as the base. The shape should resemble a circle.
- Stitch the triangle pieces to the base until they cover the entire base of the mat. Make sure to keep the triangle pieces very close to each other so there won’t be any gaps between them.
Scrunchies
Tools:
– Small amount of clean, old fabric
– Elastic
– Skewer or a chopstick
– Sewing kit
How-to:
- Cut an 8cm x 50cm strip of fabric.
- Fold the strip in half, and sew the long edge but leave a 4cm allowance on both sides.
- Turn the tube right side out using a skewer or a chopstick.
- Stitch around the short ends of the tube and turn it right side out.
- Use a safety pin to attach one end of the elastic to one end of the scrunchie tube.
- Grab another safety pin, this time attach it to another end of the elastic strip.
- The elastic end attached to the fabric end (step 5) will be your anchor as you feed the other elastic end (step 6) through the tube, all the way to the opening on the other end.
- Secure both ends of the elastic strip together by stitching them together.
Pencil case
Tools:
- Clean, old fabric
- Zipper
- Sewing kit
How-to:
- Cut out a 25x35cm fabric piece.
- Keep the fabric right side up in front of you. Place the zipper face down on one edge of the fabric and sew.
- Fold the fabric and sew the other zipper edge to the other edge of the fabric.
- Stitch right and left sides of the fabric closed.
- Turn the pencil case right side out.