KCW: A trio of t-shirts

The theme for this season's Kids Clothes Week is 'upcycled'. I'm not a huge upcycler, mainly because I wear my clothes til they are literally falling apart, and by then there's not much left to work with. And while I have my eye on a few of my husband's shirts, he's not prepared to part with a single one (despite having nearly 100 of them, which I think is ridiculous). Nevertheless, KCW provided the impetus for me to clear out a pile of old torn, stained and too-small clothes that I'd kept in hopes of repurposing them in some way, and in doing so I found a couple of upcyclable tops.

Daydreaming about what to make, and having decided that this will be the year I sew some boring things like plain leggings and t-shirts, I sketched some ideas for t-shirts for R. I was aiming for 4 and managed to make 3 before preparations for our family holiday took over and I had to call it a day.

The grey t-shirt turned out the best. I used one of K's t-shirts and retained the existing neckline and shoulder seams, but cut out all the rest using one of R's tops as a guide. I also used the sleeve hems to be the hems of the flutter sleeves, which worked out great.

The bluey-grey t-shirt is not upcycled. It's made from some stretchy cotton jersey, with the flutter sleeves made from South African Three Cats fabric. I got lazy and didn't use my double needle for the hem; consequently it doesn't look great. Oh well...

T-shirt number three is made from an old top of mine and I have no idea how it looks on R because I haven't yet tried it on her and she was too hot and bothered after school to model anything (and I was too hot and bothered to take decent photos). I'm thinking the sleeves look kind of ridiculous - I didn't have much fabric to work with as I had to avoid a paint stain on the original top - but if they look silly on, I'll just downcycle it into a rag and call it a learning experience.

In my enthusiasm for upcyling I made a little stamp with a recycling symbol on it, so my upcycled garments now have their own special label!

Cardboard distractions

I'm not short of work-in-progress - anyone passing my sewing table could attest to that. But despite the many things I should be finishing (some of which are so close to completion it's ridiculous) it's amazing how appealing and distracting a completely new project can be. Which is why I spent yesterday evening cutting up boxes to make little pencil cases and wallets. The kids were thrilled to see their favourite cereal (Fruity Bites) and the icy summer favourite Sunnyboy featured on the wallets and pencil case.

These recycled beauties are quick to make and don't require much in the way of materials, especially if you, like me, keep carefully flattened cereal boxes to use for unspecified future projects. Add a ruler, gluestick, stanley knife, pen, elastic and some kind of poker or punch and you're all set.
















I used this tutorial for the wallets and this one for the pencil case (which I made shorter so I could use the Sunnyboy box). Both tutorials have templates that you can download and use. Quick, cute and recycled - what more could you ask for?