Up-cycle Sewing

Even though I have two five-shelf bookshelves filled with fabric, it sometimes happens that a child asks for something to be made that I don't have either the right color or enough of the color the child is requesting. This is what happened when my 3 year old had her birthday.

I always try to make (although sometimes I purchase) a dress for my girls for their birthdays. My 3 year old for some reason has grown a love for the color orange. I knew that she wanted her birthday dress to have orange in it and since she was in need of more clothing, I figured I would make some dresses for her birthday gift and they might as well be orange, too.

Since I didn't have much fabric with orange, I had to start looking. Anyone who sews or who has purchased fabric lately knows that fabric is not cheap and making clothes isn't always cheaper than purchasing because of the price of fabric. Well, God provided fabric for me through our local thrift store!

"Pillowcase" dress in which I added small sleeves
from the fitted sheet.

I found a twin fitted sheet that was orange and pink striped for only $1. The next week, I found an orange pillowcase ($ .50) and orange flat sheet ($1). I now had lots of orange to work with since I was up-cycling from previous products! I also still have lots of fabric left to make more clothes for her in the future!

We had been given the "Birthday Girl" shirt, but
since my daughter is long waisted, it was too
short to use as a shirt so I turned it into a dress.

I did end up purchasing orange thread. I could have made any of these dresses work by using either white or pink, but it wasn't the look I wanted. Of course, that one spool of thread will last through many more uses so I didn't mind spending it. In any case, I spent less than $5 for three dresses (plus material to make more)!

I love the frugality of up-cycling as well how much better it is for the environment. It also sometimes helps with time management because I can use things like the hemmed edges, or in the case of the last dress, half the dress was already done. Besides, it is just fun to give new life to something that most people just discard.

Do you enjoy up-cycling? I would love to see some creations you have made from up-cycling (and it doesn't have to be sewing related).