Reusing Clothes

[thomlynn]

I'm going through some old clothes and would love to reuse the fabric to make toys, other clothes, or anything else. I'll donate them if I have to, but I would really like to try to reuse them and save us some money. Do you have any ideas or could point me to a website that does??

I'll have

Men's dress shirts
Women's slacks
Women's jeans
Womens t-shirts and button up shirts
Maybe a Men's suit
Men's t-shirts (I've used some to make some diapers but I have enough diapers at the moment, if there is such a thing )

TIA!!!!

[bdavis337]

You can use the pants/jeans to make bags/purses out of. Use the shirts to make small drawstring bags to hold small toys, game pieces, etc.

You can make body pillows out of old slacks. Cut the legs off, stuff and sew back up. Good for laying on the floor and playing, that kind of thing.

I had several sock dolls as a little girl, I bet you could do something similar with a heavy t-shirt.

I'm sorry I don't have any links, I usually end up doing this kind of thing without a pattern!

[ABand3]

i have a closet full of old clothes that are not really donatable, but that I'm thinking I could recycle into something on day. One of my plans is to make a t-shirt quilt from about 12 old t shirts from my college days.

[eepster]

T-shirts can be made into dolls like these. http://www.hazelnutkids.com/catalog/...55/1636400.htm

Any fabric could be a ball like this http://www.amazon.com/Color-Fun-Plus...UTF8&s=generic or http://www.amazon.com/Ks-Kids-Babys-...UTF8&s=generic

Big shirts can be used as smocks for doing arts'n crafts when worn backwards. If any garment have larger pieces of fabric they can become play "silks." Ragdolls are called ragdolls b/c they were originaly made from rags.Remember you can use the old cloths to stuff the toys as well as to sew the out side.

HTH

[rbriansgirl]

For Christmas I made all three dc's waldorf dolls, and for the clothing I reused clothing. For the dolls overalls I used cordrouy pant and for the inner lining I fabric from an old flannel shirt. For dd's doll I made a nightgown out of an old velour shirt (cranberry color) it was beautiful and you would never tell where I got the fabric from! I am so excited. I would post pic but camera is freaking out right now.

[thomlynn]

Thanks, I love those little dolls, I think even I could do that. I like the ball idea too. I was trying to think how I could do it, I just need to sit down and get started.

I also really like the idea of stuffing the toys with clothes too. I've got a huge bag of socks that I planned on using for cleaning and there are probably four times as many as I need. I'm going to use some of those to stuff a doll I think.

Thanks again!!!

[4evermom]

I used to use the arms of shirts to make baby pants. I only needed to sew the rise and the waist. This was great for making sweatpants and it makes really cute pants when you use dress shirts with the cuffs becoming the hems.

[LaughingHyena]

here's a pattern for a knot doll that I've made using old T shirts
http://www.tomaatnet.nl/%7Evrijeopvo...terflydoll.htm

There are quite a few patterns for baby clothes here that can be made from old clothes http://babypatterns.atspace.com/overview.html

I made a game for DD with a few bean bags, one in each fabric and a mat with pockets on in matching fabrics. The idea being to match the bean bags with the pockets

[calendulamama]

luckybeans has a couple great tutorials here and here for making really cute hats and short pants from old clothes. (is it bad etiquette to link someone elses blog? Someone let me know if it is and I'll remove it...)

[momma,mia]

I am currently doing the same thing! Just went through a huge amount of clothes and decided to donate the good clothes to a shelter for women and children.

Then the clothes that had some flaws, I decided to cut them into 5X5 blocks to quilt with. I have made a quilt that was just rows of blocks and thought it would be hideous, but was surprised when it looked pretty good. The greatest part is that my daughter loves it!!

[ReuseCrafter]

I'm getting ready to make a "floor quilt" which is what we have always used in our family as an "activity mat" lol. It's kind of a crazy quilt, made out of squares of all different textures of fabrics. Spread it out on the floor for the baby play zone. Baby will love touching and looking at all the different textures. Try denim, cordouroy, t-shirt, satin, fleece, fun prints, thinner sweaters, embroidered squares and so forth.

[rere]

I make quilts out of our old clothes.