A few years ago, I found the BESTEST JUMPER EVER in a shop. It was a lovely shade of purple, with fair isle detailing and fit me perfectly, in a really flattering way. Best of all, it was in the last ditch clearance sale so only cost £4. From the title of this post, I’m betting you can tell how this story ends. I got to wear it once before I shrunk it horrendously in the wash. Sigh.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been in that situation – and there are people who buy old wool jumpers from charity/thrift/op shops purposefully to felt them and use them for crafts.

Have you ever made anything from a felted/shrunk wool jumper? Anyone got any suggestions or links to finished projects/how-tos?

And what about reuses/recycling ideas for people who aren’t crafty or confident enough to make something extravagant with them?

Or any other sob stories about accidental shrinking/felting mishaps?

Continuing on our impromptu upcycling clothing week here at Recycle This, I was wondering what could be done with long-sleeved/dress shirts — we’ve already talked about recycling or reusing the ties, so why not the shirt as well?

The fabric is usually lighter than for t-shirts and the like, so they can lend themselves for different purposes. Hankies (like the ones I made from an old blouse a few years ago) seem an obvious idea – but you know, who doesn’t need more hankies? Finer fabric is also good for lining handmade purses or bags etc.

With their full length sleeves, old shirts make good (albeit thin) clothes-guards while painting or crafting.

If you are reusing the fabric, don’t forget to save the buttons – for mending and making purposes.

Any other ideas?

After yesterday’s post about reusing or recycling old leather coats or jackets, I’ve realised there are a few other clothing related things I’d like to ask about so…. impromptu upcycling clothing week! ;)

I’ve got some pretty printed slightly-stretchy cotton vest tops that have either lost their shape or don’t fit any more because they’ve done that thing where they mysteriously shrink by four inches in the wash. As I still like the patterns, I’d like to reuse them in some way and underwear seems a fun thing to try: the patterns would work well on pants and I think I could get at least one pair of boy-short knickers from each vest top.

Has anyone made their own underwear from old tops or t-shirts? And favourite how-to recommendations or hints/tips?

What about making underwear by upcycling other items of clothing? Does anything else lend to easy conversion?

What about upcycling things to make stuff other than knickers/shorts? Socks? Bras? Winter warming layers?

We’ve had an email from Linzi:

What can I do with an old leather jacket? It’s really dated now.

If it’s really dated, keep it – it’ll probably come back into fashion next week ;) More seriously, someone might want it for a vintage look – or for a fancy dress party – perhaps offer it to a charity shop, ideally one with a “vintage” section (or a charity shop chain that has vintage shops – like Oxfam or BHF).

Any suggestions for reuses if it’s not suitable for passing on? We’ve already covered scraps of leather and a leather/suede purse – some of the reuses/upcycling ideas for those may apply to the jacket too — make it into a purse, bag or belt, scraps can be added to glove palms or tool handles to improve grip and bigger jackets could be made into cushion covers or to cover basic storage boxes to make them more stylish. A couple of weeks ago, we also mentioned Mes Footwear – a footwear company in Newcastle, who turn old jackets into new shoes. My father-not-in-law has made numerous pairs of bellows in his time and uses scrap leather from sofas for that – would a back of a leather jacket would probably work in the same way.

Any other ideas that make particular use of it being jacket shaped now?

We’ve already talked about baby clothes in general but CD, who writes the Canadian Doomer blog, has sent over such an excellent reuse idea for worn out baby sleepers/romper suits that I thought it was worth featuring these in particular:

I just posted this on my blog, and one of my readers thought your site might be interested. They’d have be super-frugal and have a real sense of the absurd.

I had recently read about someone making no-sew cloth menstrual pads by folding cut-up facecloths and placing them inside a longer folded
facecloth. Well, I’m not about to cut up my facecloths for that. However, with two small children, I have a LOT of baby sleepers that are becoming too raggedy to wear, but are still soft and amazingly absorbent.

So I cut off legs, leaving snaps attached. Then I cut off arms. I cut the body of the sleepers up so that I had various sizes of cloth without bulky seams. It’s quite an easy matter to fold a piece of the fabric into half or thirds and tuck it inside an “arm” (gravity-held) or “leg” (snap-on style) tube. I also made one that was essentially the entire upper body of a thin sleeper, making a “belt-style” for overnight, which I safety-pinned to my underwear.

Great reuse since it really will help reduce wastage in the future.

Any other suggestions for reusing or recycling them? Particularly ideas taking advantage of their super-softness — and also often their cute patterns?