Repurposed Children's Fashions

Lately I have been really into making clothes for my two girls.  It is so fun creating things for them that are one-of-a-kind and I feel so proud when they are wearing what I made for them.


With all the consumer waste that is going on in our world, I think it is so wonderful when you can repurpose an item that has already been created and turn it into something even more fabulous than it's original intention.  Don't get me wrong, with my sewing and fabric obsession, I am definitely out there buying new things, but I feel especially proud of my repurposed children's clothing.  

Both of these dresses were made from vintage pillowcases that I found on ebay or at the flea market.  I paid about $6 for each pillowcase - not bad, right?  The one above already came embroidered and crocheted at the bottom.  The dress to the right was done entirely from a pillowcase (except the green ribbon at the bottom), I just cut it differently than the one above.

Last night I made this really simple pair of Bitty Booties (see picture to left) for my 3.5 month old daughter, Matilda.  One of my favorite fabric designers, Heather Bailey, has a free pattern for these booties on her blog (http://heatherbailey.typepad.com).  It is SUPER simple with only a few pattern pieces and then I hand embroidered the opening with a blanket stitch using cranberry embroidery floss.  For the fabric, I "felted" a mens sweater that I got at Good Will for $3.  


Felting is caused by heat agitation. It is a process in which you wash 100% wool knitted material (sweaters, scarves, knitting, ect.) in very hot water (2 times) to produce an incredibly dense, yet very soft and thick fabric for you to use for purses, scarves, slippers, baby booties, ect.  More on felting at another time.


If you are interested in finding out more about any of these projects, please leave me a comment or send me an email and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have or post a tutorial.  And if the above projects excite you, I highly recommend you check out the Betz White's book, Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed and Organic Materials which has some other great ideas!