10 Eco-Friendly Upcycle Projects

Earth Day is coming up! To be honest, I generally don't do anything to celebrate it, but I tend to do a lot of upcycling projects so I thought that I would do a round-up post of some of my favorites! I picked the top ten, but you can see more of my upcycle projects HERE.

Women's Dress to Girls' Maxi Skirt (and bracelets and headband!)

I got a women's dress at the local thrift store and turned it into a maxi skirt for my daughter. I even seam ripped off the beading from that jazzy medallion at the waist and helped her to make bracelets out of them. One of the waist ties became a headband. Triple upcycling! Do I get bonus points for that? You can see the full post and tutorial HERE.

Altoid Tins to Magnetic Playset

This is a non-sewing project that you can do with the kids. Some washi tape, stickers, paper, and old promo magnets transform these into little magnetic playsets that you can tuck into your purse to keep kids occupied in waiting rooms, etc. Full tutorial to make these available HERE.

Sweater Scraps to Hand Warmers

Got a hole in your favorite, softest sweater? These little hand warmers are really cute and I have a little trick to sewing these! See the tutorial HERE.

Men's Shirt to Girls' Vintage Style Dress

Upcycling with Men's Dress Shirts is actually a fun project.  There are a lot of possibilities. I have a mini-tutorial showing how I used this shirt as an efficient fabric source to make the dress HERE.

Baby Clothes to Memory Bear

So, this is a pretty popular post on the blog. It is a really sweet way to preserve a special baby outift, though! Full tutorial and pattern available HERE.

Three Ways to Mend Holes in Jeans

One daughter in particular is really, really hard on her jeans! Which style is your favorite? Details on how to do each one are available HERE.

Vintage Sheets to Easter Dresses

I made five Easter dresses from a couple of vintage sheets that had belonged to my Nana. I was strategic so I didn't even have to hem some of them! This was my absolute favorite year for Easter dresses and I have tutorials for each of them. They are all linked at the bottom of THIS post.

Regular to Maternity T-Shirt

EEK! I was so big here (at only 29 weeks)! Trust me, this shirt stretched out WAAAAAAY further until the end and surprisingly still covered my watermelon belly. Full tutorial HERE.

Old Jeans to Car Roll

Hey! Look! Something for the boys! (Although my girls play with cars, too.) Using old jeans legs for the base of this made it sturdy and more durable. Full tutorial HERE.

Now, for my all-time favorite upcycle project. Drumroll, please! .....................................................

Collage Wall from Thrift Store Frames

I love this wall so much! It still looks pretty much the same, except the girls put some things on the tops of their beds and block the stuff on the bottom sometimes. We got a bunch of frames at yard sales and thrift stores (plus a few from Michaels) and we turned them into this cute collage wall.  See all of the details (and get free printables) HERE.

If you want to pin this for later...

Don't forget to check out all of my upcycle projects HERE!

Decluttering Tips ~ Clothes and Bedrooms

How is it going? Is it spring where you live yet? We might get a little snow today (CRAZY!) but at the end of last week it was 85. I decided that I have had enough and switched the girls seasonal clothes in protest. They still have pants and sweatshirts if they need to layer, but I got out the shorts and sundresses. In the process, I whittled down their clothes even more. I think everyone's things fit comfortably in their drawers and closets now. There is less in storage, also. Let's face it... some things that my oldest daughter wore are horribly outdated until the younger sisters grow into them. I actually found a red skort (yes, skort) that had a MaryKateandAshley brand tag! (My daughter loved that skort when she wore it... 10 years ago!)

I also did some major cleaning in the girls' bedrooms. I was pretty ruthless. I got several garbage bags out of each room and no one has seemed to notice anything important missing. That is my rule, though. If their bedrooms get so messy that I have to clean them, I will toss whatever I want. I don't think they mind. Instead, they are happily arranging the tops of their dressers. My 4yo insisted that I take a picture.

I hit up quite a few different areas of my home in my binge decluttering last week. I am now up to 20 garbage bags decluttered during the Spring Decluttering Challenge! My biggest accomplishments were definitely in the girls' clothes and bedrooms, so I thought that I would put together a list of some tips that are working for me. They may not work for you, but maybe they will at least be a start for something that you can adapt to fit your home.

1. Don't store junk. When I am saving clothes for hand me downs, I save very few items of "play clothes." I consider that hand-me-down storage tote space to be valuable real estate and it is not worth it to me. I can go to the thrift store or a yard sale and buy a new play shirt for 50 cents if we really need them, but my kid generally get stains and make their own "play clothes" pretty quickly.
2. The rule of 5. When their drawers seem to be full of junky clothes, I implement the rule of 5. I have them go through their clothes with me and choose their 5 favorite shirts, shorts, etc. (It is an arbitrary number I picked based on how fast I can get things washed and back in their drawers.) The rest get thrown away or used for rags.  They get more "good shirts" but we go through them together and they are free to get rid of anything they do not like or wear. I also pick arbitrary numbers for other items like pajamas, socks, undies, etc. In the winter, they each get 3 hats, 3 pairs of gloves, and 3 scarves. It helps them to choose what is really their favorites and I don't have to keep storing things that no one likes.
3. Find 3 things. If I don't have time to go through clothes with each child individually, but I know things are getting out of hand, I will send them each to find 3 things that they no longer wear. I am trying to encourage my daughters to make decisions and train them to declutter on their own, so I rarely question what they bring to me, even if it is something that I made for them. I then decide whether to store it for the next daughter or just get rid of it.
4. Get it out of the house FAST. The longer things hang around, the longer they junk up my house. Yard sales are not worth it where we live. I donate anything decent that we do not need because many people have given us things over the years. I am just paying it forward. Most of the time I use a grocery bag because it fills up faster and then I take it straight to the back of the car. It is ready to be dropped off the next time I go past the thrift store or a donation box.
5. Memory boxes. I have one tote for each of my children to store special items. To warrant space in the tote it must be really special. My children also have their own boxes. They tend to hoard things that they think are wonderful so I have gotten each of them a box to store their "treasures" in their own bedrooms. The junk is contained and they cannot exceed that box. I won't "accidentally" throw anything away that they consider important enough to place in that box. I got the boxes with coupons at Michaels.

Don't forget about the Spring Decluttering Challenge! Only a few weeks to go! If you want to join in it is not too late!!!

Hipster Cat Dress

My niece just turned 5 years old and she is such a cutie pie! She has big, pink glasses and she was wanted a "kitty" birthday party. When I saw THIS fabric on Joann's website I knew that I had to make her a special dress for her birthday.

She is also very thin with long legs so I thought it would be nice for her to have something sized just for her. I decided on the Charlie dress pattern from Violette Field Threads (one of my Project Run and Play prizes!) because it has a retro feel that worked well with the fabric. It has that cute, knot detail in the front, a very full skirt, and pockets in the side seams.

I happened to have JUST ENOUGH of the pink polka dot fabric in my stash and it matched perfectly! I lined it with a matching, bubble gum pink solid. I debated on which buttons to use and took an instagram poll with the pink ones winning.

This pattern went together pretty well. I did have some trouble with the cap sleeves/enclosed side seams so I rigged it. If anyone has a technique for that, please teach me!

I wish I had had enough fabric left for the matching knot headband. Bummer! The free pattern for that is HERE if you want to check it out!

Fabric: Joann and my stash Pattern: Charlie from Violette Field Threads

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Unicorn Dresses

A few weeks ago someone absolutely destroyed my sewing scissors. I still don't know who or how it happened. I don't think that mere paper could have caused those nicks and warped the metal blades. It is a mystery.

But I was in the mood to sew something, so I turned to the pile of projects that I already had cut out.

I am not 100% happy with these, but they will probably stain and destroy them fast enough anyway. At least they are finished.

Fabric- Joann Pattern- Uptown/Downtown Dress

My girls love unicorns! If you like them too you might want to check these out...