How to upcycle old shirts

I love to find new uses for old things, especially old clothes.  I haven't broken into tailoring my own clothing, so instead I cut it up and make something new out of it.  Here is one of the shirts that got taken down by my scissors:



The Victim

Jacinda is back with another awesome sewing tutorial!  You'll never guess what she turned this shirt into...



but it became cute!

And there's still plenty of life left in this shirt.

So here's a simple tutorial on one of the many things you can do with men's shirts.

POCKET TO POCKET TUTORIAL

All you need is a men's button down shirt (or any shirt with a breast pocket), pinking shears, a sewing machine, and something to sew the pocket on to (I usually sew them into my bags.)

Step 1: Locate breast pocket (-;

Step 2: Snip a hole in the fabric near the pocket and slip your shears in.  Cut neatly all around the pocket.  Be sure to leave about 1/8-1/4" extra fabric at the top of the pocket so you have room to top stitch.

Step 3: Trim any uneven or messy edges. 

Step 4: Top stitch into bag.  I just stitch over the stitches that are already there.  For the top, I stitch right next to the top of the pocket.  You could even make this a divided double pocket if you wanted by not stitching the top at all and just reinforcing the side edge stitching by back-stitching at the top corners.

NB: Always assemble inside pockets and attach them to the lining pieces of the bag before constructing bag.

Step 5: Complete rest of bag and revel in your brilliance and how much time you saved by making a pocket from a pocket and not from scratch!

 

 

Another example of a breast pocket I stitched into a bag.

I try to use elements of clothing like zippers, pockets, etc. in my other projects.  I used a women's skirt zipper to create this pocket:

See the button on the left?  That was the top of a skirt!  Now it's a nice zippered pocket inside a bag!

Happy Stitching!  Find Jacinda anytime at yellowcloth!

Do you reuse old shirts? Or anything other clothing item?

 What is your favorite clothing upcycle?

 



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