What You Need To Upcycle Old Clothes

Many people imagine that you need to be an expert at sewing to upcycle old clothes. Some projects are obviously more complex than others. But most are super simple and don’t need anything but basic skills.

If you can sew on a button, or sew up a hem, you already have the skills you need. But if you don’t, these skills are very simple and easy to learn.

Even if you are a complete novice, sewing skills can be gained by:

• Asking family or friends to share their skills.
• Learning using all the resources available online. YouTube is great for this.
• Reading books (perhaps even from a local library).
• Taking a course in sewing.
• Or joining a local sewing club.

Basic sewing skills is all you need to make many items.

You can take two different paths when it comes to upcycling old clothes. You can take your time and use age-old hand sewing methods, or use a sewing machine.

For hand-sewing, aside from the basic skills, you will need:

• Needles (in a range of sizes).
• Thread (organic cotton thread is a more sustainable option than synthetic ones).

A thimble is also useful to avoid pricks, though not essential. And you’ll need some sewing scissors or dressmaking shears if you do not already have a pair of scissors suitable for cutting the thread and pieces of fabric.

If you decide to purchase a sewing machine, there are plenty of options. Ask a friend or family member who sews for recommendations. Thrift stores, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are all great options to find a sewing machine second-hand.

Using Old Clothes In Your Garden

There are some cute and clever ways to use old clothing items around the garden.

Here are just some of the interesting and innovative ways you can upcycle old clothes outside in your garden:

1. Make a Fabric Planting Pocket Vertical Garden

Make a pocket wall organizer from old clothes for use in your garden as a pocket-planter vertical garden. There are plenty of links online showing vertical gardens made with fabric shoe organizers and similar. But rather than buying one, you could relatively easily make your own.

2. Make Quirky Planters

Don’t forget to plant something in the pockets too!

You can also use old clothes to make a range of quirky planters, hanging baskets and containers. Here are a few examples to consider:

Blue Jean Planters @ instructables.com.

Hanging Planter from Old T-Shirts @ instructables.com.

3. Make a Sun Shade For Plants In Summer

Skip the expensive plastic sun shade and make your own.

By sowing pieces of old clothing together, you could also create a sunshade. This can be used to provide shade for plants in the summer months to stop them from bolting. It’s also a good way to reduce moisture loss from the soil. Rather than buying new shade netting or fabric for the purpose – be eco-friendly and use what you already have lying around.

4. Make a Scarecrow for Your Garden

Get the kids involved and build a scarecrow.

Another fun way to use up old clothes is to use them to make a scarecrow to keep birds off your crops. This is another project that could be fun for the whole family. You can give your imagination free reign and create a range of interesting, silly or scary figures to stand between your crops. Here is one idea of how to do so:

How To Make a Scarecrow @ youtube.com.

5. Make Lashing to Tie Plants to Supports

One t-shirt will give you dozens of ties for staking tomatoes and other top-heavy plants.

By cutting old T-Shirts or other old clothes into strips, you can also create a sort of yarn or twine. This can have a wide range of uses in your garden. For example, you might use strips of old clothing to tie plants to supports.

6. Make a Hanging Chair or Hammock

You need a place to relax after all that hard work in the garden.

If you have plenty of old clothes, you could take on a much larger project. For example, you could sew pieces of fabric together to make a unique hammock or hanging chair for your garden. As long as you choose a strong fabric, and your stitching is strong, you can create a durable place to rest in your garden very affordably.

Blue Jeans Hammock @ pinterest.com.

7. Make a Kid’s Den – Tent, Wigwam or Tipi

Another larger project to take on, if you have a lot of old clothes, is to make a den for your children. By sewing together a range of different pieces of fabric, you can make the cover for a tent or tipi frame. If this sewing project is a little too complicated, you could also make your own no-sew tipi.

No Sew Tipi @ thehandmadehome.net.

8. Make a Deck Chair or other Garden Seating

You can also use clothing fabric to make a wide range of other chairs and garden seating. You can use the fabric to form the seat itself, on a wooden deckchair frame.

How To Make a Deck Chair @ knowledge.axminster.co.uk.

Or use the fabric from old clothes to create seat cushions for outdoor bench seating, or to upholster a lounge chair for your garden. The uses you could make of old clothing for outdoor seating are almost infinite.

9. Make Some Plastic Bucket Stools

No sewing needed! If you’ve got a staple gun, you can make a bucket stool.

There are plenty of things to do with 5-gallon plastic buckets in your garden. One idea is to make some stools to sit on. You could use old clothing fabric to upholster the seat of the new bucket stool. Learn how to make one of these bucket stools at the link below.

Bucket stools @ instructables.com.

10. Make Decorative Bunting For Your Garden

Decorative bunting can be a great way to brighten up a front porch or veranda or to add a festive feel to your garden for barbecues, garden parties or other outdoor events. Make your own by cutting up some of the colorful old clothes you might have lying around.

How To Make Fabric Bunting From Old Clothes @ thecraftygentleman.net.

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Do you love the look of using upcycled items in your garden?

Sure, anybody can do your basic store bought flower pots and mass produced hanging baskets. And honestly, I’ve done that on occasion too.

But to run across a little bit of whimsy and something unexpected in a garden?

Plus it’s super thrifty, eco-friendly and FUN to upcycle common, slightly boring household objects for the garden.

Over the years I have added more and more pieces of yard art and repurposed planters into my flower beds. It started with a spur of the moment idea to glue some pennies onto a bowling ball and has morphed into me dragging home a heavier than I thought it was sink from the Habitat Restore store to use as a planter (that one is super new, so no pictures of that one yet).

Not sure where to start? I’ve collected some great repurposed garden projects from around the web with a few of mine thrown in for good measure.

UPCYLED GARDEN IDEAS

UPCYCLED CHAIR PLANTER

These curb side finds turned out to be pretty cute planters!

VIEW MORE DETAILS

JUNK GARDEN PLANTER