38 Clothing Refashion Tutorials to Upcycle Your Wardrobe

38 Clothing Refashion Tutorials to Upcycle Your Wardrobe
T-shirts image via Shutterstock

Tired of your boring old clothes?

Turn them into new clothes!

With two growing kids in the house, and weather that insists on changing from hot to cold to hot again every single year, we always seem to need new clothes. If you can get your mind around clothing refashion instead of consumerism, however, you can often figure out ways to make those old clothes that you no longer want into the new clothes that you need.

Tempting, right? And it’s easy! And it’s cheap!

To get started, check out my mega list below. I’ve categorized the 38 tutes by what you’ve got, and what you want. Got too many T-shirts? Look for that category! Need more baby stuff? It’s got its own category below!

T-shirt to baby stuff. There’s a bonnet and a newborn gown, all to make you squee. For the crawling set, there are shortalls. If the babies get cold, make them some pants. And when they start drooling, make them some bibs.

Belt to bracelet: A worn-out belt makes a great cuff. Keeping the hardware, it makes a great bracelet.

Tank top to sleeveless dressKids are so easy to sew for. To refashion a tank top into an adult’s dress, start with the top and add some fabric.

T-shirt to dress: This T-shirt to sundress transformation is made much the way one makes a pillowcase dress. This long-sleeved T-shirt dress, however, uses up more stash shirts, and utilizes the top half of a well-fitting T-shirt, for an easy sewing shortcut. And if you can find an oversized adult T-shirt, you can even make a dress for yourself.

Sweater to gloves. Upcycle a sweater into mittens, or fingerless mitts, or just wristwarmers.

Sweater to scarf. Try making an infinity scarf from a sweater, or a ruffled scarf.

Sweater to sweater: Upcycle a bulky sweater into a cardigan. Or find a large enough sweater, and you can turn this one into a dress, too.

T-shirt to tank top: Turn a T-shirt into a tank top for an adult, or into a sleeveless shirt for a kid.

Top to leggings: Those ages when your kids’ legs aren’t longer than your arms are the golden time to transform your old long-sleeved T-shirts into leggings for them. Make the leggings from a sweater for an even warmer option.

T-shirt to shorts: If you’ve got a couple of kids, you can make T-shirt sleeve shorts for one of them, and capris from the T-shirt’s body for the other one.

Button-down shirts to skirt: This button-down shirt circle skirt uses up a lot of shirts, so it’s a great way to upcycle an entire worn-out wardrobe at once. If you’ve got just one shirt to upcycle, just make a shorter skirt.

Pants to skirt: You can turn any pair of pants into a skirtGather a couple of shorts, and you can make a maternity skirt.

Top to skirt: You can make a T-shirt into an adult’s skirt. You can make a T-shirt into a child’s skirt. You can add ruffles. You can make a sweater into a warm and comfy skirt for a kid–combine that with leggings made from another sweater for the win!

Sweater to slippers: Felted wool sweaters make the perfect sturdy material for upcycling into slippers. These upcycled sweater slippers look more like boots!

Tights to socks. You can upcycle outgrown tights into bobby socks or knee-high socks.

Know any other good tutorials for clothing refashioning? Link them in the comments below!

4 thoughts on “38 Clothing Refashion Tutorials to Upcycle Your Wardrobe”

  1. Pingback: Weekly Wrap Up: Goodbye Feburary | Felicia's Red Door Life

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