Give Clothes a New Life

 
We're starting the countdown to the end of school at our house.  We even got a message yesterday that my youngest 4 get out a day earlier than planned. Yeah!  Now if your kids are like my kids, their clothes are starting to look like it's the end of the school year.  I don't think Maddie has one pair of jeans that don't have holes in them.  The boys do, only because they grew and needed new pants a couple months ago.  Many shirts are stained and my kids are starting to look like little rag-a-muffins. :)  So a little DIY clothing rescue is in order.

First up:
Seriously stained shirts, even my awesome Stain Pretreater couldn't get these really set-in stains out.  At my children's school, Friday is "wear red day" so a red shirt is an absolute must (they get a prize if they wear red.)  So these shirts had to be salvaged.

This was the best picture, after several, without Billy looking like a dork. lol  They do like each other. :)

Billy's shirt was a simple fix.  I used iron on vinyl, very simple.  It was Silhouette vinyl, however I cut it out with my Cricut.  Iron it on and I'm the coolest mom because he now has an "infected" shirt (a version of play on "Halo" that uses that symbol.)

For Chole's shirt, I did a reverse applique, my first time ever.  It was fun!  I found this great tutorial from Sweet Verbena.  The shirt had a few more stains that the applique didn't cover so I added a few circles of the same material just stitched on (they were small enough that I didn't use interfacing on them.)  I also decided to add a little more color by just dabbing on some fabric paint in the flower petals.

Finally, I turned a shirt of mine, that was now to short into a shirt for Natalie.  She doesn't like long-sleeved shirts, but 3/4 shirts are okay so I couldn't let this one go to waste.

First of all lay down the shirt to be altered, inside out.  Lay a shirt that fits on top of it.  Match shoulder seams and center it.  I use an old piece of soap - best tailor's chalk ever!, to carefully trace the edge of the top shirt.  Then just stitch up the new seam and turn right side out.  Since this was such a little adjustment and not a work of art, I just left the extra material because Natalie didn't care.  If it was a big adjustment, you could cut off the extra and serge or just zig-zag the edges.

Just a little more fitted and a little shape to it now.  Natalie liked it, yeah!

Here are a few more ideas I've shared for recycling and getting more use out of the clothes that you pay good money for:

Dress into Shirt

Shirts into Skirts

Painting and Felt Applique

Now to tackle the pile of pants I cleaned out of their drawers to turn them into shorts for the summer. :)  What's your favorite way to extend the life of clothes at your house?