"What's in your closet"? Up-cycling your wardrobe

So , what’s the difference between recycling and “Up Cycling”?  Well, recycling is taking something that is old and  has worn out its purpose and recycled into something else and repurposed. A good example of that are the plastic grocery sacks, that are recycled into nice grocery bags that you are seeing in all the grocery stores , this is an effort towards “going green”. This type of recycling  is done with plastics , glass, and even paper .

“Up Cycling” ,  is something we do with everything in the closets . Crawford Designs  goal this year is to get to as many quilt shops and expos and guilds with our   program of workshops doing exactly that ,and sharing with you our ideas and encouraging you to attend a workshop when we come to your area of the country  . This is something that I have always done for myself but , right now ,  with the economic situation  in this country ,and the fact that we really need to use what we have ( and I have always felt that way)  we need to focus on “up cycling”what we  can, and  create new fashions . Our closet is a treasure chest of wonderful pieces of clothing that we have spent hard earned money on ,but , maybe it is last season’s,  or that corner of the closet that has a flashing sign over it , “I will fit into it again someday” , I myself have more than a corner of the closet with that sign! This is your palette , meaning their your clothing , so the colors that are there and hues are all coordinated . Mixing pieces of clothing and patterns is a wonderful way to express yourself it is also pleasing to the eye and brain, take a look around , there is no real trend to follow right now except adding ruffles to everything , so at this point everything and anything goes !

And when I say everything , I mean everything , from shirts , blouses , sweaters , blazers , jean jackets , pants , scarves , ties , belts , gloves ,  shower curtains , table cloths, linens , and more !

This is the chance to express yourself and stretch your creativity beyond the norm, where , gloves become pockets , belts become closures instead of buttons and zippers , shower curtains become rain coats , tablecloths become that summer dress or skirt , ties are accents , closures, or even entire pieces , sweatshirts become dressy jackets ,  and the finishing touches such as adding appliqué  and needle felting to embellish your fashions . This is only a small example of what we can accomplish.  We offer workshops to help inspire by bringing in boxes of clothing and accessories ,jewelry pieces  , pattern pieces to use for appliqué or needle felting and collar patterns, and so on .  This is the opportunity to use pieces of clothing that you thought you would never use again , because it gives you the opportunity to size it down or size it up and make it wearable again .

There are  example photos  in this article to give an idea of what can be done with 2 , 3 or more pieces to make a wonderful fashion statement .The “Treasure Hunt” jacket  is an “up cycled” jean jacket , even though no longer visible, it utilizes ties , prom dress , buttons , blouses ,fabrics  ,vintage jewelry, and even wool felt appliqués , it  is one of our most popular patterns . Another photo is our quite posh looking raincoat and bag from an old shower curtain  and the bag is lined with red wool felt and the raincoat is trimmed out in the wool felt also !   I have included instructions in this article for one of our projects to give you some inspiration.

 Here is our “Up cycling” instructions for our “ Krinkled” jean  cardigan , using  an older jean jacket ,begin by  opening the sides and  removing the sleeves and saving them for another project , I  then slipped in a striped cardigan and sewed down the sleeves at the shoulders to the jean jacket shoulders ,  then pinning down the jean jacket center fronts to the cardigan and stitching about 3” from the buttons , pin and stitch the collar of the cardigan to the inside collar of the jacket at the sewn line of the jacket , now they are one piece .Pin the sides of the jacket back and use the sewn seam of the jean jacket and just topstich it closed .Using those wonderfully comfortable Krinkled skirts or broomstick skirts , ( they are so long that there is a lot of use that will come from them ) cut off the bottom about 4” to 5” wide ,fold down the raw edge a couple times  Begin at the center front left or right side and make small folds and pin , it is a flatter and more flattering  ruffle this way , pin all the way to the end of the other center front  and stitch down . There is no raw edge on the jean jacket because we kept the waistband in place . Now, open the sleeve ends of the cardigan about 6” , repeat the ruffle , you should have plenty of that piece left  you cut off of the hem to do both sleeves . Stitch down and stitch down the raw edges of the ruffle ends , pin the cardigan wrists and 6” opening  and stitch down catching the ruffle . That’s it , now add a belt and you have a wonderful new jacket , that you can just button the cardigan closed and the stripes are visible or you can button both the cardigan and jean jacket , part way up and have it both ways, pair with a pair of jeans , slacks a or leggings !  There are really wonderful advantages  about using clothing  rather than fabric , the hems are already there and, on the jean jackets , the finished seams are already sewn in , so  you are just using the pieces , a lot of the times the lining is there saving you the trouble of lining ,   the shrinkage has been taken out already , so it turns into a couple of hours of work , rather than tracing and cutting out patterns and then sewing and sewing the linings and so on .

I hope this inspires guilds, quilt shop and show promoters to bring us in for workshops . We provide boxes of clothing and accessories and  patterns  , and the students  bring in one item of clothing they would like to “UP Cycle” ,the workshop includes appliqué and needle felting as well . It is a fun and eye opening experience , that has a type of domino effect , as you finish one project the left over pieces will inspire the next piece . The photos in this article  are only a few examples of our projects , we can provide before and after shots of our outfits .