Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose

Any one of the title words would describe a couple of my recent projects.

I hate to throw something out if I think I can re-use or re-purpose it, but at the same time, I do not want to hoard things! So, when, on the same day two friends from my EGA group asked if I could use the fabric from two items of clothing they no longer needed, I said yes, but only because I knew what I would do with them!

The first was a Brooks Brothers ladys blouse that was made from pima cotton. This friend thought I could make a 'paper doll dress' for one of my quilt squares from the fabric.

So I did.

But before I made the quilt square, I made a baby girl romper, using the original front button placket as part of the design.

I started by cutting the blouse apart up the side seams. Cutting the sleeves out around the armhole and then cutting up the sleeve seams. I cut the back apart from the front along the shoulders. Now I had flat pieces of fabric to work with.

I used the centre of the button placket as the centre fold of the front of the pattern piece. I cut the back of the romper from the back of the blouse and the sleeves from the sleeves of the blouse-easy peasey! The neck bias strip was cut from the lower piece of the sleeve.

I trimmed the sleeves with some lace and used the same lace to trim the neckline once the romper was completed. The romper was gifted to another EGA friend for her youngest granddaughter.

Recycled, reused, repurposed!

The second item was a cotton knit sweatshirt. The fabric had worn where the seams were bulky and had rubbed against the ribbing. The friend thought it would make linings for bibs or burp cloths, which, of course it would have, but I had other ideas!

Again, I cut the sweatshirt into pieces of fabric and set about cutting out a jacket. I cut the largest size I could from the fabric I had 'created'. I then raided my stash and found a cute fabric to make the jacket lining. Next I found a packet of pre-made bias binding (bought at a thrift shop for 50 cents). Then I found some cute buttons (some were part of a table favour at a SAGA event).

The result is a cute jacket that I gave back to the donor of the sweatshirt for her granddaughter!

Recycled, reused, repurposed!

PS. The romper pattern was Drew and Erin's Bubble by Sew Beautiful magazine.
      The jacket pattern was from Sew Cute Couture by Gail Doane (but I removed the back pleat so I could make the size 3 jacket from the 'created' fabric).