Upcycle Craft Program

This spring break I ran an upcycle craft program.  Upcycling, or refashioning, is taking something old and boring, and turning it into something new and better.  We turned t-shirts into pillows and bags, and old zippers into flowers to decorate headbands.  This turned out to be one of the cheaper crafts I've done because most of the materials were pulled from my craft supply cupboard or bought at a thrift store.  I brought a pile of material scraps from home as well; I have a drawer full of leftovers from past sewing projects.  I did buy a couple of t-shirts at the thrift store in case someone didn't bring their own to use, but everyone brought their own, so the extra t-shirts have gone back into my supply cupboard.  Most of the girls wanted to make headbands, anyway. 

I spent a lot of my time threading needles, knotting thread, and demonstrating how to do a running stitch as the younger teens didn't know how.  I did provide glue guns in case the teens wanted to glue instead of sew, but all of them wanted to sew by hand.

Zipper Flowers:
These are very simple to make, cheap, and very popular.  I bought bags of old zippers at the thrift store for $2.50 each.  You can use zipper flowers to jazz up an old t-shirt or bag, or to embellish a headband.  This site has instructions on how to make three different kinds of zipper flowers.  We made the gathered kind.

How to Make a Bag from an Old T-shirt:
Turn the t-shirt inside out and sew straight across the bottom of the shirt.  Cut off the sleeves.  Cut the neck in a deep scoop on both front and back so that shoulders of the t-shirt become the handles.  Turn right side out and embellish as desired.

How to Turn a T-shirt into a Pillow:
If you want, chop off the sleeves.  Turn the t-shirt inside out and sew shut the bottom and the arm holes.  Turn right side out, stuff, and sew the neck shut.  If you feel like getting fancy, you can always sew a zipper into the neck hole so that you can simply zip the pillow shut once you've stuffed it.  You can use proper stuffing, or just scraps of material.


Supplies:
- old zippers
- headbands (you can pick these up really cheap at the dollar store)
- needles, thread, scissors (if you don't have proper sewing scissors, use a brand new pair of regular scissors or they won't be sharp enough to cut material)
- glue guns
- assorted scraps of material, if you've got any on hand.  You could also bring old clothes, curtains, etc. that they can cut up and use.
- feathers, beads, buttons, and whatever else you can dig up out of your craft supplies.  If you don't have any, check the dollar store.