Extend the life of children's clothing with iron-on patches

We are super fortunate to have a source of adorable and gently-used children's clothing.  Once her girls have outgrown items and toys, they get passed on to us!  Most look like they've been worn only a few times, some have stains (which I've gotten pretty good at removing), but there are a few pieces that were obviously very loved!

When items are stained beyond my capabilities, they join the "spaghetti shirt" stockpile.  Spaghetti shirts function as full-body bibs when we have meals or art projects that I know will stain good clothes.

But sometimes I can rescue a stained or worn item just by adding a little flair.  The floral pants below were in good shape and part of the regular rotation, but got stained while crawling on the ground at Luray Caverns (which is totally worth visiting!).  Around the same time, we were given a pair of pants that were looking worn at the knees.  I wanted to save them both!

I dug around in my fabric stash and found a red and pink striped knit.  I attached fusible web to the striped fabric first.  Then I traced heart shapes onto the paper and cut out the hearts.  I "dry fit" them over the stains/worn places, then ironed them on!  Easy peasy.

I thought my project was complete at this step, but my daughter ripped the hearts off after wearing the pants for less than an hour.  Soooo, I ironed on new patches, then sewed them down by hand with large stitches along the edge.  This took about 5 minutes per patch.

Now these pants have new life, and might even be cuter than the original!  Fancy companies put contrasting patches on their clothing and charge big bucks...I put these on hand-me-downs for free and in less than 30 minutes.  Score!  I did this to extend the life of these pants...but now I'm also thinking this would be a great way to knockoff the fancy children's brands!

The hearts were a cute shape for girls pants, but I think circles, squares, triangles, and hexagons would look great on clothing for both girls and boys. Do you have any clothing items that could be revived with a quick craft?

You might also be interested in these posts:

Baby Octopus Costume
Toddler Octopus Costume
Light-Up Trick-or-Treat Bag

Bonnie Projects

Sports Jersery T-Shirt Quilt

I started this quilt over two years ago, and FINALLY finished it for the recipient.  Now I get to share it with you!

I made this quilt for a young man who played sports throughout high school and college.  He wanted to remember those years, but didn't feel the need to keep wearing shirts and jerseys from high school and college.  He delivered more than 30 shirts to me, and I got to work!

I started by washing and drying all the shirts.  All of my quilts are designed to be machine washable, so I wanted to make sure anything that might happen to the shirts would happen before I started the quilt.  One of the jerseys was ruined in the wash - the lettering fell off!  The rest came out just fine.

Next, I cut the shirts into 12.5" squares (to make 12" finished squares).  Two of the shirts has a somewhat larger design, so I made a double-sized block that combined a larger design with a smaller one.  I layered the thinnest jerseys over t-shirt knit recycled from the plain backs of other shirts.

I laid everything out in my living room, and arranged and rearranged until I liked how the colors were distributed.  Then I got to sewing!  Large 12" blocks generally come together easily, but because all the fabrics were different - some silky, some thick, and all with different amount of stretch - I did a LOT of pinning to make sure they would come together nicely.  I don't know many quilters who work with high-performance athletic materials!

I chose royal purple minkie for the backing, and a thick batting.  This quilt is designed for ultimate comfort!

To quilt the layers together, I sewed a 2" plus sign in each of the corners.  This allows the quilt to be able to stretch, but still keeps everything from moving around during washing.

I bound the quilt with black jersey knit.  This step took me over a year...it might be time to learn machine binding.  Toddlers don't help the process either :)

I really love how this quilt came out.  It's fun, super comfortable and snuggly, and a great way to hold onto fond memories (without wearing your old jerseys in public).

Bonnie Projects

How to Make a Boring Onesie Girly

My Mom is here today sharing her latest project!  As a background on why we would want a John Deere outfit for a little girl, my family has a cattle farm in Alabama that we frequently visit, complete with all the necessary John Deere equipment!

Ok, ‘grandma to be’ is playing today….

I found a John Deere onesie at Goodwill the other day, very cute for our little granddaughter who is due to arrive any day now, but on the plain side. 

I decided to make it more girly, and found the cutest stretch ruffle ribbon at Hobby Lobby made with tiny gingham checks. I zig zagged the ribbon onto the butt of the onesie so it will all stretch over her diaper. I followed the lines of tractors in the print to make sure it was even. 

I sewed a few yellow flower buttons on the front for pizazz.

 

Then I played around with the ribbon to make a tiny hair band. I used the 14” length everyone online was talking about for infants. 

Super cute, took about 10 minutes, and all under $10 with lace left over for other projects!

Thanks, Mom!  Now she's ready for her first trip to The Farm!

Update Linens with Fabric Dye

Want a new look for your linens?  Check out my post on Teal & Lime today!  I overdyed a bohemian-style bedspread with fabulous results!

You might also be interested in these posts:

I dyed my wedding dress!

Bonnie Projects

Project FAIL: T-shirt scarf

I kept finding these little holes right near the waist of my shirts.  I couldn't figure it out!  My best friend finally told me I was probably zipping my shirts up when I zipped my pants.  D'oh!

So now that I fixed that problem, I'm left with a number of garments with holes in them, like this shirt.

It reminds me of those blue raspberry candy sticks.  Yum!

But that stupid hole wasn't so sweet.

I thought I'd save the day and make it into a fun infinity scarf.  Just cut off the sleeves and top, and it would be wearable again!

Yeah, it looks like a t-shirt bunched around your neck.

But what if it were skinnier?

Yeah, still looks dumb.

Project fail.

Bonnie Projects