Upcycling a Sweater • 3rd Penny Pinching Party

I'm also linking up to Reinvented's Trash to Treasure party today. Kimm is a great example of upcycling!

Upcycling is "The practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value" From the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

As I was cleaning out my garage and getting ready to take a load of unwanted clothes to the thrift store, I had an idea. I started looking at the pile of clothes and seeing them in different forms and uses. I decided it wouldn't hurt to cut some clothes up and try upcycling since I was getting rid of them anyway.

I bought this sweater for my husband years ago, early into our marriage before I knew that he doesn't wear sweaters. It had a lot of use left in it since it was never worn.

1st I found a hat and traced the shape on the bottom part of the sweater. I sewed it up and finished it off with a zig-zag stitch. I put a flower clip that I had made on it so it can be switched out with different clips (Sorry about the yellow blobs in the pictures. I am very protective of my kids).

Then I cut the sleeves off and just sewed a zig-zag stitch to finish off the edges. I sewed the bottom of the sweater under and then did a zig-zag stitch.

I took the sleeves and cut the sides off so they were more straight. Then I sewed under the bottom edges and finished them off with a zig-zag stitch.

And that is how you upcycle!

Total cost for this project: $0

Total time: about 20 minutes

Now for my weekly

Penny Pinching Party!

Here are the rules:

Add the permalink to the specific blog post, not your general blog address.

Link back to the party from your post so that your readers can join in the fun! If you have my Penny Pinching Party button on your blog I may even feature your link when I highlight my favorite Penny Pinching ideas next week.