Recycling old clothes to create children's hair accessories

The perfect time to go through old clothes

With Spring around the corner, I felt it was a good time to start going through our clothes. Although I have a hard time throwing away certain items, I also told myself that every item that wasn't worn once would go after the winter. So I know there will be at least one bag of clothes thrown out, add to that the items from the summer wardrobe that probably won't fit my daughter anymore or are not that pretty anymore due to laundry accidents or whatever, this will probably mean I have a few bags of stuff that can go.

Looking at one of my daughter's dresses with a dot pattern, I suddenly had a bright moment that I could use the fabric to craft flowers from it and then use these to create children's hair accessories like I used to do. Back then, I used to order all these flowers in China but the idea was to upcycle some things instead of buying new stuff. I will need some basic tools for this, which I have bought in the past days.

One item I desperately needed as I depended on it in the past when I had my business in the past was a glue gun. Can you imagine that I made thousands of hair clips and headbands with the help of a glue gun? These things rock, I tell ya! It wasn't easy to get my hands on a decent one here, I will save you the headache but someone sold me a piece of junk and the lady in the store kept telling me it works so it's fine, while it was unsafe. Period. It cost me a serious headache and a lot of frustration before I walked out of the store with my money back. Thankfully, I knew which store had a more decent version of a glue gun and only for 1 buck extra. This one was even better than the one I had years ago, which has served me many many hours.

Trying to craft in a different way, recycling old clothes and mostly using recycled (or upcycled) items

Where I used to get huge boxes with supplies every month back in the days of my webshop, I had a different vision when I started crafting this time, namely, recycle items that I'd otherwise throw away. Many of my daughters (worn off) clothes have been in washing accidents making them not that pretty anymore, but they do have cool buttons on it or a nice edge made from lace. Then I have some clothes I bought when I just needed something longsleeved but couldn't find what I liked, lying in the closet for the second winter. I noticed that I could use these to make headbands and flowers.

So I started looking online for tutorials on how to use these fabrics to make flowers and the possibilities are endless. I was a bit lost again as you know, every start of something new can be hard. This one is no different. It's amazing to see the potential of recycling your old clothes. I felt instantly inspired and started to collect even more items so that I can combine cool colours and get inspired again. Although I have a huge pile of different fabrics that are useable, I'm missing some more options to combine them with to get back into my old flow of inspiration. The best thing to get in that flow is to just start creating something and even if the first 5 items are not as great as planned, I know one thing leads to the next and before I know, I'm looking at a whole collection of handmade items.

I will share the first end product with you: a baby headband

I used the sleeves of my daughter's onesies that have done their time here well enough but still look good after so many times in the washing machine. I found out by just trying, that you can just cut off a part of the edge of the sleeve and then stitch it together to make a flower.

Only this little piece of fabric, a needle and some thread needed:

Then stitch it up, this was not easy for me as I'm really not used to needles and thread because in the past I used flowers that were already ready to use. This will cost me some time to practice, and probably will make my first batch of items look a lot different from how I picture them in my head. Practice makes perfect though, so let's practice!

Then I needed a headband as well, so I used the edge of shorts that I wasn't wearing anymore which is one of the colors I love using for summer accessories.

Not only was this edge very nicely stitched by a machine (which I don't have), but it also had the perfect color and elasticity for a headband. I cut it in shorter pieces to make baby headbands from these.

The color combination was approved, but I was still missing layers. I always made these cool flowers using at least 2 or more layers to make them catchy. So there needed to be at least another layer below the button to make it feel finished. As it's for a baby, you don't want the headband to be too heavy for that little head. These flowers weigh a bit more than the ones I used in the past, so more than 2 layers would be too much in this case. Eventually, I found a gold-ish ribbon to add to the flower, this was the end result:

At the back of the headband, I have attached felt to make it soft on the baby's head and keep the flowers attached to the headband as well.

Hope you liked reading about how I'm on a mission to recycle some old clothes to turn them into some unique children's accessories.

~Anouk