Skip to Content

Recycle Old Clothes Into New Fashions – Fun for Girls

As our children grow up, some of your favorite outfits will be too small. It’s a sad fact, but don’t despair: you can recycle old clothes into new fashions and enjoy a fun bonding time with your kids.

Young girl having fun recycling old clothes

Today, Dhanya will share with us how shew turned a turtleneck into a skirt and matching headband.

Take it away, Dhanya!

Craft, fashion & our loving bond

I am Mom-entrepreneur blessed with 2 beautiful daughters who were my true inspiration to start my own girls boutique clothing.  Most of my craft ideas that I do with my daughters have a strong inclination towards STEM and fashion projects. Today, I would like to share one of our favorite fashion craft. I am sure your little fashionista is going to love this one.

Food for thought

Before I talk about today’s fashion craft let me ask you a quick question.

What did your kid ask Santa for Christmas?

Let me make a wild guess 😉 An IPhone? An IPad? An electronic gaming device? Unlike olden days, I bet it’s definitely not going to be a teddy bear.

Wondering how do I know? Well, I have a spunky little 7 year old daughter who asked Santa for a phone for the last 2 years. Her little sister aka partner in crime who is 3 years old, also thought asking a phone was a really great idea.

In her letter to Santa, my 7 year old daughter specifically mentioned: “Santa, I need a REAL phone and not a toy phone this time”. Just in case Santa messes up her gift like last year and brings her a toy phone again. LOL wicked mamma 😉

Jokes apart, there is a reason why I brought this discussion. Today, if you look around it is a very common sight to see kids playing with tablets and phones instead of playing with each other. Be it a shopping mall, a restaurant, doctors office, car … you name it.  It is a saddening sight indeed.

The little hands that once held teddy bears are now holding tech gadgets. A gift like a teddy bear is no longer interesting to kids today.

Are we doing justice to our kids by giving them unlimited screen time?

Well I am guilty too

Absolutely no judgment here. I am very much guilty of it myself.

When kids drive me crazy or are about to kill each other, I need my sanity. I resort to screen time for them knowing well that it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Longer screen time kills the creativity in kids. Taking a look back, my kids needed time with me, not the TV. I am sure my daughter would join me any time if I gave her an option to do a super fun craft together or watch Peppa Pig. Sorry, but no offense to you Peppa 😉

Let’s promise to build together a brighter future by engaging our kids in some fun and easy crafts that will ignite their creativity.

My Daughters, My Inspiration

Most of my girls boutique clothing sketches are unique, as they are inspired by the creative juices that develop during these fun projects with my daughter.

Today I would like to share with you a super fun fashion project that you can do with your daughter. For this project, we just need one of your old tops and of course some patience 😉

Let’s Recycle Old Clothes Into New Fashions

To keep things simple, don’t worry about the perfection aspect of the end product. As long as you both are enjoying it and having a creative time together, your mission is accomplished.

This project will further inspire her to create more designs out of her old clothes. You’ll be surprised by their creativity and the styles they will come up with.

You never know, you will soon see a little fashion designer in the making 🙂

Roll up your sleeves and let’s get started.

Fun project with mama's top

Plan for the project

Re-purpose your old turtle neck top to create a skirt and an headband for your daughter.

If you don’t have a turtle neck top handy, use a normal top. You can skip the headband step.

Things required for this project

1. A turtleneck top – Knit tops or stretchy material tops would work great for this project. Floral or polka dot tops are perfect. Regarding the size, if you want a fuller skirt, pick a larger top. This will give you a lot more ruffles for your skirt.

For reference, here I used a medium size turtleneck top for my 7 year old daughter.

2. We’ll also need an elastic strip for the skirt’s waist – The length of the elastic band should be sufficient to cover your daughter’s waist. I didn’t have an elastic band handy at home, so I just used an elastic band from my daughter’s old skirt.

Old skirt used to remove the elastic for the new one

3. You will also need some basic sewing supplies like a needle, thread, sewing machine (optional), scissors.

And that’s it. Let’s begin 😊

Super simple steps for our clothes recycling project

Step #1: Place the turtle neck top flat on the ground and ensure the bottom hems are lined evenly.
Mom's top, ready to recycle

Step #2: Measure the required length of the skirt from the bottom of the turtle neck top. Now cut off at the top, leaving extra 1 1/2 inches for the hem.

Cutting the top part of the turtleneck in order to make the skirt part

Step #3: Now turn the skirt portion inside out and fold down the top raw edge, 1 1/2 inches. Start sewing the raw folded edges evenly. Also, do a quick check to ensure the elastic band will go through the raw folded portion.

Inside out new skirt

Step #4: While stitching the folded raw edges from one end to another, leave approximately 2 inches un-stitched opening to insert the elastic band. This might be something mama needs to do, depending on your child’s age.

Adding elastic to skirt

Step #5: Use a safety pin to insert the elastic band through this casing you just sew.

Step #6: Now let’s sew the ends of the elastic band together securely. Also sew the opening left behind after the elastic has been inserted and stitched.

Adding elastic to the new skirt

Step #7: Once this is complete, distribute the elastic across the waistband evenly.

Step #8: Finally, from the leftover portion of the turtle neck top, cut the neck portion without messing with the original sew. This way you have zero stitching required for your headband. Cut off the excess threads and your matching headband is ready to wear!

Use turtleneck top to make a headband

Ta da! Your skirt and matching headband is ready.  Pair it up with a matching top to complete her fashionista look.

Feeling accomplished?

After we completed our little fashion project, I realized the giggles and fun moments we spent together. My daughter was super obsessed with her fashion project that she was no longer interested in taking any pictures. I really wanted a picture of the end product but she was acting all goofy.

Finally, the shoe that she is wearing in the picture was the bribe I had to pay for getting that one decent, non-goofy shot from her. Well, I am exhausted by now and really want that last picture.

Finished skirt and headband

Girls love to wear their mamma’s shoes I guess. I was no different at her age 😉

Hope you enjoyed our little fashion project. Would love to hear about your special fun project that you do with your kids. I encourage you to try to recycle old clothes into new fashions with your children. Maybe take some of their favorite old clothes and transform them into hair bows, or make a pillow they’ll cherish for years to come. Have some fun, and then come back and share your finished products here in the comments.

Recycle old clothes into new fashions for a fun craft afternoon with your girl. #girlfashion #fashioncraft #kidsfashion #recycle #repurpose #crafts #motherdaughtertime #oldclothes #newclotheslife

Dhanya Ravindranathan, CEO Dianz Boutique

Dhanya Ravindranathan, CEO Dianz Boutique loves encouraging children to be the best they can be. Her dress designs help girls feel beautiful and special. You can connect with her on Instagram and Facebook.

Pin To Save For Later