Twice a year I go over the pile of clothes in my closet and single out the ones I no longer wear. Generally the rule goes as follows – if you have not worn it in the last 6 months, toss it. Instead of tossing, I save these pieces and experiment with some ideas for DIY upcycled clothing. This helps avoid the instant regret of throwing away clothes and gives me a decent chance of ending up with a great outfit. So today I will be sharing one of my favorite DIY upcycled clothing ideas – a now sew shirt DIY decoration.
I love this old shirt DIY because it is no sew and easy to make, but really cute and unique at the same time! In terms of materials, you will need an old shirt and hot glue. For the decoration, you can use a sturdy fabric that stays flat. I used the fake leather from an old purse and it worked great. If you do not have old cheap leather, use fabric with similar thickness.
Below you can find a few things that will also come in handy for this DIY upcycled clothing project. Once you have the materials, we can wrap up this DIY in about 30 minutes!
Start by cutting 21 2″ and 28 1″ triangles from the thick fabric or leather. Then, cut a semi circle and a few small circles. To cut the small circles I was actually able to use our paper hole puncher.
Place the shirt on a flat surface and decide on the shape of the decoration. I left the semi-circle in the top right corner of the neckline. Then, I followed with 4 rows of the 1″ triangles and 7 rows of the 2″ triangles. Note that the triangles overlap and that each row is shorter than the preceding row. The last row only has one 2″ triangle. The small circles are at the two corners of the decoration.
Once the decoration is set up, start gluing the pieces on the shirt. It is very important to use just a little bit of glue. If you use too much glue, it can soak through the front of the shirt and glue it to the back of the shirt, making it unwearable. As soon as you are done gluing, make sure that the back is not glued to the front and pull apart any glued spots.
Below is my brand new DIY shirt!
In terms of care, you can wash the shirt gently by hand with warm/cold water.
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