Jewelry Made From Castoffs & Recyclables

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RunwayDIY's Alphabet Necklace

Alphabet Jewelry

When your child grows out of the alphabet letters on the fridge stage, you’ll now have two reasons to celebrate. 1) your child is growing up and 2) you can use those letters to make a fabulous necklace or zipper pull. Check out RunwayDIY’s fabulous Alphabet Necklace for step-by-step instructions.

Variation: use this same technique to attach other small toys; think army men spray painted in a bold color or shiny metallic. Fa-a-a-a-abulou-u-u-s!

Plastic Bangles Grow Up

When your daughter grows out of her plastic bangles or you find yourself clawing your way through an entire layer of plastic bangles trying to find a pair of socks then it’s time to grow those bangles up. This project is so simple. All you need to do is wrap them in string, ribbon, lace, strips of t-shirt fabric … and suddenly those annoyingly cheap bangles looks like they came from the latest designer. Okay, maybe not THAT much of an upgrade, but certainly four steps up the fashion ladder, right?

You probably don’t need these remarkably simple instructions but just in case you’re reading this on a day when you’re brain-dead from an exhausting afternoon of chasing toddlers around the house I’ll include a step-by-step.

1. Tie or glue your chosen decorative wrap item to the inside of the bangle.

2. Wrap – and wrap – and wrap – and continue wrapping until you come back around to the start of your wrapping.

3. Tie or glue the end of the decorative wrap to the inside of the bangle.

You can leave it as is or try one of the variations below:

  • Gather 4 to 8 decorative wraps and wrap the bangle in sections so that you have a striped bangle.
  • String beads or charms onto the wrap as you cover the bracelet.
  • After wrapping the entire bracelet wrap it again with a sheer fabric or lace.

 

Hair Clips

Glue broken jewelry such as a pendant, brooch or earring to a plain hair clip. If needed use a pair of jewelry cutters or raid your man’s toolbox for a similar tool to clip off any pieces on the back of the broken jewelry item that prevent it from laying flat to the hair clip. You can use these in your hair, on a pair of shoes, on a purse or as a brooch.

Variations:

  • Pile on lots of broken jewelry to make a real statement piece.
  • Use buttons (clip the shank from the back) instead of jewelry.

Snips & Spice's Zipper Rose

Zipper Roses

Malory of Snips and Spice shares a tutorial to make these roses from cast-off zippers. You can attach your zipper roses to a plain hair clip, headband, brooch back or barrette.

Bullet Jewelry

Bullet jewelry? Really? It’s come to this? Well if  you’re truly committed to the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle lifestyle then you’ll follow your man to the target range and collect the shells from his spent bullets. The bonus here is that you can use the shells to make some pretty cool looking jewelry. Again, it’s one of our favorite bloggers to the rescue for this DIY. Take it away RunwayDIY!

Tangled Necklace

Sometimes a couple of necklaces seems outdated, looking a little sad sitting at the bottom of your jewelry box but you hang onto them for sentimental reasons, or someone you love gave them to you and you feel guilty not wearing them, or maybe because you’re hoping they’ll come back into style. Well today’s the day! All you need to do is gather three to six necklaces that look nice together and hang them over your arm. Slip a ribbon or long piece of lace through all the necklaces and tie in a knot. Now twist the necklaces until you like what you see and slip another ribbon/lace through the other end of all the necklaces. Tie the ribbon behind your neck and you have a great new necklace that didn’t cost a penny.

Vintage Watch Bracelet

If you have a broken watch with a band that you like you can turn it into a beautiful new bracelet. Or look for watches with bands that you like at your thrift store or garage sale.

Thread a needle with heavy-duty thread in a color that closely matches your watchband or use fishing line. Thread the needle through a plain small button. Place the button on the backside of the watchband and use the needle and thread to attach buttons, pendants, broken brooches, fabric flowers … whatever you fancy to the watchband. You’re done when you like the result.

Denim Wrap Bracelet

Use the flat-fell seam from a denim refashion to create a wrap bracelet. Trim the seam so that it is of a length to wrap once, twice … six times around your wrist. Sew a cute button to one end of the seam and a button loop made from a small piece of elastic to the other end of the bracelet. Wrap and wear.

Variations:

  • Sew many buttons to the bracelet.
  • Sew one big fabric flower to the bracelet.

 

No More Wire Hangers!

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I can’t stand wire hangers, nevertheless they still end up accumulating in my closet. The dry cleaners, garage sales and thrift store buys all tend to come with wire hangers. Die-hard recycler that I am I can’t seem to throw them away so I started looking for ways that I could use them to either make my life a little easier (as in the Bottle Dryer tip below) or craft them into something beautiful. Some of these ideas came straight from the old noggin, and some came from surfing the Internet.

Bottle Dryer

To keep water spots from forming on the inside of items with a narrow neck, tape a rag to a straightened out wire hanger and use it to dry the inside of your container.

Bubble Maker

Mix one part dishwashing liquid to two parts water in a large container. Untwist the hanger and stretch it out straight leaving one end bent. Bend the bent section back on itself to make a handle. Bend the long straight section around to make a large hoop. Dip your new bubble-maker into soap solution and wave it gently to create giant bubbles.

Camping

Straighten out one or more hangers. Leave one end curved and doubled back on itself so you have something to hold onto.  Use to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a campfire.

Christmas Decorations

Using wire cutters cut the long piece of wire away from the curved pieces. Use pliers to shape the wire into stars, hearts, diamonds, circles … whatever shapes you want for your Christmas decorations. Decorate the wire shapes by:

  • painting
  • spray with glue, then shake on glitter
  • wrap with fabric remnants
  • wrap with ribbon, lace or string

Tie ribbons to the top of your new decorations to hang them on your tree, in a window, on a mantle …

Dream Catcher

Bend a hanger into a circle. Wrap it with ribbon or raffia. Construct a web by wrapping ribbon, yarn and/or string across the open section of the hoop. String beads and feathers onto fishing line or heavy duty thread and tie onto your new dream catcher.

Halloween Costumes

Cut, bend, twist and shape hangers into all kinds of accessories for Halloween costumes. Swords, wings, halos and horns are a just a sample of what you can shape and cover with fabric, foil or paper.

Mobile For Baby

Structure of Mobile

You’ll need two wire hangers for this one and if you want to get really creative you can add more layers and use up more hangers.

With a pair of wire cutters cut the long straight portion of each hanger at the point just above where it curves up so that you have two straight rods with a slight curve up at each end.  With a pair of pliers make a loop in the center of one of the rods. Thread the other rod through the loop and bend the loop downwards and twist so that it locks the two rods together. Now use the pliers bend the end of each rod so that it curves back onto the rod creating a closed loop and making sure that there are no sharp edges exposed.

Mobile Design

Decide what you want to hang on your mobile. You can print something onto card stock and cut it out, use small toys, whatever suits you or in the case of a true DIY’er, whatever is laying around the house. Poke a hole in whatever you’re using, thread string, ribbon or fishing line through the hole and tie to the loop at the end of each wire. Tie string, ribbon or fishing line to the center loop to use for hanging your mobile.

Plant Hanger

Cut away curved pieces from 4 hangers. Twist a small loop at the end of each wire. Thread 3 sections onto the 4th section. Wrap the straight piece that all the others pieces are strung onto around a 6″ to 8″ pot just below the lip. Thread one end of the wire through the loop at the end of this wire and then twist the wire back on itself to secure.

Wreath

Cut the straight sections away from the curved sections. Bend one or more pieces of wire into a wreath shape. If using more than one piece of wire, use pliers to make a loop at the end of one wire. Slip the other wire through the loop then make a loop at the end of the second wire and bend it over the other loop to secure. After bending into your wreath shape do the same with the other two ends to hold the wreath together. You can make a single strand wreath or multi-strand wreath (which makes it easier to attach decorations to). Use florists wire to attach holly, evergreen or vines branches to your wreath. Leave as is or continue adding other decorations such as:

  • bows
  • ribbon
  • lace
  • silk flowers and/or leaves
  • small toys

 

 

Flip Flops

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Now that summer is over you probably have a pair or two of trashed flip flops. Perfect! You can turn them into brand new footwear to get you through the winter.  P.S. If you’re dying to do this refashion and don’t have a pair of old flip-flops Walmart has them for a dollar a pair, although now that it’s colder in many parts of the country they may not stock them anymore.

inspired by A Pair and a Spare

Platform Shoes

I saw this project over at A Pair and a Spare and just had to share it with you all. Thank you to Foam Magazine for initiating this project using pieces of foam such as the type you can buy at Michael’s Crafts Stores of Joanne Fabrics. A pair of old flip flops can be the perfect start to a new pair of platform shoes. If you’re dying to refashion a pair of shoes into a pair of platforms, picking up a piece of craft foam is a good option but I’m patient, persistent and a die-hard refashioner so if I don’t have a pair of old flip flops I’ll look for a pair while garage-saleing or thrifting to make my platform shoes. The flip-flops don’t even have to be your size. They can be your size or  bigger, just not smaller. Cut or pull off everything on the flip-flops leaving the sole bare. Place the shoes you’re restyling on top of the flip-flop sole and trace around the shoe so you’ll know where to cut later. Use a craft knife or Exacto knife to cut along the line you’ve traced. Repeat with the other shoe. Depending on how thick the sole of your flip-flop is, you can stop here or repeat with another pair or two of flip-flops until you have the desired height of your platform shoes. Glue the flip-flops to the bottom of your shoes. Let the glue dry for the appropriate amount of time.

 

inspiration from A Pair and a SpareYou’ll notice that the edges of your flip-flops look a bit raggedy. You can cover the edge of your platforms in a variety of ways:

  • glitter
  • sequins
  • decoupage fabric, lace, magazine pics, gift wrap … around the edge – protect with several coats of clear varnish or shellac
  • glue string or ribbon around and around the edge until it’s completely covered
  • sand the edges until smooth
  • and leave as is or paint

 

Urban Threads fantastic sweater boots

Sweater Boots

There are tons of tutorials all over the Internet showing you how to create a pair of boots using the sleeves of an old sweater. I like to use a pair of stripped down flip-flops for the soles of these boots rather than a pair of ballet flats because the thick foam helps to keep my feet warm, whereas the ballet flats make me feel as if I’m walking on top of a block of ice (when it’s cold out). Check out these tutes:

Urban Threads –  Sweater Boots

Craftster Argyle Sweater Boots

Craftster Knee High Sweater Boots

Happy Together Gathered Top Sweater Boots for Mom & Daughter

 

Eeyore Grows Up

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I fell in love with this boxy, way too big for me v-neck t-shirt because of it’s lovely shades of lavender and Eeyore’s sad eyes staring out at the world.

Once again I forgot to take a before pic, but this one is the same shape.

 

This was a simple fix to take this shirt from frumpy adult who looked as if she was hanging onto her childhood way too long and make it over into a t-shirt that is both super cute and fantastically comfy. I know, I know Stacey and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear” would roll their eyes at describing any garment as comfortable but I really think this works both ends of the spectrum, fashionable AND comfortable.

First thing was to remove the collar. I cut it just below the stitching all the way around. Then I cut off the sleeve hems and bottom hem just above the stitching.

At this point I could have just tied it in a knot at my waist and called it a day, but I wanted to take this one a bit further. I found a Spandex lavender workout shirt that I will never EVER wear again (stop snickering!) and cut a horizontal tube six inches wide leaving the bottom hem intact so I could use it for the bottom hem on my new t-shirt. I slipped the tube on around my hips and since it had fit me well before I cut into it, it now fit snugly around my hips. Perfect!

I used chalk to mark both the bottom of the t-shirt and the top of the tube at the middle front, middle back and left and right sides. After pinning the bottom of the t-shirt to the top (cut side) of the lavender tube, right sides together, stretching the tube to match the marks on the t-shirt and so that the t-shirt was gathered to fit the circumference of the tube, I stitched it all together, put it on and fell in love.

t-shirt gathered to fit tube

 

 

view from the front

view from the side

 

I did try it on with Eeyore in front but I like the surprise of Eeyore on the back and felt that it looked a little more grown-up than entering a room with Eeyore greeting everyone.

I’m so happy with how this refashion turned out that I’ve been looking for oversize tops and coordinating Spandex shirts at garage sales ever since. I’ve made a few more and each one has turned out very different. For instance, I applied the same tactic to an over-sized see-through lace blouse which I wear over all sorts of cami’s and tank tops. I love that it pairs well with either jeans or a pencil skirt.