5 Upcycling Projects for Yarn Lovers

Have you heard of upcycling? While it might sound like a cool buzzword, creatively reusing otherwise wasted materials is good for the soul, pocket and environment!

New Zealanders throw away around 2.5 million tonnes of waste in landfill every year – and the problem is growing as our population is.

Sure, we do our best to recycle our plastic bottles and paper. But what if you could recreate something unique and special out of things you would otherwise throw away?

We’ve gathered our favourite upcycling projects from around the web. And the best bit? These all use yarn!!

Turn ripped jeans into one-off designer pieces.

While ripped jeans may be on the legs of the super fashionable, most of us can’t afford to let the rips grow.

Patching your clothes with fabric was once the trendy thing to do – but have you ever considered crocheting your way to runway chic?

This simple tutorial will give your jeans a facelift.

Have you tried this? Let us know how you did over on our Facebook page!

Turn your doily obsession into a table runner

Doilies are great, aren’t they? They don’t take too much time and they can be as hard or easy to make as you want!

But, once you start to build a collection that overflows your doily-drawer, what do you do with them then?

Well, Sarah from Sadie Seasongoods has stitched them all together to make the cutest table runner we’ve seen in a long time!

So, if you’ve been practicing your crochet doilies – or need an excuse to – put them to good use on your dining table!

Turn socks into sock sloths

Okay, we know some of you like to make socks and aren’t looking to turn all your hard work into some child’s plaything.

(If you want to get started with circular knitting, we are hosting classes. Take a look here or give us a call!) 

But, if you’ve found yourself surrounded in unwanted socks, plushy animals are a great upcycling present idea!

While this project looks a wee bit complicated, there are plenty of other crafty creatures you can make out of your feet warmers.

But, seriously, how cute are these sloths?

Turn old bangles into knitted arm candy

When people think of knitting, they tend to think of blankets, jumpers and kids’ clothes.

But, as our tastes change and kids grow, we’re left with all these projects we don’t want to throw away – they took so much time and yarn!

How about repurposing them into bangles, so you have a lasting memory of it on your wrist?

This very simple project takes an old bangle (those ones that were popular in the 2000s), and sews old jumpers around it.

It’s so simple we can’t believe we didn’t think of it before!

Reuse old flip-flops by crocheting new shoes

If you’ve ever considered making shoes, you’ve probably wondered how you’d make the soles.

Well, a genius idea is to gather up your old K-mart flip-flops and, instead of throwing them away, using them to make brand new high-fashion footwear!

The Make and Do Crew have a few different patterns, from winter boots to summer sandals, but we love these crochet espadrilles.

 

Have you tried these? Let us know how you got on in the comments or on Facebook!