Here's What to Do With Used Men's shirts: Five Amazing Upcycled Garments
A mountain of used men's shirts piled up on our crafts table at the back of our Green Heart shop.
We had already donated lots of the shirts but the rest of them were older, in need of repair, or were just not suitable for wearing. So we decided to frame a sewing challenge around these shirts - a 'Transformation Challenge'.
Read on and discover five unique outfits all made using preloved shirts.
Five Amazing Upcycled Garments Made from Old Shirts
Three Shirts, Two Weeks, One Outfit
On results evening, Judge Mandy Price (winner of the previous two challenges) brought her friend Diane to help her decide, carefully scrutinising each entry to see how it fulfilled the brief, demonstrated sewing skills, expressed creativity and imagination, and showed wearability and practicality.
Mandy then presented her comments about each entry before announcing the winner as Helen Redfern with the oversized shirt dress - "This dress used lots of elements of the original shirts. I loved the contrast red thread and the lapped seams. The placing of the dips in the hems, the merging of the collars and the use of the plackets were all great. All in all, this is a very comfortable and versatile piece of clothing."
But Helen was not the only winner.
The Winner of the People's Choice Vote was Rebecca Waldram with the quilted jacket and bag with an amazing 45% of the public vote. 77 people voted in total.
The quality of all five entries this time round blew us away. It is always a tough task to judge - we didn't envy Mandy!!
Five Outfits made from 15 Mens Shirts
In total, 15 mens shirts were saved from the dustbin and given a brand new life thanks to five of our local sewers.
Every design is unique, hand-made and executed so brilliantly by our local sewing enthuasists. Just look at how three old shirts have come together here - a striking top and skirt.
We asked for garments or accessories, and this fabric tree is a great example. It is a lovely way of decorating your home seasonally while minimising waste and clutter.
You can begin to see why this garment won the People's vote. Plenty of colour helped by the thoughtful placement of patches of shirts. It is a good reminder that clothes can always be broken down into fabrics and reused. Patchwork is a particular good technique for salvaging otherwise unwearable garments.
And here's the Judge's winner. A great nod to formalwear, the half and half collar gives that classic shirt look before being transformed into a truly unique garment. Lots of the original material was used as you can see, including a tie to really bring the three old shirts together into an oversized shirt dress.
Last but by no means least, this is another fantastic entry. A really smart looking top, super wearable for all sorts of occasions, where you'll know you're wearing something totally unique.
Tutorial For Upcycling Old Shirts
There are lots of tutorials for taking old shirts to transform them into something else. Check out the video below which is just one idea.
If you're local to us in Gateshead - don't forget to pop in and join in with our regular crafts events. We also have a number of mens shirts leftover for £1 each - collection at our Green Heart shop on Gateshead High Street.
