How to Recycle Your Old Clothes into Home Decorations

Have you ever mourned a piece of clothing? Your favorite graphic tee gets a hole, or your most comfortable hoodie’s zipper breaks … it’s a bummer! Especially when the wear and tear make the garment unwearable, yet leave the cool art on it intact. It seems a shame to get rid of the whole thing, so I often hang onto my old clothes—or at least the ones that I can’t bear to part with. I figure, I’m crafty enough that I can find some second life for them. One popular way to recycle old graphic T-shirts is to sew them into a quilt. But what can you do when you don’t have enough old shirts to make something that large, or when the art/graphic on the garment doesn’t quite work for that use? In this tutorial, I’ll share a very simple and inexpensive way to turn old clothes into wall-hanging decorations.

I’m turning my threadbare Dragon Age hoodie into a hanging decoration.

What You’ll Need

• Bamboo embroidery hoop, appropriately sized for your graphic
• Scissors
• Needle
• Embroidery thread (any color)
• Ruler
• Chalk or a pen

How to Do It

1. First, you will need to determine what size hoop you need, so lay out your old garment flat on a table. Measure the widest part of the graphic that you want to recycle. I’m using an old Dragon Age hoodie that has the Grey Warden griffon crest embroidered on the sleeve. Embroidery hoops come in many different sizes, so you’ll probably find one that will fit your needs just fine. A 5″ hoop is just right for mine.

2. Place the hoop on top of the design, centered as you want it in the end. Use chalk (or a pen) to draw a cut line 1-2 inches away from the edge of the hoop. Since I’m using a design on a sleeve, I had to deconstruct the garment a little first to be able to do this—I just cut along the seams to remove and flatten the sleeve.

3. Assemble the hoop and gently pull the fabric taut, trying to keep the graphic even and centered. Make sure to orient the screw at the top, so you can use it to hang your finished product!

Mark your fabric with chalk or pen about 1-2 inches away from the edge of the hoop (left). Place the cut fabric in the hoop and gently stretch it into place while tightening the hoop’s screw (right).

4. Cut a length of embroidery floss. The floss is made up of six threads; separate out two to use for stitching and thread them on the needle. Start your stitching with a “mouse” by making approximately three stitches right on top of each other, to hold the thread in place (a knot doesn’t work as well, as it can pull through some fabrics).

5. Criss-cross the back of the hoop, pulling the thread taut so that the excess fabric is held firmly back. This will help keep the design nice and stretched across the front of the hoop. Try to place each stitch the same distance apart so that the fabric is stretched evenly. If you run out of thread, tie the end off with another mouse (keep the thread taut with one hand while stitching with the other), and then start a new thread in the same way.

Make about three stitches in the same place to hold your thread in place to start (left). Stitch around the hoop by creating “spokes” in the wheel of the hoop, keeping the thread nice and taut to hold the fabric in place (right).

6. Once you’ve made it all the way around, tie the end of the thread to the center where all the stitches cross. Try to keep your stitches taut as you do so!

7. Cut any extra thread off and flip the hoop over. Your recycled art is ready to hang on your wall!

Tie the end of the thread at the center of the hoop where the stitches cross (left). Turn it over and your decoration is ready to hang (right)!

Additional Tips

• Embroidery hoops can also be found in oval and squared-off shapes. They also come in materials other than bamboo, but bamboo ones are inexpensive and easy to find in a huge array of sizes. You can also paint the hoop before using it, to better match your preferred style.
• If you’re not a fan of sewing, you can also use hot glue to finish the back of hoop. Be careful not to make the back too bulky or uneven, though, or it won’t hang nicely against a wall!
• Don’t tighten the hoop too much, since you can splinter the wood and damage the hoop.
• I don’t like to use normal sewing thread for the back stitching because it is too thin, even doubled up.

Have you recycled your old, unwearable clothes into something geeky and cool? I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below!