A Little Upcycling!

As a Mum to two girls I find that periodically I have to take a good look through the wardrobes and rationalise what is hiding in there! Olivia, being the youngest, gets any decent clothes which Isabelle has outgrown but managed not to ruin, however, ever aware that I don't want her to feel like she doesn't get anything of her own I seem to buy just as many clothes for her. Consequently there is a lot of clearing out to do on a regular basis.

I have a few categories when sorting through the old clothes:

• Donate (to friends or to a clothing bank)
• Bin (For stuff that is not in a fit state to donate)
• Upcycle (for items with "embellishments" I can remove and use

Mostly the upcycling category is for things like charms or little appliques that can be cut with a good pair of fabric scissors (or Tim Holtz scissors) however I have been known to keep a few bits where I am not sure how to use them but I was particularly fond of the item or it had a special memory.

Olivia had a top which I just loved her in. She wore it a lot and I can vividly remember some days when she wore it. This layout from a while back was taken on a day when we did a mini photo shoot with her wearing it.
























After we finished she went and played in the sand and I snapped another couple of photos of her.

 

 

So, fast forward a few years and I still hadn't scrapped the photo but the top was long since outgrown.

I decided to cover some chipboard with part of the top and include it on a layout. The hardest part was to make it straight - being stripy any errors are quite easy to spot and it isn't totally straight! I used red terrifically tacky tape to stick it to the chipboard and then onto the layout. In the end the layout is really quite a simple one but I love the memories it holds which, after all, is why I scrap!