What Upcycling is and Why it's Cool

Remember the scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett needs a new dress to go to Atlanta to borrow money, but there's no money for a new dress? She looks at those green velvet drapes and gets a gleam in her eye. Soon she has a fancy new green velvet dress.

That's upcycling. It's taking something that was made for one purpose (bonus points if it's been or about to be discarded) and refashioning it for a different purpose. In fact,
upcycling is often called refashioning or repurposing.


If you're like me, you hate to throw things away if you get the slightest sense they could have a use in the future. So I find the idea of using something old to make something new pretty appealing.


Here are some examples:


Martha Stewart's website has instructions for making mittens out of old
sweaters. Use what you already have or look for thrift store finds.

Another Martha DIY for making stuffed animals out of old sweaters.

There are so many possibilities. As a kid, I remember making clothes for
dolls and stuffed animals out of flour sacks. My grandma, the ultimate
thrifty crafter, uses leftover fabric scraps from making clothes to make
quilts.


Upcycling, refashioning and repurposing is cool because it saves you money.
You're not spending money on new items. You're using something you already
have or spending a fraction of the cost of new on a thrift store item.


It's cool because it represents good stewardship of what you've been given.
Rather than an item going to waste, being destroyed or ending up in a
landfill, it's being put to a new purpose.


And upcycling is cool because things created from upcycled materials are
unique and one of a kind. They're so much more special and interesting
than something mass produced in a factory where the folks making it may not
have been paid a living wage.


Stay tuned for my next project which involves upcycling a green pencil
skirt into a handbag.