Repurpose/Upcycle

 

I had been searching for some light weight orange fabric to make an easy breezy summer dress all season long. And, found it on the clearance rack as a beach coverup. Once the Green dress was successfully made from a recycled sheet found at Goodwill. I started looking at fabrics in different forms. I do have a tendency to Repurpose or even Recycle items in my kloset.  And, this post reflects just that.  On one of my trips to Target, I found three oversized beach coverups from the clearance rack and I have "Re-Worked" & Upcycled them into garments that I want to wear.

What is Upcycling?  Simply put, upcycling is the process of enhancing a product. The functionality of the item is still the same, however, it looks and serves much better than previously. The ‘up’ in upcycling means that the product has moved up the chain into something that is better.

What is Repurposing?  According to what I've read, repurposing involves using a product to serve another purpose. For example, your old shoes will become worn over time and will no longer be able to serve its function any more. Instead of throwing them away where they will end up in a landfill, you can choose to use it as a pot for your plants.

From this loot, I made two summer dresses and have some mustard fabric left over that I could use later. First dress to make was the orange. I had to be creative to make it work & used some cotton from my stash to make the straps.

The fabric of these dresses is a Gauze and it's not the best fabric to work with. It does grow when you hang it up damp and slips around on the sewing machine when dry.  So, I delayed making more. Until I saw an inspiration dress in four colors. Sometimes all we need is Inspiration to get our butts in gear.  And, that is exactly how the second dress came into being. So, I cut the green dress into the bodice and used what I could from the other two dresses to make the tiers. The dresses came with drawstrings and they got repurposed as straps for the green dress.

I'm a slow-sewer and since sewing is a hobby, I would like to make one garment per month.  So far, Mcalls #8213 was a hit and I made several views.  Now, I have two dresses that I will wear to threads, that were once beach coverups.

Did I Repurposed them or Upcycled them? You be the judge.

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