If your Amazon shipment of craft supplies (click here for my list of essentials) hasn’t arrived yet, you’d be surprised that you have some fun materials in your closet that can work as a great starting point. And when we say closet, yes, we mean your clothing closet! Raise your hand if you have a lone sock, missing its mate. Or a single glove? Or a t-shirt that has a pesky stain? Or jeans that are too grungy to donate?
Here are four crafts that you can make using defective clothing items that you have laying around the house.
MONSTER GLOVE PUPPETS
At least twice a year my kids come home, complaining that they lost a glove. I always keep the lone ranger in the hopes that the other one will reappear, but alas, I end up with a bag of single gloves. Raid your craft bin and use anything you can find to add personality to your glove monster puppet—the wackier the better! We recommend using Aleene’s® Tacky Glue to keep everything nice and secure. Click here to find the instructions for the blue puppet!
PENGUIN BOOKEND
Do you have any itty bitty baby socks left over from the early days? If not, you can always just cut off the toe of a cute sock to make the head of this penguin book end. Upcycle a plastic bottle as the base, and fill it with sand or pebbles to keep it weighted. You can find the instructions for this craft here.
DENIM HOBBYHORSE
This project has a bit more heavy lifting for the parents, but it makes such a cute result and you’ll feel so proud of the work you’ve done. If you don’t have cotton batting at home, you can always empty out an old pillow (that you didn’t know what to do with!) and use that. You can find the instructions for this here.
T-SHIRT JEWELRY
I always end up with a pile of t-shirts that have holes or stubborn stains that aren’t suitable even for donation. But the colors and patterns are so great, so cut them up to make jewelry! Here’s how to do it…
- To make a beaded necklace, cut T-shirts into strips as thin as possible, 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch wide. The strips should be at least 2 inches long.
- Glue the ends of each strand together, then slip on a bead to cover each joint. Use a toothpick to help thread the fabric strips through the bead holes. Add a dab of glue at each point so the bead stays in place. Repeat to reach the desired length, and then knot.
- To make a tassel necklace, cut a 1-inch wide- by-2-inch-tall piece of T-shirt and fringe it vertically. Roll it horizontally and glue the unfringed end into the hole of a bead. (Use the toothpick to help get the fabric into the bead.)
- To finish the tassel necklace, glue the ends of two 10-inch-long T-shirt strips into the other hole of the bead. Knot in the back.