Did you know you can frame clothes?

Its spring cleaning time! I've been going through my closet and, oh my goodness, there are a lot of clothes that I don't wear anymore! 😆 Luckily, I can use a lot of it as fabric for RagsReborn pillows and what I can't use, I can donate. On the other hand, I came across a couple of items that I can't use as fabric but I still have a sentimental attachment to so I don't want to get rid of them, either. At the same time as I was trying to come up with ideas of how to re-purpose my clothes, I was also thinking of how to fill some of the empty space on a few of our walls. Then the two collided and I decided to frame a few of my shirts. It is a pretty straightforward process and here's a super simple DIY.

Materials needed: old article of clothing (I used the blouse that I got married in; it still fits but it's become a little too tattered to wear), picture frame, hot glue gun and fabric scissors.

1. Open up the picture frame and locate the piece of paper in between the cardboard backing and glass.

2. Cut out the section of fabric that you want to frame (or, if you don't want to cut into your shirt, fold it to where only the section you want to frame is visible). Make sure that the section is bigger than the piece of paper from step #1.

3. Wrap the fabric around the piece of paper (I wrapped it tightly, like I would a Christmas present) and glue around the edges.

4. Put the frame back together and you're done!

Another thing that I like to frame and decorate with is puzzles. But I guess that's not a novel idea. any suggestions for what I should frame and decorate with next?

Erica uses an old t-shirt for something else...

...but no worries, I'm not abandoning pillows. NEVER!! (although, I am thinking about abandoning totes.) This is a project I made probably a year and a half ago. It's currently hanging in Courtney and Alex's living room, as it was part of a birthday/housewarming gift. You can tell the shirt is dated because Downtown Oklahoma City does not look like that anymore. Where is the Devon Tower? LOL I got this shirt at the first Plaza District Festival and it was my first Oklahoma shirt. I wore it all the time (before wearing shirts bragging about your state was cool) and it got old and faded. And then  it was turned into art, as all good things should be turned into instead of being thrown away. The heart is something I saw on Pinterest. I put the two together and came up with this.

Courtney with her awesome gift!

T-shirt & pushpin yarn collage tutorial:

Materials needed: canvas (a simple 8 x 11 one you can get at a craft store), t-shirt, pushpins, yarn, ribbons, hot glue, scissors, and any other decorative items (I used a bird charm and some star shaped beads.)

1. Cut the sleeves off the shirt. Then, cut out whatever part of the shirt you wish to use. I used the entire front side of my old t-shirt. Make sure the shirt is a little bigger than the size of your canvas.
2. Fold the edges of the shirt over the canvas and hot glue the edges to the back of the canvas.
3. Hot glue ribbon around the border of the shirt. Between the glue on the ribbon and the glue on the back of the canvas, the shirt should be pretty secure on the canvas.
4. Lay the pushpins upside-down in whatever size and shape heart you want. Once they are arranged in place, turn them over and push them through the canvas.
5. I'm sure you can do this with one very long piece of yarn but I opted for several smaller pieces. Take your piece of yarn and tie it to one of the pushpins. Then, pull it across from pin to pin in whatever pattern you choose. I chose no pattern at all. When you're almost to the end of the piece of yarn, tie the end to another pushpin and cut off the excess.
6. Do this until you run out of yarn. I used about 4 or 5 small pieces of yarn. I tied each one to a different pushpin and wound it from pin to pin until I ran out and had to start with a new piece of yarn.
7. Measure and cut a piece of ribbon the same size as your heart. Going from pin to pin, hot glue the ribbon to the top of each pin until your heart is lined with ribbon. This will prevent the yarn from accidentally slipping off the pushpin.
8. If you have decorative items to add, do it now. Otherwise, your are done!
9. Oh wait... one more thing... hot glue some yarn (or ribbon) to the back of the canvas so you can hang it up.