Upcycling pajamas

One of my favorite materials to upcycle is pajamas - pajama pants always have cute prints, are made baggy so there is lots of material to work with, and usually don't have any darts, buttons, pockets, etc so the fabric is very easy to use in many different projects - skirts, dresses, bags, toys, etc.

I just upcycled two pairs of pajama pants to make mini diaper bag sets - mini diaper bag, doll diapers, wipes, wipe case, and bib. I made one of these for Natalie for her 2nd birthday and it's one of her favorite things to play with. I only used one leg for each project so I still have another leg of each print - any suggestions what I could make from those?

Here are the before and after pics:

How I got started....

I think there is something about giving birth to a child that awakens a woman's creative side...I have several friends who got into sewing or other creative ventures after having a child.

For me, I rediscovered a love for sewing after I had my daughter. I started off sewing cloth diapers for her and I really wanted to get into sewing children's clothing. However, I discovered that a lot of the materials that are used in ready made clothing are expensive and sometimes hard to find.

Around the same time, I was also doing a lot of research on living more sustainably and some of the injustice issues surround mass manufactured items in sweatshops - items like children's clothing.

So I thought one way to make eco-friendly sustainable clothing with great materials would be to just reuse the materials from adult clothing and use those materials to make children's clothes.

I did some research online and discovered this was actually a growing trend called upcyling. So in the summer of 2010 I attempted my first upcycled outfit made out of a shirt that didn't fit anymore and one of my daughter's onesies. Here are before and after pictures of my first upcycling attempt: