Course by Elena Iliyasova

In this photo you can see a Teddy Bear dressed in the same uniform as my daughter, his “uniform” was sewn with her old
uniform from the previous year.

It’s always a great idea to recycle pre-loved clothes and make your lovely toys. We know
how it’s great for our planet to make handmade toys rather than buying a manufactured one but
to use old clothes for this is definitely thinking of our future and also if you buy the clothes
from charity shops, it’s a great way of donation in the process too!
You can use all sort of pre-loved cotton, linen, velvet, cord, jeans, and jersey fabrics to
make toys.

Before you start follow these simple steps to prepare the fabric:

• Rip up all seams on the old clothes. Throw away old threads, cut out seams which are
destroyed or too old and wick.
• Cut former clothes’ pattern details keeping as larger pieces as possible.
• If the fabric is too delicate e.g. silk, velvet or wool – hand wash it and dry carefully. This
sort of fabric you can use for decorative details only or for heirloom toys which are not
suitable for playing.
• Strong linen, cotton, jeans, jersey, cord should be machine washed and dried out. Steam
press fabric after and check if there are any spot left.
• Use the fabric pieces to trace patterns details following weft and warp direction.

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