Written by Theresa Corbin
I am at it again. Upcycling. I LOVE upcycling.

For those of you who have never heard of such a strange animal, let me introduce you.

Words cannot describe the sense of accomplishment that you get when you take something old and seemingly ready for the landfill and give it a new life and a new purpose. Maybe it is just a part of me that hopes that when I am old and worn out, I won’t be considered useless. Maybe it is my desire to be more green. It is a good color after all. O

r maybe it is my cheapness. I hate paying full price for anything (blogging and freelancing don’t pay the bills as it is)! Especially when it is so unoriginal and uninspired, as most retail junk is. So I am sharing a small glimpse of my passion of taking seemly useless junk and turning it into inspired awesomeness.

1. More than Pin Storage

Have you ever been given one of those baskets as a gift filled with soaps and scrubs and the like? Have extra soap lying around and wrapping paper you saved because it was just too cute to throw away? You are in luck because I have a simple project for you.

Take said superfluous soap and deliciously decorative wrapping paper and make a pin cushion that actually sharpens your pins. It’s exciting to think of all the swashbuckling you can do with a super sharp pin, but let’s play nice and use our newly sharpened pins for good and not evil, like pinning a hijab or securing a sewing project.

 Stick needles and pins in a wrapped bar of soap. The soap’s oils make the pointy ends glide through fabric “sew” easily.

2. Clutter Buster

Next on the list is the perfect fix for the hijab clutter problem. Everyone has seen the pin on pinterest where you use shower curtain rings on a coat hanger to organize your scarves. But what pinterest won’t tell you (sneaky pinners) is that the shower curtain rings slip and drag the hanger down to one side. Boo! And even if you get all you hijabs perfectly spaced and the coat hanger is level, they still weight the hanger down, bending it out of shape. Double Boo!

A better way to go about it is to use stationary towel bars on the closet door (an over the door version is an awesome idea if you have one lying around, but use what you already have). This won’t wobble around the closet or bend the hanger out of shape. It is also a great way to organize your necklaces. Am I the only one who has a ton of shower curtain rings and hooks lying around the house?

3. The Cowl

I am in love with this hijab look. It is part Celtic, part Muslimah, and that is right in my wheelhouse. The best part is that you can turn almost anything into a cowl: an old sweater, a t-shirt, a skirt, a piece of fabric you don’t know what to do with, a towel (OK, maybe not a towel. I went too far. But you know what I mean).

Another great thing about your own cowl is that it doesn’t have to be attached to one particular sweater/top/abaya so you can mix and match with anything. And you can make it long enough to cover your chest, just wear with an amira hijab underneath and you are good to go.

– Cut the fabric to 45″ x 35″ -Fold the fabric in half on the 45″ side so it is now 22.5″x35″- Sew the two 35″ sides together. -Turn it inside out so the seam is on the inside.  The fabric should look like a tube.

4. The Maxi

Everyone needs a maxi dress and everyone has at least a few shirts they were going to give a proper burial at Goodwill. Save the trip to the second hand store and whip up a must have closet staple. (if you steal your husband’s old shirts for this project, I won’t tell)

Pick the colors that go together from your pile of giveaways. Cut. Sew. Wear. It’s as easy as that.

clothedmuch.com Since it is DIY, you can make it with a long sleeve shirt at the top!

Chic Girl’s Tip: Anytime you plan to up-cycle jersey knit pieces, wash and dry the clothes before cutting them for your projects. For this project, I used the largest shirt as the bottom layer and smallest for the top to make sure the shape of the skirt portion was a-line.