Sewing Children's Clothing: Upcycling Adult Clothing

Dear users and authors,
how can you sew or make children’s clothing from adult clothing?
You can share tips and tricks here.
If anyone has a pattern on this, please feel free to post it here as well. 

I like to sew children’s shirts from men’s shirts. You can often reuse the design really well. Just check whether the pattern fits the size. 

You can also make great use of discarded adult jeans for children’s trousers. Depending on the jeans, I like to use loose-fitting children’s patterns. It turns out really well. Depending on the child’s size, you can even make more than one new pair of trousers from one large pair of jeans. 

You sewing pros, would you mind showing us some examples of what can be sewn for children from repurposed adult clothes? Maybe someone has something real-life they can show us. Pictures always say more than words.

I find this topic very exciting. Can you use any fabric? For example, if I take old dress shirts. What can I sew for my grandchildren from them?

Best regards

In theory, you can sew anything for children from adult clothing.
Just think of the item—say, a dress shirt—as fabric.
In this case, it would likely be cotton, meaning a non-stretch woven fabric.
Any children’s sewing pattern for this type of fabric would work as long as you have enough fabric. So, depending on the child’s size, you could make, for example, a shirt, blouse, skirt, dress, lightweight pants, baby hat, blanket, stuffed animal, etc.

In practice, you’ll take the original garment apart—that is, unpick the seams or cut very close to the seam, and unpick any darts. Cut off the collar, cuffs, and buttons.
Iron the fabric flat and place the sewing pattern on top (pay attention to the grainline!).
If you don’t have a sewing pattern yet, measure the front, back, and sleeve pieces and compare them to the fabric requirements for the desired pattern.
Or lay an existing piece of the child’s clothing on top to decide what’s feasible (keep seam allowances in mind).

And yes, you can use any fabric—you just need to make sure the children’s pattern is suitable for that type of fabric.

I’ve already sewn a pair of pants for my grandson out of one of my son-in-law’s T-shirts.





I incorporated the front button placket into the pant leg.

Oh, I’ve turned quite a few of my own clothes into children’s clothes.
A summer skort that I never wore anymore became a little skirt and a top.
A jersey skort also became a little skirt for a child; one of my summer trousers became children’s trousers; the children’s jeans used to be a skort of mine too. Unfortunately, my legs aren’t what they used to be, so I can’t really show them in public anymore, so I rework things for the children’s food bank.
The striped one used to be a skort of mine too.

Best, Inge

Everything here was once clothing of mine that I no longer wore, because I often only wear some things 2–3 times and then they hang in the closet taking up space, so eventually they get reworked.

Best regards, Inge

Here, I used a pair of old corduroy pants to make a pair of children’s pants.

Great! Very nice explanations from Hundsstern and examples from Inge and Petra. You’re all doing a fantastic job! That’s real recycling. Instead of always buying new things, sew something new from good fabrics. Thanks to your comments, I’m already itching to rummage through the closets for clothes that my husband or I no longer wear. BUT unfortunately, I have to finish my current crochet project first. But sewing is really tempting me. Duty first, then pleasure.

So thank you very much for your inspiration.
Best, Ina

There are absolutely gorgeous girls’ dresses made from old men’s shirts. That way, you don’t have to make the button placket yourself.
Try Googling: girls’ dress made from an old men’s shirt.

Yes, Petra, you’re right. I just checked. The fabric is the key. If it’s nice, you can make something out of it, as long as the size fits. I regret every “discarded” piece of clothing that I can’t transform into something new today. But now I’m more aware of this.

Best regards, Ina