Fun Upcycle Ideas: Decorating Sunglasses and MORE

Today, I want to share some of my quick upcycle ideas to give as gifts or to simply upgrade closets.

I have four such projects for you today for spring and summer, and only one of them needs a sewing machine!

1. Decorating sunglasses

Tape the arms of the sunglasses to your work surface, so they don’t move around.

Paint the frames with nail polish. I used a funky metallic gold.

Plan out your design with whatever deco items you have.

Once the nail polish is dry, glue your trim to the frames.

Bonus! If you have any trim left, use it to decorate a plain pair of thong sandals. Then you have sunglasses to match your sandals.

You can use beads, individually or in strips, instead of a floral trim and make your sunglasses as fancy and fabulous as you like.

2. Shorten a dress without sewing

I really love the color of this dress and the top half is perfect. The length however was just wrong for me and looked dowdy.

It had its own tie belt, but you can use any type of belt with this quick upcycle.

Tie or fasten the belt at the back.

Pull the dress up and blouse it over the belt, until it’s at your preferred length.

Smooth out the gathers so the skirt hangs properly.

And that’s it! So quick and easy to do and it looks so much better on me.

3. Hat decor

Upcycled hats make great-looking decor items and they’re easy to switch around with the seasons.

I love a good trash-to-treasure transformation, and that’s exactly what this decorative Easter bonnet was.

I literally found this colorful straw hat in the trash and I decorated it with items I already had.

You don't have to do yours for Easter! Decorate your hat for any time of year or occassion.

To make the hat sturdy enough to hang on the wall, I lined the crown with cardboard before decorating it.

I unraveled some bath nets and braided them together, then stuck the braid around the hat as a hatband.

I gathered the last few pieces of the bath nets into a puffy bow shape and glued that on to the hatband.

Finally, I gathered a selection of seasonal items and attached them to the crown and brim of the hat.

I’m going to hang the finished hat on the outside of my front door as an Easter wreath, but I can think of plenty of other ways to use it.

4. Dress-to-top upcycle

My last thrift flip idea for today involves the same lilac dress I shortened earlier.

Having worn it as a mini dress a few times, I realized it would also look great and get more wear as a crop top.

I cut it to the length I wanted, plus an extra inch (2 cm) to turn up a hem.

I gave it a neat double fold hem and it looked a bit boring.

I went back to my stash and found this adorable vintage trim.

I stitched it straight on to the hem along the center of the trim on the right side. I arranged it so that the lower curved edge came to just below the bottom of the hem, which gives a pleasing edging to the top.