During this quarantine, while we’re all (hopefully) staying at home to stop the spread of COVID-19, we have the perfect opportunity to take mental breaks from our online classes and try some crafts! I put together a list of crafts I’ve tried and loved while I’ve been stuck at home, both over lonely break far from college, and now while social distancing during this pandemic. Hopefully, it’s not for too much longer, because if it is I’ll be buried in crafts by the end of it!
- Clothing Modifications
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I absolutely love modifying or upcycling my old clothes. I try to go through my closet and do a big purge every time I return home, and usually I find clothes that either don’t fit me or don’t match my style anymore. When this is the case, I either donate the clothes or try to modify them to fit me better, both physically and stylistically. I usually go to Pinterest for some ideas, but my favorite things to do to old clothes are tie-dying, cropping or adding ties, or personalizing them with embroidery.
- Embroidery
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I went on Youtube during the first week of being stuck in my house and rummaged through my basement to find my old colorful friendship bracelet string that actually happens to be embroidery floss. Then, I grabbed a needle from a travel sewing kit an old shirt, and an embroidery hoop that I also found in my basement (but are super easy to find on Amazon) and taught myself how to embroider. It’s a great thing to do to take your mind off your online classes because you really have to focus to have the end-product be exactly what you want it to be. It’s also a great personalized gift idea—I’ve already embroidered shirts for four of my friends!
- Put Your Fabric Scraps to Use
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Remember those clothing modifications from the first craft idea? Most of the time they leave scraps behind (especially from cropping shirts). Put those scraps to use with a craft of your choice, like making scrunchies, pillows, or little stuffed animals!
- Knit or Crochet
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Over Christmas break, I learned how to knit from Youtube videos, and I decided over this quarantine I’ll learn how to crochet in the same way. Both are great life skills, and, during the quarantine, you can buy knitting needles, crochet hooks, and yarn for good prices on Amazon. You can make clothes, accessories, useful household items like potholders, or even cute little creatures!
- Room Decor
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Lots of people are deep cleaning their rooms over this social isolation period, but you can take it a step further and make some new room decor! Use any stick and some yarn to make your own wall hanging, print out some pictures and cut them into cool shapes to make a photo collage, or make it truly your own creation by painting something and hanging it up!
- Candles
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Somehow over the years, I’ve collected an embarrassing number of candles. If you’re the same, melt down the wax from your old candles and make new ones! You can mix waxes, create layered candles, or make your new candles into cool shapes. It’s a great way to get use out of the last bit of wax in your candles to make something new.
I hope you enjoy doing one or all of these crafts while you’re stuck at home! There’s really no end to the cool stuff you can do to personalize or upcycle things you already own around the house. Making crafts are a great, productive use of time that contributes to a room or a friendship, or simply helps you pass the time!