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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UFL chapter.

Quarantine has given us a lot of extra time at home, so why not use this time for a fun new hobby. A great way to pass the time is to revamp your closet by going through your wardrobe. Before you throw all your old clothes away, think about upcycling them. 

Upcycling clothes is when you take your old clothes and transform them into something better. It’s a way to become are excited about wearing new clothes without having to spend money! 

Also, it is a great way not to waste any of the clothes you already have because let’s be honest, there’re probably some barely worn items in your closet. Don’t throw them away! 

Instead, make your clothes more fun and into something that you will want to wear in the future. This is also really important for sustainability reasons because you will not be wasting the clothes you buy, for you will be able to reuse them over and over again.

Here are some of the ways that you can transform your wardrobe:

Muscle Tanks

You may have some old t-shirts laying around that you have never really worn. Change these t-shirts into something that you will want to wear, like muscle tanks! Muscle tanks are super cute when worn with a bralette, or they even can be used as part of your workout outfit. It is so easy to transform your old t-shirts into muscle tanks. All you have to do is grab your pair of scissors. To make a muscle tank out of your old t-shirts, cut where the sleeve and shirt are connected and follow that line all around the sleeve. This will create a muscle tank with small sleeve openings. You can take it a step further and cut even more of your t-shirt to make larger sleeve openings if that is the kind of muscle tank that you are going for. 

Tie-Dye

Tie-dyed clothing has been super trendy now, and throughout quarantine. You can do this at home and on as many clothing items as you would like. Tie-dye outfits are very popular right now. For example, people have been wearing tie-dyed crop tops with tie-dyed joggers, which you could recreate if you have these items already. All you need is a tie-dye kit, which you can easily purchase from Amazon here!

Decorate your shoes

If you have some old shoes in your closet that you don’t wear anymore, a fun hobby and a way to make you excited to wear them again would be to decorate them! There are many different ways that you can do this. 

First, you can add rhinestones to your shoes or creating designs on them. To add rhinestones, you just need to buy loose rhinestones, glue and tweezers. You can purchase the rhinestones and tweezers in a kit from Amazon. For the glue, you will need to use something like Gem-Tac, so that your rhinestones don’t fall off. Gem-Tac can also be purchased from Amazon. If you want to create a design on your shoes, all you need is permanent markers in whatever color you want to create your design in. For more intricate designs, fine point permanent markers will work better because they will make it easier for you to draw out your designs. 

Crop tops

This is probably one of the easiest ways to transform your old shirts. Everyone knows that crop tops are a popular clothing item. Add to your collection of crop tops by cutting the old shirts that you already have! Just grab some scissors and cut the bottom of any of your shirts to create new tops that you will want to wear. This is super easy because you can personally determine how much you need to cut off of your old shirts to make the perfect crop top. 

Cut up your jeans

If you have some old jeans that may not be in style anymore, make them trendier by adding holes to create ripped jeans. All you will need to do is use your scissors to create as many holes as you would like. You can also make jean shorts out of your old jeans by cutting off the bottoms. Once you cut your jeans into shorts, you can choose to leave them as is or roll them at the bottom. Either way, they will look super cute! 

With these tricks, you should be able to transform your old wardrobe into fun and trendy new pieces. I hope this helps you to change your clothes into items that you love and will be excited to wear!

Ashlyn received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Florida in 2021.