Today’s post comes from Janice Kanelos from 3 Kids and a Baby. Janice Kanelos is a stay-at-home mother of 4 children, her youngest being less than a year old and her oldest approaching middle school a little too quickly. In her spare time, she maintains a blog 3 Kids and a Baby where she writes about keeping your kids stylish without breaking the bank. Welcome, Janice!

Babies grow fast. What fits one day, doesn’t fit the next. What should one do with all those baby clothes? Reuse and recycle all those adorable outfits. First, take a minute to remember good times with baby in each. Then, the sorting begins. Baby clothing can be sorted by color, texture, level of damage or by theme. For the softest, most snugly baby clothes fabrics, make a quilt. Cut outfits made of the desired type fabrics into the required shapes and follow a pattern. The finished product will be a cozy gift for your family to cherish. These blankets make great gifts for grandparents. Smaller versions work well as wall décor.

If one has many adorable outfits repeating a pattern or beloved character, carefully cut out just the pattern or character pictures. The resulting cut outs can then be applied to curtains, sheets, bulletin boards, diaper bags, pillows or whatever one can think of. This method of baby clothing recycling allows mother and child to decorate on a shoe string budget. Save a few to use in scrap-booking.

For those dreamy dresses, don’t touch it. Keep it just as is to adorn a soft stuffed animal or dress up a special doll. If one is fortunate enough to have multiple dreamy dresses, consider displaying them in shadow boxes. Such dresses can also fetch a pretty penny at local consignment stores. This allows a mom more money for new baby outfits.

Little one’s pants can be recycled into purses for the little girl looking to play dress up. Cut off the legs just before the separation seam. Sew the bottom together. Add a ribbon shoulder strap made from part of a removed leg. The other removed leg can be used to make a coordinated scarf, possibly hair ribbons or cut into strips and braided together for a belt. Small left over cloth scraps work well to make matching clothing for dolls. Affix left over jeans pockets to bulletin boards to make great storage for small toys.

When sorting through little loved one’s clothes, some will be damaged. These baby items can still be useful. First, ask if the item could be dyed to cover a stain or possibly cut off at the legs and turned into a pair of shorts. If one plans on having more children, consider keeping them for future play clothes. If not, there are so many needy children in our world. Consider donating the articles of clothing to a local shelter.

Even if the clothing is damaged beyond repair, cut into squares the cloth can be used for cleaning, crafting or scrap-booking. Baby clothes cut into strips, braided together and tied in knots result in wonderful pet toys. Keep some on hand for growing children just to play with in the future on dolls, siblings, pets or whatever their growing minds think up.

Regardless of what one decides to do with clothing that means so much to a mother, keep something to remember your little gift from God from that special time when they are little. It only comes once.

What have you done with your little one’s old clothes?