Give ruined clothes a new life by recycling them into a simple sewn baby toy. Perfect for an Earth Day holiday, you can use a recycled baby wipes envelope as a layer in the toy to add that crinkly sound babies love. This is a very simple sewing craft, suitable for inexperienced sewers. You can use a needle and thread if you don't have a sewing machine.

Materials

• 2 old pieces of baby clothing in complementary colors
• 1 baby wipes envelope or piece of cellophane
• satin or grosgrain ribbon

• sewing machine or needle
• thread
• straight pins

Instructions

1. 

   Look through your baby clothes to choose two pieces with fabrics that look good together.

2. Cut open the wipes envelope and flatten into one flat piece.

3. Cut a 7-inch x 7-inch square out of the wipes envelope, and a 7-inch x 7-inch square from each piece of clothing—avoiding stains if possible—so that you have 3 squares.

4. 

   If there are stains on any of your squares, cover them by sewing pieces of ribbon over the stains. Pin the ribbon over the stains, then top stitch to fabric.

5. Once stains are covered, it's time to assemble your toy. Sandwich the fabric together placing the squares down in this order: plastic layer on the bottom, 1st layer of fabric (good side up) in the middle, 2nd layer of fabric (good side down) on top.

6. 

   Make your ribbon loops: I used 3" pieces of ribbon folded in half to make my loops. Slip folded ribbon between two layers of fabric. You want the loop part to be facing inside the fabric, with the raw edges sticking out of the edges of the fabric. Pin the loops in place.

7. 

   Make as many ribbon loops as you like .

8. Pin around the outside border of the sandwich.

9. Beginning in the middle of one side of the square, stitch around the outside border of your sandwich (where you had pinned) leaving a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Stop sewing about 2-inches from where you began sewing, leaving a gap for turning your craft right-side out.

10. Turn toy right-side out. Make sure crinkly plastic layer is inside the toy, between the two fabric layers.

11. Tuck the raw edges at the opening inside the toy and pin closed.

12. Top stitch around the outside of the toy where you had pinned.

Tips

• Use the ribbon loops with plastic links to attach the toy to an activity gym or car seat.