Upcycling in Community, get inspired!

Hi, I'm Michelle "Paganoonoo" Paganini 

And I've been upcycling for about 14 years now. I started designing and writing Paganoonoo Upcycle Sewing Tutorials 11 years ago and still sell them on Etsy. 

To this day I can't stop thinking about, researching and talking about upcycling a.k.a.refashioning.  And not as often as I like, I'm in the sewing room creating. 

Where do I engage in community and/or get inspiration?

1) Facebook groups, including and not limited to:

• Paganoonoo Upcycle Sewing Group

• Denim Upcyclers

• Upcycled Fashion Inspiration and News

2) On Upcyclers.com founded by Gia Carrascos. Gia is building a one-stop-shop for fashion upcyclers. 

They have worldwide upcycled fashion contests for cash prizes. The current contest is for $750, entry period runs from July 1 to September 26, 2026, with the top 10 most-loved finalists and ultimate winner announced on September 30. Check out the current entries. To sell on the platform create an account with them here.

3) On the Skool Platform in an upcyclers-only group founded by Mandy Wildman called the Fashion Rebels.  The group has all kinds of community interaction, projects, calls, more so than many kinds of social media.

4) Pinterest. Completely addictive and my favorite place to get quickly inspired. I have extensive upcycling boards.

 
5) YouTube, especially everyone's favorite upcycler, Traci Myers!  and I have my own Paganoonoo channel.

6) Etsy to see what kinds of upcycled garments and accessories are for sale.  So many artist's work to choose from! Paganoonoo Store  Check out the upcycled hoodie pattern from Karen Sullivan.

7) Instagram.  I am mostly on facebook because of the easy interaction but truly enjoy Instagram too. When I find someone I like, I follow. 

Seraching for keywords on almost all of these platforms will get you were you want to go, for example: upcycled denim, dress shirt diasassembly, repairing inner thighs on jeans, etc.

Where do you go online for upcycling ideas and inspiration?

#upcyclers #thriftflip #upcycledfashioncontest #tracimyershandmade #fashionrebels #upcyclers #pinterest #upcyclersofinstagram #sullysupcycled

It is the season to purge, keep an eye out for notions you can save and reuse.

Rescue notions from old garments and accessories...

I'm starting to clear out excess, as we do at the beginning of a new year. I ran across a old black purse that was falling apart and too far gone to donate, but the hardware was beautifully made. 

I salvaged zippers, strap clasps, and a decorative motif and saved them for future projects. 

Well-made, inexpensive notions are all around us once we develop an eye for them.  

If you’d like more tips on finding notions to rescue, watch my 🎥 short video tip on YouTube.

#Paganoonoo #thriftedSewingNotions #UpcycleSewing #PurseHardware  #UpcycledAccessories #SlowFashion #SustainableSewing #wheretofindsewingnotions

Sourcing Patches for Embellished Garments and Accessories

Patches: A Great Way to Upcycle Garments and Accessories

I'm fascinated by and often charmed by upcycled, embellished garments and accessories.

The first time I saw Magnolia Pearl garments, my jaw dropped. A woman in my fashion design program (circa 2019) was a collector and would wear her garments to class. I had never seen anything like them.

Recently, I wanted to take the basic concept and make my own. I started to study embellished garments and collect images on Pinterest.

Below are some of the sources I’ve found most useful when looking for patch-worthy imagery and materials.

Inspiration: Upcycled Garments Pinterest Board

Patches

I noticed that the least accessible (to me) type of embellishments were patches. The patches I liked were not available from most traditional fabric sources. Where were these patches coming from?

Square or Fussy Cut?

When I say patches, some are square, but many are “fussy cut.”

For example, if these birds were cut out of the fabric to be used as individual elements, you would say the birds were “fussy cut.”

The way many people apply fussy cuts is to leave a rough border around the image and stitch it down right at the edge of the image, leaving a raw edge. Then cut all but about a ¼" of the border away.

I noticed that with regular quilting cotton, most of the images I liked were too small in scale for fussy cutting.

I started hunting for other sources of patches. Here’s what I found.

Source #1:  Spoonflower – on demand fabric printing service.  

You can upload and print your own designs or select from the thousands and thousands of designs already available. Spoonflower has a keyword search and category function to help you find what you want.

Samples
(The titles link to the artist’s Spoonflower page):

Beetle Bling

Sweet Baroque Kitty

On Spoonflower’s website, there are options for very specific search parameters in the left-hand column. The tough part is wading through the hundreds of thousands of designs to find large-scale motifs you want.

You can also design and print your own. I’ve done this by purchasing clip art on Etsy, arranging it in Procreate, exporting the file, and uploading it to Spoonflower to scale and proof. Whew. Quite a bit of work to get exactly what you want.

Unless you enjoy that sort of thing. 

For me, it feels like coloring. Here is one of my collections:

Michelle's Red collection

My friend Pamela Schneider has a variety of romantic and vintage-style patch designs:

Pamela's Patches 

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Some people specialize in creating patches professionally, which brings us to the next category.

Source #2: Sellers of Patches

Etsy: OpalAnnie71 

A large collection of printed patches, including holiday themed designs. 

Etsy: Gathered Goods Vintage 

Etsy: Hanna Faulk Art

Fruitful Life Studio by Rhonda Church Finfrock

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Source #3: Upholstery and Home Décor Fabric

Frequently used by Traci Myers, as seen on her YouTube Upcycled Fashion channel.

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Source #4: Vintage or Second-Hand Linens

Vintage: Embroidered, printed, cross-stitched, painted, needlework, crocheted, Suffolk puffs a.k.a. yo-yo’s, etc.

2nd Hand: duvet covers, sheets, curtains, pillows, etc.

Where to find them:

Thrift stores, estate sales, family and friends, vintage shops, church rummage sales, op shops, eBay, Etsy, etc.

Pre-cut Kantha Cloth Scraps on Etsy shop KanthaHome

Pre-cut quilt patches on Etsy shop Shadsy

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Source #5 - Collaged Patches

MyBonny shop on Etsy 

Brookstone Cottage on Etsy

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Source #6 - StampYour Own

I’ve had very good success using hand carved wooden stamps, either with fabric paint  (Lumiere by Jacquard), or fabric ink pads (Tsukineko) printed on cotton. Always practice on scraps first, on a hard and a slightly padded surface. See which works best. 

Stamps from: Charan Creations on Etsy

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Keyword searches on any of these terms are likely to yield you more results. This is just a small sampling of what is available. 

Where do you source patches? I’d love to hear in the comments below.

Happy embellishing!

Michelle Paganini, Designer for Paganoonoo

If you love upcycle sewing you’ll love Paganoonoo upcycle sewing tutorials! Visit on Etsy 

P.S. Stay tuned…

A future post will feature inspiration garments and accessories.

#upcycling #embellishment #patching #textileart #slowfashion #patches #textileartists #upcycleartists #fruitfulifestudio #pinterest #spoonflower #etsyseller #mybonny #charancreations #tmyershandmade #hannafaulkart #refashionembellish