Old clothes are often seen as something to discard. Bonnie Janes sees old clothing as an opportunity, a starting point to make new fashion out of recycled materials. Janes made her first trip to the Sunflower Fine Art and Craft Market with her business Upcycle It Janes.
Janes calls the process “upcycling,” taking old clothes, deconstructing them and building a new outfit out of the designs. Each piece is one of a kind, as they’re built around a specific piece of clothing and the potential design that can be made out of it.
The business began as Janes wanted to make things for herself. She began with a Roughriders “infinity scarf,” which she was inspired to make by a T-shirt that had a stain on it.
“I thought, there has got to be something I can do with this, and it started from there.”
Janes gets much of her inspiration online, as sites like Pinterest has other people like herself doing similar upcycling projects. She likes to make her own spin on everything she sees.
“I take my time, have my stash of clothing that I pick up and think, I can do something with this. Inspiration hits and you just play.”
Janes admits that she looks at clothes completely differently now that she has begun to fashion them into unique looks.
“It used to be something I was scared to do, pulling something apart.”
This was Janes’ first year at Sunflower, and she says that a craft show is an advantage over just selling online, because he clothes are something that gain something from people being able to actually see them up close.
“It’s something people really have to see and touch. I have an Etsy site and a Facebook page, but... people have to see it, touch it and feel it to see that it’s something they would want.”
