10 DIY Dorm Decorations That Reuse Your Old Clothes

DIY dorm decorations are a great way to style your room on a budget! If the walls are white, the place is plain, and you’re searching for a way to get your creative juices flowing, look no further! Here are our 10 favorite DIY dorm decorations that you have to try using the clothes that you haven’t worn in ages!

Fashionable Flowers

Floral is always in style, no matter the season! This tip can be placed perfectly on a string and hung from the ceiling to create a ‘hanging garden’ effect, or sewn onto various items to brighten up the boring, whitewashed walls of the typical dormitory. Take a simple fabric, whether it be denim, cotton, or anything else, and cut a few strips. Sew them in flat circles, making them tighter with each circle until you cannot possibly go any further. Then, glue them together, starting from the bottom and working your way up to the top. Don’t worry about adding ruffles, they’ll naturally start to appear as you work your way up. Then, once your flowers have dried, add them to your pillows, lampshade, or walls to give your dorm room the most color you can.

Hint: Using glue in the final step of this DIY dorm decoration is better than sewing it. Sewing will cause inconsistencies in the shape, and it will fall apart one way or another. To keep the dorm decoration’s shape longer, glue is the way to go.

Denim Decor

Napkins, buckets, and more! Old jeans may be useless for covering your legs, but they provide great for other needs as well. For buckets, cut off the pants at the knees, then fasten it with stitches. If you want to be sure it’s sewn straight and will stand, place a piece of cardboard in the bottom for stability. All that’s left is for you to take your office supplies and throw them inside, and there you are! This sassy, stylish bucket will hold whatever you need it to. That’s one of the easiest DIY dorm decorations to do!

Hint: for added aesthetic, roll the bottoms of the pants up and turn it upside down. Let the unrolled side be the bottom of your makeshift bucket, and you’ll have dual shades to match with any other lovely shade of blue in the vicinity.

Framed Phrases

The silly catchphrases on your Disney sweatshirt aren’t to be discarded. This is a memento to the trip you’ve taken, and outgrowing it does not have to mean being done with it entirely. If you’re too big for the shirt with your favorite quotes about pineapples, then don’t get rid of it! Sparkling unicorns with an inspirational message don’t need a new home. Buy a cheap wooden frame that would fit it, and then cut out the part of the shirt you want to keep. Place it in the frame and hang it up on your dorm wall. If you feel extremely creative, create a collage of as many as you’d like! How easy is it to make some colorful wall art out of old clothing? DIY dorm decorations don’t have to be hard.

Sock Monkeys

Not so much a DIY dorm decoration as creative gifts to give to your dorm mates, but still an enjoyable adventure upon which you should certainly embark! Find a traditional sock monkey pattern online (there are hundreds available to download for free, or tutorials to follow in case you get lost), and use some old socks to make up your little monkey. The best part about these little fur-balls is that you can mess up as much as you want, and it will look good! The smile could be lopsided and it will suit. Even better, they don’t seem to mind. Sock monkeys are forgiving enough about their looks anyway.

Comfy Cushions

A sweater has more use than simply being worn in the dead of winter. If there are little to no stains or smears, it can be reused for a better, more productive purpose. Find out how big your bench or chair is, and use your old sweater to create a cushion for it. If the object you’re covering needs more, make it a two-seater and match a pattern, color, or other design of choice with another article of clothing that you want to be rid of. Stitch them together, toss some stuffing in, and you’ll be as comfortable as a king in his castle. DIY decoration success!

Recycled Rugs

Old shirts can be rugs! Who knew? Well, we did, and now, so do you. Here’s a DIY dorm decoration in the form of one. T-shirt fabric is the best thing for this design, since it’s flexible and inexpensive. Take strips of the fabric, similar to when you were making your floral garden before. Make sure they’re long enough to stretch out, and begin braiding them. If needed, hold the ends down by placing them under something heavy, like a textbook. Once you’ve braided about four inches, you’re ready to rotate. Start to coil the rug as you go, making sure to press the starting knot into the braid and tuck it in to make sure it stays. As you get to the end of one strip, tie another on and keep going until you’ve got your rug and used all of your fabric.

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Baseball Cap Organizer

This DIY dorm decoration could not be easier. If you have a baseball cap at home that you don’t want, then follow these two steps carefully. Take the cap and flip it upside down, then slide the brim between your mattress and your bed frame. Where will you put your remote after that binge of Texas Ranger? Look, the cap’s there. If your glasses need a home after a long night of hard studying, place them in their case and put it in your cap. Any small items that can’t get lost? I think you know where it goes.

Tassels in Tees

Thankfully, shirts just seem to have an endless number of uses. You can rip up your ancient sleepwear to make a tassel dorm decoration. The trick isn’t in the making- it’s in the binding, but it isn’t too hard. There are a few videos on how to make tassels from scrap cloth, all with their own interpretations on how to bind and sew them to make a proper rope. Once you find the one that works for you, everything else just falls into place! I suggest making it in your school colors if at all possible. Show some spirit in your DIY dorm decorations!

De-Tightful

If you have ripped tights or leggings, it’s time to lighten up about it. If you hate that pun, there won’t be any more ahead. Tights can be stretched to a certain limit, which allows for light to shine through them when they’re stretched enough. I’ve seen lace, colored, and patterned tights all find their way onto those boring student lamps. The problem here is the wiring. The fabric can’t get too close to any light bulb for obvious fire safety reasons. It’s recommended that you look up a way to use wire to create the lampshade frame and experiment a few times before you actually try with the fabric. It is called DIY dorm decoration, but be careful!

Quilt of A-tee-ments

Nothing says “I’ve done it all” like a public display of progress. Even better if it’s DIY. If you have had any part in a musical, a marching band, or an honor society, you’ll likely have a t-shirt or an article of clothing to show for your hard work and dedication. Here’s the answer: DIY dorm decoration shirt quilt! Quilting is like a giant jigsaw puzzle with how you have to figure out where everything belongs. It’s also one of the easier crafts to take part in. Start by measuring your bed and making sure you have enough fabric to cover a fair amount. Cut out the parts of the shirts you want to keep and sew them together in a square or rectangle shape. Sew some backing on to keep it from fraying, and throw it on your bed for a colorful reminder of all that you’ve been through.