http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-a-reusable-shopping-bag-from-an-old-t-shirt.html
Make a Reusable Shopping Bag from an Old T-Shirt
By Jamie Ervin, Green Options
I’m always on the lookout for creative uses for t-shirts. We have a bunch collecting dust in our closets and they are readily available at resale shops.Martha Stewart has a fabulous idea for making a reusable shopping tote out of t-shirts. What a fun way to reuse all those souvenir and college tees. This bag is simple to make:
Sew the very bottom of the t-shirt together, then cut off the sleeves, and cut around the neckline. I’m already thinking up ways to fancy this up (reinforcing the top and using ribbon trim and handles, etc). Visit Martha’s link to watch a video and get step by step directions.
This project is simple, so even my youngsters can make these with minimal help– the bags make wonderful sleepover packs. (Pssst… you can also make pillowcases.)
What other reuse projects do you know of using old t-shirts?
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22 comments
add your comment »this is a cool craft and cuts back on use of plastic bags. :)
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THANK YOU FOR THE CRAFT IDEA,
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I followed this pattern and made my own! I was thrilled to finally put to use a free T-shirt that I was really never going to wear. This was a very quick project, and my T-shirt-bag has enormous capacity!
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Great article, thank you!
I knew a woman who made quilts out of old T-shirts. A great way to have a unique quilt with your favorite bands, sayings, cartoons etc...
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A woman I know uses old T-shirts for making rag rugs - even faded, tatty, torn ones - also T-shirts with logos or other printed designs as she just cuts these off. They are in any case cut into ca 3 cm long, narrow strips, and then "hooked" through a hessian base to make traditional, shaggy rag rugs for bedrooms, fireside, hallway, conservatories, country-look kitchens etc. Her first project was a "shaggy" cushion cover.
Actually, this is just a modern take on a Victorian, 19th century, tradition of using cotton and linen rags and old sacking for making rag rugs. Many of our ancestors surely did this.
Another, similar, way of using old T-shirts is to cut very long, narrow strips, then sew these together into three VERY long lengths, adding to each as you go by sewing on more strips. Once you have three VERY large balls of material you plait the three strands together (like you would hair). When you have one VERY long plait, you roll the plait into a flat circular shape - it's possible but a little more tricky to make an oval too - starting from the centre and stitching neatly as you go along so that you end up with a thick rug.
If you have a loom, you could also weave rag rugs out of narrow strips cut from large quantities of old, discarded cotton T-shirts. These would make nice, soft rag rugs.
The colour possibilities are endless: make one in b&w; a rainbow-coloured one; many different shades of green; nuances of red, yellow and orange; blues & purples .
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This is awesome!
In a country like India, where the "SuperMarket" is just starting,what i mean is, Supermarkets are a new concept, and even today, they exist only in Metros like Mumbai, Delhi etc. (Earlier, people bought vegetables and stuff from roadside vendors)
I always see the middleclass/upper middle class people not bothering to use cloth bags.
They just use the plastic bags provided by the market, which are later used to stuff garbage into and the garbage man eventually takes the bags away.
This is a great article! Im working on my teeshirt bag :D
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Heck I just use them for dust cloths or paint rags. I like this idea.
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100% cotton shirts are used for "mulch" around new plants in my yard.
I hated the idea of throwing away some of the old shirts with memories, so I've made several "quilts" - cut out the front with the logo or picture; hem or hem as you sew; sew it onto a plain or tattered throw. My son's favorite "quilt" is 20-30 old summer camp t-shirts sewed onto an old too-itchy-to-use army blanket. It's really heavy and wonderfully warm! Old t-shirts are snuggly.
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Awesome post. Man if you are going to keep churning out content like that I will keep up the assists and email you articles. Obviously I am interested in the topic, but am far less educated than you. Nice work dude and thanks for the shopping bag tip.
vitamin d
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I make the equivalent of paper towels out of any old clothes, but cotton is great because it's absorbent for wiping up spills, muddy tracks, hair balls...Keep several little boxes of them around the house and shop. Cotton and flannel clothes make great kleenex replacements and are much softer on the nose. You can even use them in place of toilet paper as long as you don't flush them. Just put them in a small container and dispose of in the non-recycleable trash. This works best if you pour some vinagar water with a little lotion in it over a stack of them and let them wick up the moisture. Ta Da, homemade wet wipes for your Royal Bottom.
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