Recycling Old T-Shirts – Part 1

I recently had a big clean out at home and discovered a stack of t-shirts that I love, but don’t fit anymore. I couldn’t bring myself to give them away, so I scoured the internet for ways to recycle them. I found plenty for t-shirts that are too big (blog posts for the future) but hardly any for ones that are too small.



I then came across mmmcrafts messenger bag tutorial that I had pinned onto Pinterest (seriously, who else is addicted to Pinterest?!) and realised that I could incorporate one of my t-shirts into that.

This is the t-shirt that I used (I’d already started cutting into it, when I decided I should take a “before” shot ... ). Can you see why I didn’t want to get rid of it?



The tutorial was so good, and easy to follow. I actually really enjoyed making it and it didn’t take long at all. For the main fabric, I actually used stiff curtain fabric and it was ideal – with just a red cotton lining.

Here is the finished product – the only thing I would have preferred would be having the image a bit further down, but I just had to work with what I had. I’ve had SO many positive comments about this bag, which is great because I love it too.



Stay posted for Part 2 ...

Plaid Wrap Skirt

A few weeks back I saw a picture of a plaid wrap skirt and I automatically thought “I bet I could make that ...” Usually, those sort of well meant plans have ended up in either a really dodgy result, or a massive headache of mistakes, lots of unpicking and vowing never to do it again.



So, this time I decided to do the proper thing of making a practice skirt out of some old fabric that I couldn’t use for anything else. I used an existing skirt to make up a pattern, and it ended up working out even better than what I’d expected, no alterations needed.

Front view

Back View

I finished my skirt the other night and wore it the next day, and LOVED it. The only thing I may need to address is that the D Rings don’t offer quite enough support for my peace of mind (they’re not bad, but I like to be 100% sure with wrap skirts!). I’m going to make another skirt with some gorgeous woollen plaid material, so I will do a “Plaid Wrap Skirt 2.0” and make the fastening more secure.