Summer Diary Day 2: T-Shirt Bags

Dear Summer Diary,

Today was a perfect example of why I love crafting with my girls. First of all, I got to do a project I've been wanting to try for a while. (I think there might be several of those this summer!) Secondly, I got to see the satisfied smiles & hear the giddy squeals while my daughters sewed on the machine by themselves for the first time.

There are all sorts of tutorials on the internet for t-shirt bags (some no-sew), but I found my specific inspiration HERE, on the instructables website.

The girls & I chose our t-shirts, cut off the sleeves (leaving seams intact), & scooped out a broader opening for our bag using a frisbee as a guide.

We turned the shirts inside-out, pinned along the bottom, & then stitched twice along the bottom edge.

Flip right-side out & you're done! 

Zoey shows off her creation---handmade all by herself!

Pazely needed a bit of help from mommy. Immediately after stitching up their bags, the girls filled them with things-to-do for our upcoming family vacay.

(And Pazely is wearing a t-shirt scrap around her neck. haha!)

I decided to make an extra bag & embellish it with these really cool flowers.

You can use the scraps left over from the sleeves & neck--just cut 1" strips. I had a bunch of strips leftover from the last Crafty Night, so I used those. Connect them together, end-to-end. A longer strip will make a larger flower of course. I chose to make 3 slightly different sized flowers.

Wrap the fabric loosely in a  coil.

Place 4 pins into the flower to hold it in place.

Stitch on a sewing machine: up & down & all around & zigging & zagging & loop-de-dooping. It's a messy sort of stitching. You'll notice the little coil starts to form a "bowl" shape.

Of course if you didn't want to see the stitches you could use a matching color of thread.

This is what it looks like on the under-side. Real messy & haphazard.
(I love this sort of project!)

When you stitch the floral embellishement onto your bag, you can stack all three sizes into one another to make one big flower.

Or, space them out as in the photo below. I've already stuffed my t-shirt bag with my most current knitting work-in-progress.

Happy t-shirt upcycling!!

♥

Nikki