recycled t-shirt totes

I first came across the t-shirt tote on a blog months ago. Can’t remember exactly which one, sorry. I thought it was so cute but that was BSM (before sewing machine).

I’ve had my machine out working on these drapes and these drapes this week.

I also have a stack yea high of t-shirts that my daughter has outgrown. And who doesn’t need tote bags?

Well, living in Canada you definitely do. Most stores here charge a nickel per bag. Grocery Stores? yep. Clothing stores? most of them. So everyone here just brings their own bags when they shop.

I have to say at first I wasn’t too keen on this but I’m learning to embrace being less wasteful. Especially given facts like this:  Plastic shopping bags are typically used less than 30 minutes and only 1% are recycled. The average American adult uses approximately 288 bags a year, or 22,000 in an average lifetime… Yikes. It’s such a small thing but it can make a big difference.

Back to the tote bags.

These are super simple to make.

Step one…cut the arms off of the t-shirt. Be careful to cut on the outside of the seam…the handles will be stronger with the seams.

Step two…cut a semi-circle out of the neck.

Step three…turn the t-shirt inside out and sew a seam along the seam that is already at the bottom. Then make a second seam over the first to make the seam really strong.

That’s it…three steps that take less than five minutes. Easy Peasy.

But wait…there’s more! I decided to use the piece of t-shirt that was cut out of the back of the neck.

I rolled it up and made rosettes following the tutorial here. Obviously, there is not as much fabric here as in the tutorial. Same idea though.

Much cuter, huh? My daughter and her friends are gonna flip over these! I’m going to make a smaller version to use as her lunch tote.

I wondered if I could make a tote out of a polo shirt as well…

I followed the above three steps. The only difference is when I cut the neck hole out, I cut below the buttons.

Ohhhh…this one is my FAVE!!!

Re-duce… Re-use… Re-cycle…RE-DICULOUSLY cute!

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