Three T-Shirt Bags by Creations By June

Hello! It's me, June from CreationsbyJune!  I am so happy Robin is hosting the stashbust again... I soooo need it!  And then to have me as a guest poster...oh happy day  I was trying to think of something fun and something related to the stash bust and then the name of the blog hit me.. The T-Shirt Diaries.... Hey I have a stash of old shirts that are waiting for something to be done to them so why not?

Today I am going to show you how to make recycle bags for groceries or books or what ever you want, from a recycled t-shirt.  There are a lot of different ideas for this and I thought I would start with the simple and then add a little and then add even more "bling" factor.

First thing you need is an old t-shirt, that you can't quite wear anymore  ( we will just say it is because you became fabulously fit, not because you had a paint accident in a craft experience!)  I chose an old 4-H T shirt that had a blob of paint on it.  Of course it was not a huge blob, but I noticed it.  For the basic bag, you have to make some basic cutes, like this..

 

That was the hard part!  With wrong sides together (in other words leave it like this) sew along the bottom edge..  then turn inside out and sew along bottom edge, again.. and now you have a french seam!  What it also does, is keep and edges inside and if you have raw edges, protects them from fraying.  I like the french seams, makes me feel like I am doing some secret sewing technique..  While still inside out lay bottom where seam is out flat, so it makes a triangle...

Then sew across and clip the end triangle off. Do this for both ends. Next, turn right side out and tra-la, you now have a flat bottom bag

Guess what?  You are done with the super easy recycle bag to take to the grocery!

OR... you could kick it up a notch....
same cut for the bottom (or lack there of!) and this time we will do the opening different.....

Now this time, around the neck, I want you to fold over and form a bit of a tube.....about an inch or so wide

This time I took another shirt and cut it into strips... a total of 6 strips or 2 sets of three because we are going to braid....

You will pull the ends through the tubes you have sewn, bring through and tie in a know.  After I had braided the strips, I also sewed the ends so it would not come undone later on down the road.  Guess what?  you are now done with bag number two!

I tried to leave the wording visible but it was so close to the top, so you can see it.. sort of.  It would be better with something more visible on the front.. in my opinion.

Okay..on to bag number three... is it a recycle grocery bag or a purse with lots of room?
You know the drill, bottom is the same as the first, top is cut  the same as the second but the handles are completely different.

I decided to use embroidery hoops for handles.  I covered them with the lace I picked up at the auction a few weeks ago.  I just wrapped and glue gunned as I went....

Then I placed one handle on one side of the top and actually glued the fabric to the handle so it would not slide around later.Once it was in place, I sewed along the bottom edge of the hoop to secure it.  Now here is where I added some pazazz.  I had this black and red print fabric and I put it on some wonder under and then cut out the patter,  next I ironed it on to the bag.. so now we have a "real" handle, lace and additional design elements, which add up to this:

There you go, three t-shirts, three very similar constructed bags and three completely different looks!