Recycled T-Shirt

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Have you woke up one morning and everything was going perfect until your child decides they are not having a good day? Well that is how my morning started off. Everything was going perfect then Virginia just started to cry and cry and cry. I held her and turned her favorite cartoon on but nothing was making her happy. Finally she laid down for a nap and slept for about 30 minutes. During that time I decided that I would try to make her something special. Something she would love.

A couple of weeks ago I came across this awesome video of the Pepsi Refresh Challenge grant winner. It is a young girl that takes t-shirts and sweaters and recycles them into reusable shopping or grocery bags. I loved this idea and thought I would take one of Virginia's old t-shirts and make her a bag. I picked her Alaska shirt that her Aunt Lisa got her. Virginia has out grown the shirt and I didn't want to consign the shirt or give it away because it is one of my favorite shirts and one of Virginia's favorite shirts. 

First I managed to get the ironing board out of the coat closet. The ironing board has not seen the light of day in awhile. I ironed the shirt and then cut out the sleeves and cut a curve along the bottom of the shirt and along the collar of the shirt.

Once I remembered how to put thread on my bobbin and bring it though the sewing machine I was good. This took some trial and error and some curse words and still not sure if I got it right. I may need to call on some of my sewing friends to come over and help me out. I am still very much a beginner sewer. 

I turned the shirt inside out and sewed along the bottom of the shirt. Then I turned the shirt back to the right side. Now I will admit that I did make a few errors along the way. First time I sewed along the bottom of the shirt and along the sleeves and collar. Once I turned it out I realized I had sewed the bag shut. So I had to fix that. I didn't sew the sleeves shut so Virginia could use that area as a handle. 

I do want to go back and sew the edges more clean and not just leave them rough like they are now. But for the most part Virginia loves her recycled t-shirt bag and is currently testing how much stuff she can put in her bag. 

I think next I will try to use one of my old t-shirts so Virginia and I will have matching shopping bags. Needless to say I have my happy baby back and the t-shirt bag is being kid tested as we speak.