Repurposed Tee

3 easy things to do with an old Tee shirt… WARNING: they do require a little sewing.

Scarf #1: Take an old tee, cut off the hem & cut it just below the arm pits. Then cut that in half lengthwise (roughly 6-8” depending on the size of the tee).


Cut off the side seams from one side. Open up the strips of fabric & sew the ends together so you have one long piece. About 1” in from the long edges, I used my ruffle attachment to gather it all up. If you don’t have this, you have to gather it the old fashioned way (really long basting stitch, pull a thread to the desired shirring, knot it off & re-stitch it with a regular stitch to really secure it). The pink tee used was a fitted tee & once it was all gathered up, it wasn’t really long enough to tie. So I wrapped it around my neck, let one edge peek out under a cardigan and used a safety pin at the front where they overlapped. It was a ruffled Dickie! The second scarf I made was from a bigger tee & it gathered up to the perfect length. See here for full tutorial. Vermillion Rules: http://vermillionrules.blogspot.com/2010/01/t-shirt-ruffle-scarf-tutorial.html

Scarf #2: I’ve made a bunch of these for myself & family. Take an old tee, cut off the hem & cut the tee up into 4x4 squares (use the sleeves too). You will end up with 60+ squares. Lay the squares so that the corners of one square ends in the center of the square below it and so on (if the corners overlap slightly or if there is a little space between them, that is OK, you will never notice). Sew down the center of the square corner to corner… keep overlapping & sewing until all your squares are used up. You will end up with one really really long scarf. Then fold the scarf in half & in half again them wrap it around my neck & loop it thru. If you are using a jersey tee, once you wash it, the edges will curl, making it even more ruffle looking.

Ruffles & stuff scarf: http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/08/super-easy-t-shirt-scarf.html

BAG: use a plate to cut off the neck & sleeves. Cut off the hem. Since, the shoulder seams then become the handles, a reinforced the shoulder seams with a Zig Zag stitch. Turn the tee inside out & stitch the bottom closed… Keep the side seams of the tee in their usual place. Turn it right side out & you now have a great little kid friendly knit bag for boys to carry their stuff around in. Tee- shirt bag: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/good-thing-t-shirt-bag