Recycled T-Shirt Bags

I try to have some sort of fun craft for my grand kids to do when they come over for the day during summer vacation. You know how boring summer vacation can be. Summer vacation sounds so fabulous on the last day of school... but a couple of weeks into it, your so over it... Luckily,  Pinterest came to the rescue. I have a board on Pinterest called  "Summer Time"  One of the cute ideas that I had pinned was to make a bag out of an old t-shirt. I had my daughter bring over some of my grand-kids old t-shirts they had outgrown to use in making their bags.

The majority of the work was done by me...  Basically I had them nearly completed but for a few cuts to be done by the kids. These t-shirt bags have a bottom sewn seam. So, I first  turned each t-shirt inside out and pinned the bottom of the t-shirt making sure it was smooth, then I just hemmed along the bottom, easy peasy. Of course, I had to go a step beyond just the basic straight stitch across the bottom of the bag and gave each one a "boxed bottom." The boxed bottom will make it easier to hold wider things and it just gives each bag a better overall appearance.

Next, I flipped each shirt right side out laying them as flat and smooth as possible. I made some cardboard templates to use as marking guides for cutting the shirts since I was going to be marking a lot of them at one time. I pre-made a stack of shirts ready to be cut into bags, all the kids had to do was cut on the chalked lines to complete them. I placed pins very close together so that the two layers of each shirt wouldn't slide around while the kids were cutting the fabric.
It worked out pretty well...

It was nice for them to have immediately accomplished a task and get rewarded with a finished product so quickly... I wish I had someone to pre-make something for me so I could swoop in last minute and finish it up!
The t-shirt bag for my grand daughter just screamed for fringe. For this bag, I didn't turn the shirt inside out before stitching the bottom hem. I stitched across the bottom front and then fringed the remaining fabric of the shirt. The pink cutting line is chalk and will wash away.
I had my grand daughter add some beads to each piece of fringe along the front and back of the newly made bag. Each bead was slipped onto the fabric and held in place by an overhand knot. Easy-peasy.

Of course, Nana needed some recycled t-shirt bags too, why not.... I used two Ed Hardy t-shirts that are heavily-rhinestoned for my two bags. This Nana rocks the rhinestones *wink*

Well that was fun... When is the first day of school? *wink*
big hugs,