Upcycling, Recycling, DIY and Reconstruction - all awesome ways to give your old t-shirts NEW life! Re-designing and re-creating your old, favorite tees is a great way to recycle and help the environment while keeping money in your pocket. There are thousands of DIY projects to transform your old graphic tees while keeping the art intact, and we'd like to throw out another - the upcycled t-shirt bag. These bags let you show off your favorite tees while keeping plastic and paper bags from piling up at home.
Create an awesome DIY T-shirt bag from Design By Humans tees
STEP ONE
Gather your supplies! If you do not have a sewing machine, you can always hand sew the bottom seam of the bag. Make sure to sew tightly and with thicker thread if you are going to hand sew, as the seam will need to hold whatever you carry.
You Will Need:
A T-shirt (The width of the bag will be the size of your final bag)
Sewing Pins
Thread
Sewing Machine
Scissors
Pen or Pencil
Round Object like a plate
STEP TWO
Lay your shirt out flat on a table and make sure the seams lay neatly. Cut off the neck seam. Cut off both arms seams, giving yourself ½ inch from the seam.
STEP THREE
Place a sewing pin in the bottom of your t shirt - in about the middle. This will mark where the bottom seam of your bag will be, so make sure it is below any design on your t shirt.
Next, flip your t shirt inside out, keeping track of where you put the first pin. Begin pinning across your t shirt where your bottom seam will be. This will hold your t shirt in place when you use your sewing machine to create the bottom seam.
STEP FOUR
Make sure your t shirt is inside out before you begin sewing. Starting where you put in your sewing pins, sew straight across the bottom of your t shirt, removing the pins as you go. This will create your bottom seam.
Next, cut off the excess material under your seam (as seen in the photo below).
STEP FIVE
With your bottom seam completed, it's time to make your handles. Find a circular object (we used a paper plate here) and draw a circle around the top of your t shirt where the neck seam used to be. Then, cut the circle out. This will create your handles.
STEP SIX
Flip your bag inside out again and you're done! The bottom seam is hidden inside the bag, giving you a clean look on the outside. If you want to take this a step further, you can always clean up the edges of your handles by sewing in another seam.
If you'd like more instruction, we found this cool T-shirt upcycle bag that explains more of the little details. Good Luck on your DIY project!