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sugarspiceandcursewords replied to your post “refatshioning”
Not the same thing, but in pseudo-solidarity: I’ve been trying for a while to figure out what to do with the dozens of kid-sized T-shirts my children have ended up with. Day camp, swim camp, scout camp, random 5K, they will never wear these things but they’re definitely nothing that anyone else would want either! I do not need this many cleaning rags, and Google showed me how to wrap a headband and make bracelets, but how many headbands and bracelets can one child ignore on her bedroom floor?
Yes, this is part of my dilemma– all the advice things about decluttering are like “donate your old clothes” but listen, most of the donated clothes get thrown out or shipped overseas as garbage. I don’t want to do that. I want to take responsibility for my own garbage, the waste I generate. If it’s a beautiful garment in good condition, I will try to give it to a friend, or find someone who’ll use it, and only then will I donate it. If it’s a ratty old shirt with a missing button– or a t-shirt of any kind, really– then no.
So I’ve discovered that if you just cut all the seams off of t-shirts and convert them into flat expanses of jersey-knit fabric, then you can use them for quilt batting. I have a casserole cozy, so far, that I made that way– it’s got a layer of Insul-Brite in it, because it’s a gift, but I also padded it with two old t-shirts and it’s made out of a failed homemade skirt and lined with an old massage-oil-stained twin fitted sheet that I cut the seams out of and used the least-stained section of.
So I’m going to make a bunch of pot-holders filled with old t-shirts for Christmas, I think. And a bunch of quilts. Maybe I’ll make insulated drapes.
If you’re not someone who sews, though, then I don’t even know what you do with old t-shirts.
sugarspiceandcursewords replied to your post “refatshioning”
Not the same thing, but in pseudo-solidarity: I’ve been trying for a while to figure out what to do with the dozens of kid-sized T-shirts my children have ended up with. Day camp, swim camp, scout camp, random 5K, they will never wear these things but they’re definitely nothing that anyone else would want either! I do not need this many cleaning rags, and Google showed me how to wrap a headband and make bracelets, but how many headbands and bracelets can one child ignore on her bedroom floor?
Yes, this is part of my dilemma– all the advice things about decluttering are like “donate your old clothes” but listen, most of the donated clothes get thrown out or shipped overseas as garbage. I don’t want to do that. I want to take responsibility for my own garbage, the waste I generate. If it’s a beautiful garment in good condition, I will try to give it to a friend, or find someone who’ll use it, and only then will I donate it. If it’s a ratty old shirt with a missing button– or a t-shirt of any kind, really– then no.
So I’ve discovered that if you just cut all the seams off of t-shirts and convert them into flat expanses of jersey-knit fabric, then you can use them for quilt batting. I have a casserole cozy, so far, that I made that way– it’s got a layer of Insul-Brite in it, because it’s a gift, but I also padded it with two old t-shirts and it’s made out of a failed homemade skirt and lined with an old massage-oil-stained twin fitted sheet that I cut the seams out of and used the least-stained section of.
So I’m going to make a bunch of pot-holders filled with old t-shirts for Christmas, I think. And a bunch of quilts. Maybe I’ll make insulated drapes.
If you’re not someone who sews, though, then I don’t even know what you do with old t-shirts.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-04 02:14 am (UTC)How-to, for anyone interested:
Lay the shirt on a flat surface facing you. Cut off the sleeves in a straight line that follows the side of the shirt. (Do not follow the sleeve seam! Just cut in a straight line up from the armpit.)
Make a cut up the side of the shirt on each side from the bottom to the hole where the sleeve was.
Beginning from the shoulder of the shirt, cut three strips down through the fabric between the outer edge and the beginning of the neckline. (You can get a little of the neckline in your cut, it's okay!) Do the same on the other shoulder.
This will leave the fabric below the neckline on each side of the shirt as a solid piece; you can cut it in three strips as well and make a smaller toy, if you want, or put it in the cleaning-rag pile, or use it to patch another shirt, etc.
'Open' your strips so they're long! Tie three or six together (depending on the size of dog you're making a toy for) and braid them about halfway down. Braid as tightly as you can.
Tie a knot at the center. Braid the remaining portion. (I like to do a backward braid for this, for symmetry, but it's not necessary.) Tie off at the end.
Congrats on your new dog rope toy!
This is also a great way to dispose of old pillowcases or sheets; they're a nice tough fabric and make better strips than shirts do.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-05 02:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-05 02:53 pm (UTC)This was why I went ahead and posted instructions; I figure most people know a dog or two, even if they don't have one themselves! :D