A Mountain of Old T-Shirts

I've jumped on the bandwagon!!

The upcycle/recycle T-Shirt bandwagon that is.

Seems sometimes I'm a little behind with trends,

that's life!

My adult kids had just cleaned out their closets and 

I had a humongous box of T-Shirts -

ripped, stained, outgrown, etc. ready to be disposed of.

I've seen T-shirt projects everywhere,

using up your old T-Shirts that were 

on their way to the trash heap.

Heaven forbid!

'Use it up

Wear it out

Make it do

Or do without'

Just keep them out of the landfill! 

It just so happened I needed a new throw rug for my hall bath.

The current one was falling apart and, well, you could almost see through it 😕

So I started planning. The bathroom is beach themed,

 so I dug and dug through the box for beach themed hues for the rug. Being I had limited colors to choose from, I chose:

tans representing beach sand,

blues representing the water in the ocean,

greens representing seaweed and algae,

whites representing the frothing of the waves.

I started out with my cutting mat, rotary cutting tool, and my chosen pile of old t-shirts.

For the ''base'' of the rug I cut the arms off a black shirt, cut down each side seam so I could open it up and lay it out flat. 

I then cut it into as much of a rectangle as possible.

But you can cut it into any shape you'd like.

Now the tedious part.

You need to cut slits in rows through the entire ''base'' of the rug.

I snipped slits one row at a time with scissors.

I tried to keep them as consistent as possible,

but in the end any inconsistencies won't be noticed.

Next I cut up the "beach colored" shirts into strips 

approximately 5'' - 6'' long and 1 1/2'' - 2'' wide. 

I kept my strips in piles by color and grabbed 

a little of each as I went along so I wouldn't run out 

of any color too early.

Now to add the strips.

Basically feed one strip down through the first hole, 

up through the next,

and tie a knot.  Repeat until the base is covered.

The finished back 

Here is the finished product....

It works well and I have already 

washed it in the washer on delicate.

Now, what to do with all the leftover strips of T-shirts????

Great Backyard Bird Count 2019 ~ WW

At least I know why all my song birds aren't around anymore.

This guy has set up a "bird blind" in my Podocarpus!

He thinks he owns the backyard!

The raccoons haven't been around,

if he's keeping them at bay, he can stay!

Gun Control Cartoons for Deplorables ~ WW

Potato Beads

Yes, that's right, potato beads!

I know it sounds a little crazy...well, a lot crazy, but you can make beads from potatoes. You won't believe how great they can look!



Give it a try...all you can lose is a potato!!

Begin by peeling and cutting the potato in half.
Next cut the potato halves down into interesting shaped chunks
a little larger to allow for some shrinkage.

Put the beads on bamboo skewers.
Let them dry out completely, which usually takes a few days to a week.
Or if your impatient ;)
you can dry them in your oven at 200°F for three hours 
or until dry and hard.

When the beads are done drying they will be hard.

Once the beads are dry, you can remove them from the skewers and paint by hand with one or two coats of acrylic paint. Be sure to let dry completely between each coat. 

Alternately you can leave them on the skewers and 
spray paint them, again  
being sure to allow to dry between coats. 



Once your done painting follow with a couple coats of sealer.
I used Rust-oleum Ultra Cover in Clear Gloss. Be sure to let dry completely between each coat. 

There you go, your beads are ready to be used as you desire.
Gorgeous and inexpensive room divider or doorway hanging.

I decided to make napkin rings.

You use as you would any other bead.

You can make the "chunks" any shape you'd like.

I threaded them, along with other "regular" beads I had, on linen cording.

When they were the correct size, I tried them on a napkin to be sure,

I knotted the ends of the cording together.

That's it. Easy peasy!

I whipped up some more.

I even added some charms on these!

You're only limit is your imagination.

They would look amazing coordinated with your table setting!

Not bad for a potato huh?

I want to thank Marci from Stone Cottage Adventures
for featuring this post ♥

I also want to thank Ann from The Apple Street Cottage
for featuring this post ♥