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Perfectly Imperfect Life..........

Thursday, February 28, 2019

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????

16 comments:

  1. I made one of these a few years ago but it didn't last as long as yours. My knots weren't tight enough and several pieces didn't survive the wash. Its a time consuming project but well worth it.

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    Replies
    1. Oh how disappointing!
      I was afraid of that so I made sure I tied extra strong knots! Thanks for stopping by ♥

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  2. Very cute. Thanks for sharing at the Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Party.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, always trying to keep things out of the landfill!
      You're welcome, thanks for dropping by.

      Delete
  3. Great result, I'd like to try this. thanks for sharing with Creatively Crafty #CCBG

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  4. It's a great way to use those t-shirts up! You're welcome, thanks for dropping by ♥

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  5. I need to make a couple of those too, I love upcycling projects!
    Thank you for sharing at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too, love making something out of nothing! LOL Thanks for hosting and pinning ♥

      Delete
  6. Love the rug! Thanks for sharing with us at the To Grandma's house we go link party - see you next week!

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  7. HI, I saw your tweet notice in my email and followed to your post on Twitter. I pinned it to Upcycle, Recycle Pinterest Board.... Good Job! Maybe this will encourage me to go through my Bags of Old T-Shirts, some have neat sayings on them so perfect project for them leaving the saying I like for use somehow else. I just have to motivate myself and go through them! Thanks for sharing your work and post with us! Now, what to do with the neat sayings or whatever I love on the T-Shirts! Hugs, Cyndi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hear ya, I have my Treasure Pile...it seems to never dwindle because I keep adding to it! So many ideas so little time!
      The ones with sayings make for great pillows (just cut to fit and sew) or sewn together with sleeves cut off for a throw or bedspread, etc.
      Have fun going crazy! LOL
      *hugs*
      deb

      Delete
  8. Hi, This looks intriguing. I am a bit confused. Are there are 2 strips of t-shirt coming up through each slit that was cut? When knotted, did you just tie each one in a knot, or tie 2 together so each knot was 2 colours? Thank! Another covid/repurposing project.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, thanks for asking, 1 strip goes down through the top of the hole and up through the bottom of the next hole, then both ends are knotted together on the top of the rug.
    Hope that helps ♥.

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is adorable. Thanks for sharing yet another way to 'recycle' old t-shirts.

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  11. nice to see something so colourfull and thank you

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I'd love for you to leave me a comment. Helps me to know I'm not totally crazy...like my family thinks I am!
*hugs*deb

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