T-Shirt Tote Bag

My love for old T-shirts really knows no bounds. I’ve made pajama shorts and yarn from them, so when I saw this pin

I knew I had a project for this month’s Pinterest Challenge. The Pinterest Challenge is hosted by Erlene of My Pinterventures, and the goal is to inspire everyone to actual make some of those pins you’ve saved, instead of just pinning them.

Mr. SuzerSpace used to travel a lot for work, and he just about always brought home a T-shirt or two for me. When deciding on the best one for this t-shirt tote bag project, I went with this old and super wrinkly one, mainly because it had a pocket. We shop at Aldi, and you need a quarter for the shopping cart, so the pocket would come in handy.

Following the tutorial in the t-shirt tote bag pin, I cut off the arms, and because I’m short, I took a little off the length as well. A lot of bags scrape the ground when I walk, so since I was making a custom grocery t-shirt tote bag, I figured I’d customize the height as well.

To get the deep ovalish/semi circle shape for the bag top, I used a platter as my template. I checked the positioning carefully to make sure I wasn’t going to cut into the pocket.

I sewed the bottom of the shirt with two rows of straight stitching to make it extra secure. I then boxed the bottom corners so it would be a true t-shirt tote bag, and not just a t-shirt sewn up at the bottom.

And then I got a little crazy. I have this other pin on my sewing board:

As luck would have it, that extra part I cut off the bottom of the T-shirt to shorten the length was just enough to make the sleeve for a piece of cardboard. I got a little mixed up on the instructions, but in the end, it worked (as long as the mixed up bit is hidden on the bottom) and it even fit exactly as it was supposed to in the bottom of the bag!

And now I have a custom grocery t-shirt tote bag to take to the store. And the ability to make several more, any time I feel like tackling that mountain of T-shirts in the craft corner.

Let’s meet this month’s Pinterest Challenge hosts!

My Pinterventures •  Cookies Coffee and Crafts Sew Crafty Crochet •  Sum of their Stories  •  Eye Love Knots This Autoimmune Life  •  Love My Little Cottage Across the Boulevard •  Suzerspace •  My Sweet Things Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After Purple Hues and Me  • Decorate and More with Tip Mom Home Guide •  Our Unschooling Journey • Our Good Life Intelligent Domestications  •  Craftify My Love Life Beyond the Kitchen •  K’s Olympic Nest •  Teadoddles Our Crafty Mom  •  My Family Thyme 15 Acre Homestead  •  Farm Girl Reformed

To join next month’s #pinterestchallenge, click here to sign-up ⇒ July Pinterest Challenge

 Now, let’s see what the other hosts have created ⇓⇓