Two Totes

I've been focused on tote bags this past week.

In an attempt to de-clutter my sewing space, I started chopping up the stash of old t-shirts. The printed designs are set aside for t-shirt quilts. The bottoms of the shirts are sliced up into t-shirt yarn. I can crochet up one of these totes almost as quickly as I can cut up the shirts!

These two totes, and possibly a few more, will be for sale soon, either in my Etsy shop or in a local crafty gift shop. These totes are perfect for carrying a knitting project or taking a trip to the farmers market.

And for a bonus tote...
This is one of those wrap-strips-of-fabric-around-clothesline deals.

This will be a gift for an amazing friend who admired my clothesline bag. I thought my bag took 100 feet of clothesline, but as I started sewing this one together, I realized it must have been closer to 200 feet. I don't have a very good memory and can never find my notes. That's what blogging is for, right? Note to future self: 200 feet of clothesline!

The fabric was given to me years and years ago from a hand painted fabric studio. They used to cut off the ends of the pieces to clean them up and threw them into a big garbage bag. They knew I used small pieces, so they gave a whole bag to lucky me! After making two of these bags and a couple of bowls, the supply is finally dwindling.

Time for more t-shirt slicing!

I'm linking to Karen's Craft Party!

T-Tote

I finished the t-shirt tote after Pete's game last night. As much as my thumb hurts from wrangling the stretchy yarn, I couldn't put it down until it was done! The thick yarn works up really quickly with a big crochet hook (I used size K/10.5). The other baseball moms thought it was fun. Well, most of them, anyway. The froo froo moms didn't get it.


Pete was happy for the opportunity to pitch an inning after catching for 3 whole games. It was fun to watch the fog roll in across the field, but the outfielders were losing the ball against the white sky.


Julia bought this great insulated bag at Hershey Park. I can't wait to pack it with snacks to take to the beach this summer!

All the low hanging fruit has been picked. Time to get to the high stuff.
Tina

T-shirt Yarn

What fun! In the process of cleaning the "studio" I found several bags and a big bin of old t-shirts being saved for t-shirt quilts. I remembered seeing Arlette's tutorial for how to make yarn out of t-shirts. So I started cutting.


Since all of the t-shirts had printed images we wanted to save, I only cut the bottom portion of the shirts into yarn. I used an old June Tailor Short Cut ruler to quickly cut 1" strips. Use Arlette's instructions to make a continuous strip. I've used this technique before to make yarn out of plastic grocery bags.


When you stretch the strip, it rolls onto itself. Julia took a break from homework to pull some yarn for me. She said she could do that all day! Roll into balls and start knitting or crocheting.


I decided a tote bag would be useful, since one can never have too many tote bags! The yarn is not easy to work with, and a blister is forming on my thumb. But it's worth it. I have this great new stash of yarn from something I would have thrown away. Now what to do with the sleeves?


Have a crafty day!
Tina

P.S. Don't you love my grandmother's enamel table I unearthed in the studio?