Re-Purposing With a Purpose: No-Sew Tote Bag
Guess what today is! It’s International Camp T-Shirt Day! Wear your Nature Place T-Shirt today and…..what’s that you said? Your Nature Place shirt doesn’t fit anymore? Or it’s stained and torn up from the awesome life you’ve given it? Fear not! You can still show your Nature Place spirit with this awesome no-sew tote bag project that will give that shirt a whole new purpose!
Upcycled No-Sew T-Shirt Tote Bag
This simple sustainable project feeds two birds with one seed, in terms of doing good for the environment. First, you get to upcycle your old clothing and give it new life (read all about why this is HUGELY important for our planet in Ayla’s Sustainability Scoop). Second, you also get a reusable bag to take with you for wherever you need one – and ditch the single-use plastic bag plague! Plus, you’re eliminating the need for any new materials to be used in creating this ‘new’ object.
Here’s how to do it:
Lay your t-shirt out flat with the seams lined up as shown below. Then fold your shirt in half horizontally and line up the sleeves. Grab a pair of sharp scissors.
Cut along the seam of the sleeves to cut them off. (If you don’t have sharp enough scissors, you can cut each of the sleeves off individually). Cut a deep ‘U’ in the collar to create the handles. When you unfold your shirt, it will look like this!
Turn your shirt inside out and cut strips along the bottom of the shirt. Make them about 2-4″ in length, and about .5″ wide. Next, simply tie the strips on the front of the shirt to their respective strips on the back, to form the bottom of the.
You’ll notice that there are gaps in between each pair of ties once you’re done. To close the gaps, tie the top strip of each knot to the bottom strip of the adjacent knot. Tie a double knot on the two corners of the bag for added security.
Turn your shirt right-side out and voila!
There you have it. We don’t know about you, but we’ll never buy another tote again!