T-Shirt to Beach Bag

Over the years I have accumulated a few t-shirts.  They are an easy souvenir, a great way to remember a great time.  However, over the past 20 something years I have accumulated a drawer full of shirts I never wear.  I hate the thought of parting with them. I refuse to throw them away.  I know if I gave them away they would /never/ be appreciated like I appreciate them ;).

So my interest was piqued when I saw this simple-idea on Pinterest, where by turning t shirts into shopping bags (great for the environment!).  This is not hard and it a great re-use of shirts I never wear.

I was really happy with the results and I made five bags this past weekend.  A special thanks to my mom for helping me get going (she's the crafty one in the family!)  Here are some simple instructions if you want to do the same:

Continue Reading to find step by step instructions to create your own T-Shirt to Beach Bag

Here are my simple step-by-step instructions:

First we need to cut out the neck so that we have a nice wide opening to place our items in our new bag.  I used a large tupperware bowl so that I was getting a nice even half-circle.  It covered the whole neck and then a little bit of extra material.

When cutting be careful to keep the marker on the 'scrap material' so that you don't have a lovely marker-circle on your finished product.  Notice my scissors are just to the outside of the circle when I cut.

Now it is time to cut off the sleeves.
(By the way those cut off sleeves make comfortable head bands to keep the hair out of your face.  Give them a little stretch and you have a hair accessory.)

Turn your shirt inside out and power up the sewing machine.

Now we are sewing the bottom of the bag up.

A stitch around the neck and arms, being careful not to sew the holes up, helps give the bag a look of being finished.

And then you are done!  I 'whipped out' five of these in just a couple hours.  One of them took me about 30 minutes at the most.  A very easy but practical project to put on your to-do list for the summer! :)

If you want your bag to have more form at the bottom just cut out a piece of cardboard to lay inside the bottom.  (Military families always have some of that somewhere in the house, right?)  You can take out the cardboard whenever you need to wash your bag.

If you have done something like this let me know!  I love reading about other bloggers' projects.

- Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.com

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Leanne is an Army Spouse, Air Force Brat and step-Mom to a future Soldier. She is the mom to three boys who always need a bag for 'something', legos, cars, diapers, pool towels or simple treasures found on a walk around the block. Someday she will own a nice sewing machine like her mom's but until then she'll just have to make the trek across state lines when she is feeling crafty.   You can read more blogs by Leanne: http://militaryblog.militaryavenue.com/search/label/Leanne