Wednesday, August 17, 2011

[DIY Tutorial] Upcycled T-Shirt Stash Bag

Here's our simple tutorial on how to "upcycle" an old t-shirt into a stash bag!
We've stuffed ours with extra thread spools!


Materials needed:
Sewing machine
Serger (optional)

Old t-shirt
Ribbon or drawstring
Ruler
Chalk
Pins
Fabric Shears
Medium/Large Safety Pin
Iron (not pictured)


Instructions:
1. Lay t-shirt flat on table, measure and chalk out a rectangular box 10" wide x 13" tall.


2. Pin around the edges (to keep the back and front of the t-shirt together) and cut the rectangle out.


3. Place good sides together and chalk out 1/2" seam allowance from the left, bottom, and right sides. Leave a 2" space at the top on the right side. (This is where the drawstring goes so we dont want to sew it closed!)


4. Pin pieces together and sew on the chalked line. Make sure the good sides are together.


*IMPORTANT: To keep the corners sturdier from however much weight you keep in your stash bag, change the stitch length when sewing the corners. About one inch away from the corner, change the stitch length to 1.5. When you reach the corner, pivot the fabric with needle in, continue sewing at 1.5 for another inch then change the stitch length back to 2.5. Do this to both bottom corners.
Click on photo to enlarge
5. After sewing the sides and bottom, iron the side seams at the top flat.


6. Mark 1" from the top on the front and back of the good sides.


7. Fold in the top at the chalk line and iron flat all around.


8. Pin the 1" part down and sew around the bag at around 5/8". We are creating the casing for the drawstring.


9. After sewing all around, attach the safety pin to one end of your ribbon/drawstring and put it through the top casing that we have just created. Feed the safety pin through until it comes out the other end.


10. Pull the two ends together, knot them and you're done!


Hope you enjoyed that tutorial and enjoy your new upcycled stash bag!
Let us know what you put in yours, we're storing thread spools in ours :D
Comments and questions are welcome too.

Till next time,
Happy Sewing!

FashionDIY Artist

1 comment:

  1. wow that's really cool! thanks for taking the time to put this step by step together.

    ReplyDelete