Thrifty Thursday: Making reusable shopping bags out of old tshirts

It is easier then you think to make reusable shopping bags out of things that you already have around the house.  Don't you have a few shirt that shrank in the wash, never fit the same way on that you thought they would or were given to you for some freebie from work (or ugly shirts from someone else's vacation....am I the only one that has those)?

I have shirts that I don't wear that have been sitting in my drawer because I don't know what else to do with them.  Who would want the shirt that my husband brought home for bowling in a charity tournament at his friends work place?  Umm, no one and it is black which we don't wear in the summer heat because it is would be like an oven.  I also have shirts that I used to wear that have good memories that I don't wear anymore. There are others that I had fond memories of and didn't want to get rid of so what better then to smile when you get out your bags at the store.

They recently went into pile which sat in the same place reminding me that I needed to make these nifty and thrifty reusable bags.  I finally grabbed one when I had a second and cut the arms and the collar off.

I took the sleeves and cut them open and put them into the rag bucket so that I could pull them out for cleaning next time I needed a rag.  Never let anything go to waste when you don't have to, right?

The first one didn't go extremely well because I followed the path of the collar.  See how the back is a little higher than the front.  Well, it was an easy fix and I just cut a little more off.  I did a second one and I made one cut through both sides and it looked much better on the first try.

I have a sewing machine in the basement which is piled under a bunch of things (which I insist doesn't work and my mom strongly disagrees with me so it has yet to be replaced) so I sent these two shirts home with my mom to be sewed on her really nice quilting sewing machine that gets serviced every year and is nice and strong.  She sewed the bottom seam in seconds and I had bags.... well, not until she came down to visit again but I did have them.  She sewed above the seam at the bottom while the shirt was inside out and then turned them the right way so that there aren't any seams showing.

I couldn't believe how big the bags were.  I decided that I might need to change the bag design if I was going to hold anything too big but I thought that they would be perfect for chips or diapers (not in a box) which are both big and lightweight.  I ended up trying it out at the store when I got tissues.  The bag fit 10 boxes!!!  Way easier then carrying lots of bags.  I was going to use the other one for the toilet paper but they ended up fitting in another bag so this was the only one that I got to try out.

I think that they would be perfect to carry beach toys and balls in the summer and I did see one that had little cuts in the fabric to let air in and dirt out that might be a great idea.  I know that I currently have a bag with the beach toys in them and it is is never big enough for all the toys so I might have to try it without holes first and then see if I need to change the design.

There are tons of great ideas with these neat bags and I am sure that you can make lots with old t-shirts that you have already around the house.  Go looking in closets and drawers and see what you find to try to make one for yourself!  If you want a smaller bag for getting stuff from the drugstore or other places, start looking through your kids clothes and let me know what you come up with!!!  I hope that you try to make your own and see how neat these bags are to add to your collection of reusable bags.