Tee-to-Tote! Practicing what we preach!

Here at The Clothing Project, a large part of what we do is environmentally mindful - we want to keep as much clothing waste out of landfill as possible!!

Recently I realised just how tatty my work tee-shirt had become. The decal was peeling off and just didn’t give off a very professional look, but I didn’t want to throw it away as there was still plenty of use left in the material itself!

I had to take some time to think about how I could reuse something that had a company logo on it…

This photo really doesn’t show just how tatty the print was… it had certainly seen better days!

Then it came to me! I can upcycle the tee into a tote! It’s super easy to do, and there’s a bunch of tutorials online on how to do it, either with a sewing machine or no-sew! What a great use of an otherwise still good tee!

So I started by carefully cutting off the arms. Then I took a large bowl and marked around the neckline for where the opening of the bag would go. Then cut that out! Next step is to turn the tee inside out and (as I opted to sew my tote) I pinned the bottom of the tee together and used a strong utility stitch to sew the bottom together.

Step 1: cut off arms

Step 2: cut out neck area

Step 3: turn inside out and sew the bottom up

And there you have it! A super quick tee-to-tote!! Now this work tee that may otherwise have ended up in landfill can be used as a work bag, which is very useful as I do have a tendency to haul a lot of stuff around with me! (hey, my packed lunch is just as important as the laptop… if not more so!!!)

Perhaps this is even an opportunity for us to really help reduce the clothing wastage of some of the items we get donated to us that aren’t in good enough condition to pass on either in our parcels or to op shops. Those funky tees that might have holes in the arms or on the bottom could be turned into totes (great for the environment!) and maybe we could sell them locally (helps bring us some funding!)

If you have old tees that aren’t good enough quality to be donated, or perhaps they’re sentimental to you, I encourage you all to try your hand at making your own tee-to-totes! There’s loads of tutorials online, so give it a try!!