#freefromtrash Challenge Day 1: Upcycle a T-Shirt

Tea-Tie Dyed T-Shirt Beach Bag (No Sew) 

For first my crafty upcycle project I chose to create a beach bag out of an old undershirt. Since I lack a sewing machine, and the skills to use one, I put on my thinking cap to come up with a way to "no sew" it. I decided to use knotting along the bottom to form the bag.

First step of this craft was to tea tie-dye the shirt in hopes of creating a laid back beachy girl look. I used some tea bags that have been in the cupboard for easily years and I added a few drops of vegetable-based food coloring to kick up the color a little.

PART 1:

Tea-Tie-Dying Instructions:

Materials needed.

r Cotton t-shirt (plain white or colored, both will work.)

r Tea bags (Use the cheapest bag tea that you can find or that box of tea in the back of the pantry that you don’t remember buying)

r Rubber Bands or twist ties

r Boiling water

r Large stove-top pot (Glass or stainless steel works best)

1. Pre-wash the shirt and normally (this cleans any chemical residue from manufacturing and ensures that the fabric won’t shrink later.)

2. When you ready to dye, wet the shirt with cool water then wring out the excess water.

3. Fold you shirt to achieve desired design. (This is link to a great folding resource http://www.flickr.com/photos/weavingmajor/5003067434/ )

4. Use rubber bands (or twist ties) to secure folded shirt

5. Start by boiling water. When the water boils, remove from the heat.

6. Add 2 tea bags for every 8 ounces of water. So for 4 cups of water, you'll need eight tea bags. That will make enough tea dye to tint one shirt.

7. Let the teabags soak for a few minutes. DO NOT ADD THE SHIRT YET. The dye will be ready when it looks very dark reddish brown.

8. Completely submerge the folded shirt. You may have to continue to push it down as if floats to the top.

9. When you think your fabric is dark enough, remove it from the tea dye mixture and rinse in cool water until the water runs clean. During the rinsing process, a lot of the color will flush out. If you want to make it darker, drop it back in to the dye. Repeat the rinse process until you are satisfied with the color.

10. There are two ways to set the color.
1. Fill another container with fresh water. For every gallon of water, add ½ cup of white vinegar. Let your fabric sit in this mix for about 15 minutes. Then rinse the fabric and hang dry.
2. Use the dryer on high heat setting. When it's almost dry, remove the shirt and smooth it out with an iron set at the “cotton” setting, no steam.

PART 2:

No Sew T-Shirt Beach Bag

1. Cut off the sleeves.

2. Cut a square out from around the neck.

3. Keeping the shirt flat, cut 1 inch wide strips along the bottom.

4. Double knot the tabs, matching front to back.

5. Make knot along the bottom cut of the neck square (each side) to help give the bag structure.

6. Cut tops of "handles" (along what was the shoulder seam) and tie them front left to front right, back left to back right.

7. DONE: Stuff with towels, sunscreen, a good book, and other beach essentials. Enjoy!

This post is part of the Upcycled Crafting Challenge (#freefromtrash) hosted by Calley, The Eco Chic, and is part of a one month challenge to create from trash.  This challenge will hopefully open your eyes to the number of items that we still end up trashing every day that could be used by ourselves or our kids to create fun and useful items.  To find out more about the challenge and to see other projects click on over to Calley’s announcement post.