A Little Bit of Sewing-the Nissan Leaf

If you have a lot of t-shirts that you don’t wear laying around or you have shirts that are stained and no longer wearable, consider recycling them into other projects. Lately I have been more into projects that are designed to reduce waste. On Friday, Nissan was in town for their road tour announcing their new electric car called the Leaf. Since they were in walking distance of our office, some coworkers and I walked over to take a look. We didn’t stay to take a test drive, but we did sign up so we could get a free t-shirt. it was a beautiful t-shirt, but I would never wear it, so I up-cycled it.

I didn’t think to take a before shot of the t-shirt so you could se what it looked like, but this is what it looks like now.

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I told you it was a nice shirt. That logo was begging to be the centerpiece of a bag. The pattern is the Amy Butler Swing Bag. The dark blue external fabric is the Nissan Leaf t-shirt. The internal is a white t-shirt from Lane Bryant that I had stained but had not thrown away. I would often wear it to bed because the fabric felt so good. Now, it has a new life. The bag is lined with Peltex to give it some stiffness. It is reversible but I would never walk around with a white bag. I attract stains too much to be that brave, but having a white interior gives you that extra brightness that makes finding things a little simpler.

But I couldn’t leave it there. I’m constantly looking for ways to organize all the stuff that makes it’s way into my bag. Mostly I do this with little zippered bags. I made two to match my new Nissan Leaf Swing Bag.

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These zippered pouches are made from the cap sleeves of the t-shirt. These are improvised and far from perfectly square, but they are very utilitarian and ready to toss in any bag.

So, what do you think? Are you off to make new use of your old t-shirts? Let me know.

Happy crafting.