Wash Wednesday and A T-Shirt Market Bag

 

For a couple of weeks now the blogosphere has been filled with the beautiful photographs of everyone's clean laundry thanks to Gardenmama. As time went on I realized that I had this beautiful old drying rack in my laundry room which was given to me by my friend Ruth.

One day I had called her to ask where I could find a really good drying rack. I had a baby at the time and was remembering my mother's drying rack. Everywhere I went, there were these modern contraptions which would barely hold all of the clothes.

" I have just the thing! It's really old and came out of our barn in Michigan. You can have it but if you ever don't want it anymore just give it back."

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So for the last 11 years I've harbored this wonderful old rack, drying all of our woolen socks, sweaters, and now T-shirts. I'm  finding everyone's hung out laundry so beautiful that I'm looking for the perfect place in my yard for a good ol' clothesline.

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Ok, I have to go back to the T-shirts now. This family has so many t-shirts. We get them from band and orchestra camps, horse camps, soccer,kung-fu,trick or can, habitat for humanity, our travels and a myriad of other occasions. Many of the old ones I use for rags but not 50 t-shirts worth. I clean but not that much.

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Many of the t-shirts have the kids photos on them so Goodwill won't want them plus it's a memory for me. Infact, many of our t-shirts harbor many happy moments which means, "We Can't Get Rid of Them"! This becomes a problem when you need drawer space.

I think I've solved my problem.  Omar and I've made our t-shirts into market bags. It takes all of one minute and let's us use our t-shirts in a productive way.

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T-shirt Market Bag:

Take a t-shirt. 

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Cut off the sleeves and neck.

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Turn the shirt inside out and sew up the bottom. I use to seams. One straight and the other zig-zag.

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Now sew up the place where you cut off the sleeves.

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Turn down the top about and inch or inch and a half, depending how wide your cinch string is. Remember to leave a gap so that you can thread the cinch string through with a safety pin.

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After sewing the top seam, take a safety pin and put it at the end of your cinch string and work in through to the other side.

Turn it to the right side.

Ta-Dah! You now have a new market bag.

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Zaina came home yesterday and said,"Hey, that's my shirt." 

All I could say was, "Yes it is but now it's a market bag."

Have a great day everyone. Tomorrow another episode of Fox Diaries.
  


Comments

11 responses to “Wash Wednesday and A T-Shirt Market Bag”

  1. Valarie I grew up with one of these. My mother used it all the time. Did you ever think that washing/hanging day could be so creative and colorful. It sure has shed a new light on hanging washing for me.. I just love market bags and no market bag goes un noticed by me. I shall be making one of these to add to the market bag stock…Infact I am a confessed market bag horder!
    Have a great day Valarie. Not long to go for the World cup. All the soccer teams have started to arrive..Everywhere I go now, there are flags hanging from belcony’s and car windows.
    It really is catchy..
    Lots of love
    Suzanne

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  2. Loving the drying clothes and what a great idea for using old tees….. a great project for the kids too!

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  3. sweet & easy tutorial, thanks!

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  4. love the height on that dryer! a very clever t-shirt repurposing too! we have so many things We.Can’t.Get.Rid.Of!

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  5. What a great idea to recycle a t-shirt!
    I love your drying rack, it is so tall!
    I am so happy you joined in on this wash day fun : )

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  6. Hi Suzanne,
    Until Nicole brought this to my attention, it was just one more thing to do. Now it has become a thing of beauty. Take Care.
    Lot of love to you and yours,
    Valarie

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  7. Thanks1 It’s a great project to learn how to sew on the machine with. We had a lot of fun.

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  8. You are so welcome. Enjoy!

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  9. I hear you. Today I am debreeding my house and going to the Habitat Store.

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  10. Thanks Nicole. I’m so glad I made it. Better late than never right?

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  11. What a fab idea to recycle and reuse something in such a simple way! Can’t wait to give it a go ๐Ÿ˜€

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