Tee-Shirt Bag Tutorial

So, we got new tee-shirt designs made and they are FANTASTIC (tee-shirts). My old Beano's tee-shirt has seen much better days, so I looked for ways to make use of my old Beano's tee-shirt to make room for the new ones! I needed a new lunch bag and just general tote bag. I tend to throw things in a plastic grocery bag on my way out the door, so I'm thinking this will be a much better alternative.

Start with a tee-shirt. The bigger you want the bag, the bigger tee-shirt you should use. This is an adult large.

Cut the arms and the bottom seam off. Make sure you hold onto the bottom seam! This is also where you can cut the neck section away for the opening of your bag. I, apparently was very anxious to cut the fringe and didn't cut the neck until afterward, see picture below.

Place the bottom seam about 5 inches from the newly cut bottom. This will act as your fringe cutting guide. Feel free to pin it in place if you'd like!

Fringe the bottom in roughly 1 inch intervals. We still have one more use for that bottom piece of the shirt we cut off, so make sure you don't pitch it!

The cut around the neck will determine the size and shape of the opening of your bag. This is really dealer's choice. I cut it to have thick handles because I know that I carry heavier items in my lunch (bottles of juice, cans of soup, etc.).

Back to the fringe: I used the bottom part of the shirt that we cut off and used as our fringe guide to increase the strength of the base of my bag. Interlace the fringe so that one whole cut is above, the next one under, etc. For the ends, put the cut piece inside of the band.

Now, tie the fringe together! I tied one whole cut piece of fringe to the piece next to it and it's pretty sturdy! I put several items in the bag and it held up like a champ.

The final product! I have to say, I'm thinking about making several more of these and just using them as my shopping bags!