An easy DIY guide to recycle an old tee into exciting new things…
If you have been cleaning up your home for Diwali, you must have got atleast a few tees which you no longer wish to wear and don’t know what to do with them because they still look fine and it’s just that you have got bored of wearing them. If you are in such a fix, you have arrived at the right place because our DIY guide will help you see that old tee in a different light. Recycle into something new and interesting and reuse.
Wrapped Bangles
You never have enough bangles and every time you make a visit to your favourite flea market, you end up buying a whole new lot. All that you have to do to create quirky bangles yourself at home is take an hour out from your day. Catch hole of a tee which you think has the right colour and print for a bangle. From that old bangle box, take a few metal ones out which you were anyway planning to discard. Cut thin strips from the tee. Take a strip and tie a loose end on a bangle and start wrapping the fabric around the bangle. Keep it close and tight so that the metal portion of the bangle is not visible. Wrap it all over so that you meet the first end. Untie the knot and tie the two ends together tightly. Make a double knot, pull it tight and ensure that the knot is on the inside of the bangle. Trim with scissors and wear! (image courtesy: earth911.com)
Tote
Turn the tee inside out and cut out a bag shape of your choice. Sew the ends together with a zigzag or straight stitch. Use a ruler/scale and a pencil to draw equidistant horizontal lines on it. Towards the top, make a four inch line in the centre (this will act as the handle). Leave a gap the size of your palm placed horizontally and then draw the lines. Don’t make a continuous line and break it at regular equidistant intervals so that one line is not more than an inch. Take scissors and using just the tip, snip off the cloth along the lines. Then stretch the bag as far as it can go. Turn it inside out so that the pencil marks and stitches go on the inside. It’s done. When you wash and dry it, the slits will curl up and it will look much better. (image courtesy: onegoodthingbyjillee.com)
Shrug
This is a super cool and quick, no sew shrug. Take a tee and turn it inside out. Draw a slightly deeper neckline, along its neck, then excluding the sleeves, continue to draw the outline of a top within the tee. Start cutting from the edge of the shoulders along the line so that in the end, you have a top-like thing, with slits opened on both the sides and the front half is stitched with the back half just towards the ends. Slit open the ends and now when you unfold the fabric, you have a rectangular piece of cloth with a hole in the middle. Put your arms through the hole and it’s ready. (image courtesy: wobisobi.blogspot.in)
