reconstructed/recycled t-shirt bag

Because sewing and writing blog posts is a perfectly legitimate reason not to revise for my exams here's another project :)

I used this old children's long sleeved t-shirt and pair of trousers to make a bag. I wanted the bag to be big enough to carry a drink, snack and a couple of toys and be small enough for the small-fry to carry. I wanted to keep the wording on the front of the t-shirt so I made my main temple 8"x9". After cutting along all the seams I cut three pieces from the top in this size, two pieces at 3"x8" for the sides, one piece at 3"x9" for the bottom and kept the neck ribbing for decoration.


The same sized pieces need to be cut from the trousers with an extra 8"x9" to make a pocket with. I used interfacing to make the bag more sturdy and ironed it onto the t-shirt pieces, but not the trousers. I laid all the pieces out flat in the order that they needed to be sewn together, with the extra trouser piece in place of the front piece.

To make the pocket I folded the front 8"x9" piece of the t-shirt over about 2" and stitched along the edge, I then sewed it onto the green piece down the centre to make two pockets. To stop the fabric stretching I sewed some ribbon along the edge which added some much needed prettiness. I sewed all of the sides together including the lettered piece for the flap. This is how it looks right sides out. 
I repeated the whole process with the trouser pieces (these will become the lining of the bag) and ended up with two semi-bag looking things.


I sewed the two flap pieces together, right sides together and then placed the bags one inside the other and pinned them. I sewed the two together around the edge, leaving about a 4" gap in the front of the bag to pull the insides through and hide the seams.

Lastly I sewed the ribbing over the opening to close it and make it look a little nicer and made a strap from the leftover fabric. I sewed ribbon along the whole of the strap to stop it stretched and attached it to the sides of the bag.












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