Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Recycle T-Shirts

{Whim Year} I was reading The Alabama Stitch Book over the winter and decided to weed out any t-shirts that gave me that special Winnie-The-Pooh look (you know the shirts that seem to shrink UP, arrgh!) Cutting the shirts up immediately was part of the process: no going back!  These luscious bits of fabric would wait until the right moment. 

Which came recently. T-towel (tee-hee) detail below.
Fun. And I learned some new things. 
1. This is called reverse applique. I was working in this way with my paper collages and thinking of the mola textile art of Central and South America. Look here
2. T-shirt material is really hard to sew through. I wonder if there is a special needle? I love my thimble.

6 comments:

Jane LaFazio said...

so you made that cool scarf with old t-shirts?? quite green and quite cool.

Thien-Kim aka Kim said...

I've read hat book may times. It's inspiring. As for the needle, try a ballpoint or blunter needle. They will slide between the fibers instead of through them.

I love the colors of the scarf.

Cindy Leaders said...

That's inspiring! Happy Earth Day!

Anonymous said...

Very nice, Diana! Love it . . .

m.o.M. said...

You're right about the reverse applique. I grew up in Panama and have some beautiful molas. I'll have to try that with paper - great idea!

I need orange said...

WOW. LOVE the scarf! Love the colors, and the things the knit strips do............. What if the strips were longer than the width of cloth they are sewn to? Wondering what they would do (there are some hints over on the left side of the pic......)...........

Very inspiring! Thanks for sharing this!!!!