Using the whole cow

On Saturday we (mom, Edward and I) meandered our way across the street from our chosen lunch spot, Moby Dick, to Borders. I was "just browsing" when I found myself in line to buy 2 books: Japanese Lacy Crochet and Save This Shirt, a book about tailoring and re-purposing t-shirts. I have another book, 99 Ways to Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-shirt, which is good, but while the latter is 99 recipes, this new book shows you how to come up with your own ways (as well as providing some recipes), and includes non-tops as well. It also came with a free t-shirt that was pressed into a little t-shirt block. Edward and I, who also enjoy watching How It's Made and Unwrapped, got way to excited to watch the t-shirt block change into an actual t-shirt. Here are some pics. I'm gonna save this shirt for when I have a good handle on the process. I just had to make one of their projects. I told myself that after I finish my mid-term paper for psychodynamics class, that I could make one. I finished it at like 4 in the afternoon, and proceeded to sort my lot of t-shirts that I refuse to throw away because if I do I will lose the memory it holds for me forever (they also talk about this tendency in the book). So I chose an XL t-shirt from my mom's work, Mo Co's Housing Opportunity Commission. Very little emotional investment in this shirt here. And I made this: the "Arm Bag," because the handles are the shirt's arms (or shoulders). The inside is a little pouch with a drawstring: The drawstring is the bottom hem, cut off and threaded through a new hem you make. I might adjust this later. I then used the arm parts of the shirt that were cut off to make a three-compartment bag by just sewing them together an all sides but one.I need to add a few zippers or something now. I didn't want to throw away the neck...so I put it on my head.
Instant headband! So one could say that...just like the Native Americans used the whole cow, I used the whole t-shirt...Ahh..re-purposing...how green.

Happy kni...crafting!

p.s. trivia question I heard from a new friend (no googling!): The green stripe on the Irish flag stands for the Catholic population and the orange stripe stands for the Protestant population. What is the other color and what does it stand for? My last name's McLaughlin (pronounced properly, MacLachlan) and I still didn't get it. :-(