Tee-bags is the name of my 10 year old’s new business. A tee-bag is a tee shirt, recycled (and washed in hot water!) into a reusable shopping bag! He has granted me permission to offer a free tutorial on how he creates shopping bags using t-shirts!
Since his dad (my DH) owns E-cycle Group, a green business recycling printer cartridges, DS1 is very excited to follow in his dad’s green footsteps with his own recycling business. Not only is he preventing the tee’s from becoming landfill, he is also providing an alternative to the age old question, paper or plastic!
A bonus is that the bags are machine washable, which is a nice option to have when you go to the farmer’s market and get bits of lettuce and onion skins in the bag! The tee-bags also fold up to stuff into your purse or glove compartment–so they are convenient to use, which is a key component to making recycling part of your lifestyle.
He was able to obtain free tee shirts from our local Freecycle organization (note: Freecycle is an entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving and getting stuff for free in their own towns. It’s all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills) He was also able to pick up unsold tee shirts from a local rummage sale.
After a quick lesson on my serger, he was able to whip out some bags. His BFF worked on the marketing end, providing a beautiful poster, as well as rigging up a wagon for a portable display. Their proceeds go towards a 6th grade (next autumn) field trip.
This morning, I took the boys to the local Farmer’s Market, to test the waters. They sold out within one hour!! The boys are really excited, and are already back at work in my studio, getting Tee-bags ready for next week!
Here’s a quick tutorial for making your own tee-bags:
(DS1 says to tell you that first, wash the tee in hot water, to get rid of any germs.)
Turn the tee shirt inside out, line up the bottom hem, and sew or serge the bottom edge together, just above the tee shirt hem.
Line up the sleeves seams and cut off the tee shirt sleeves. It works best to cut off the sleeve seams!
With the shirt still flat, cut out the neck: cut close to the neck ribbing at the sides of the neck
then cut a “scoop neckline” including the back of the tee shirt in the scoop.
Here’s what it looks like when all the pieces are cut off. Knit jersey (tee shirt fabric) doesn’t fray, so you don’t have to hem any of the cut edges!
Turn the bag right side out, and go shopping!
39 Comments
June 1, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Boy, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, does it? What a great idea and a great mom for helping him realize his dream.
June 1, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Brilliant idea, congratulations to your son for coming up with such an inspired idea, and following it through, good luck to them raising funds for the trip
June 2, 2008 at 4:38 am
What a smart son you have Susan. Just like his mom! That is a wonderful idea.
June 2, 2008 at 6:34 am
Well how smart is that! Great idea!
June 2, 2008 at 8:30 am
I love it! Kids and the entrepreneurial spirit go together well, and what a good start in life! Kudos to mom for the encouragement. Great idea!
June 2, 2008 at 10:46 am
Genius! What a great idea on so many levels – you must be really proud of this boy.
June 2, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Love this idea! The boys will earn lots of money doing this!
June 4, 2008 at 8:45 am
That is way cool.
I wonder if I could start a sweat shop in my backroom, putting my boys to work. First I’d have to get my serger fixed.
June 4, 2008 at 9:05 am
that’s a tee-riffic idea. LOL i am going to give it a try. your boys rock
June 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm
what an excellent idea – must give that a try myself.
June 8, 2008 at 12:12 pm
What a great idea. Glad to see your kids involved in such a great enterprise at such a young age. Good job mom supporting them.
August 12, 2008 at 4:18 am
[...] teha T-kotti? Posted on August 12, 2008 by lapsuliblikas T-kottide idee jõudis minuni Wild Onion blogi vahendusel. Kirjutasin teemast ka [...]
August 13, 2008 at 10:29 am
[...] to me, boosting my viewer visits. It’s really nifty– and it’s all about the tee-bags that my oldest DS is selling at the Farmer’s [...]
August 19, 2008 at 11:00 pm
That’s a brilliant idea, i have a few old t-shirts that i don’t know what to do with and this might be the perfect idea!
August 24, 2008 at 8:17 am
[...] by a little kid, the “Tee Bag” is a reusable shopping bag made by reusing an old [...]
August 24, 2008 at 9:14 am
[...] by a little kid, the “Tee Bag” is a reusable shopping bag made by reusing an old [...]
August 25, 2008 at 7:45 am
What a great idea. My nephew is in the boy scouts and when they start up in the fall I’m gonna suggest this as a project during a scout troop night. Thanks for the idea.
August 26, 2008 at 8:44 am
[...] Update: Doh! Forgot the t-shirt bag! Kate found easy instructions for how to make them at Wild Onion. And a while back Lori (my sister) emailed me this Martha Stewart video showing how to make [...]
August 26, 2008 at 9:53 am
This is a great idea, have you thought of using tank tops instead of T-shirts to cut out the labor costs of cutting the T-shirt?
I figure tank tops are just as cheap and also have some designs. Also, with tank tops, no worries of fraying since the seams are reinforced anyways.
Just a thought.
August 28, 2008 at 9:34 am
[...] that I am considering involves a little more effort: T-shirt bags. A friend pointed me towards an on-line tutorial for making shopping bags out of t-shirts. It seems like a great way to use all those free t-shirts [...]
August 28, 2008 at 10:54 am
Why can’t adults think outside of the box as well as kids! That’s awesome…you should be so proud! He could probably make some serious money by selling these online (shipping costs are minimal for the weight) if he can keep getting tee’s at goodwill, thrift stores, and donations.
September 6, 2008 at 5:07 pm
This is so smart! Your son is a genius.
I am totally going to make some of these. I have been trying to go greener, and reusing tee shirts is even better than buying bags at the store!
September 15, 2008 at 11:47 am
A perfect idea!!! Great thinking and inspiration by the “little genius” who came up with this idea, and a big thanks for sharing the how-to’s. With four teen boys and a husband, I have a steady supply of old tee shirts… I’m going to get busy and start giving these things away!
September 23, 2008 at 3:42 am
[...] of the clearest instructions I have found were over at Wild Onion. She shows you how to convert a T-shirt into a bag with some great, very clear, step by step [...]
October 2, 2008 at 11:11 pm
This is fabulous!!!
October 14, 2008 at 4:25 pm
[...] This reusable shopping bag pattern is so easy a child could make it – in fact, the 10 year old behind Tee Bags contributed the simple steps needed to make your own eco friendly bag from a t-shirt! [...]
November 10, 2008 at 8:33 pm
[...] Reusable Grocery Bags – If your bags are recycled as well as reusable that gives you infinite green points, and he who dies with the smallest carbon footprint wins, right? I would personally add some bias binding to the neck and arm holes of this pattern for extra strength and to stop them stretching when you pick up your soy milk on the way to your yogalates class. [...]
November 20, 2008 at 7:46 am
I love this and am going to make thousands of them!!
November 23, 2008 at 9:36 am
[...] the chips bags with ironed on plastic grocery bags (I really had to scrounge for these, since I use Tee Bags for grocery shopping, so my stock of plastic bags has dwindled dramatically!) This backing gave the [...]
December 17, 2008 at 11:23 am
[...] they can make/save money towards their big 6th grade trip . Readers of my blog might remember the reusable grocery bags my older son made out of tee shirts to raise money for his [...]
December 22, 2008 at 4:32 pm
That is soooo smart! Thanks!
December 23, 2008 at 7:30 am
Hi, I just wanted to say that I saw a very similar product made on the Today Show. They used staples and duct tape to finish the edges but the idea was the same. I hope your son got credit to this too. It really is a great idea!!! I’m going to try it out after the holidays. Thanks so much to your son from myself.
Sincerely
January 5, 2009 at 9:05 am
I just made a bunch over the weekend- they were SOO easy!
Ironically, I just received an e-mail about the dangers of plastic bags. It definitely makes me feel better about recycling my old t-shirts!
January 8, 2009 at 1:35 pm
What a great idea. You must be pleased your son seems to be following both parents footsteps.
Well done.
January 22, 2009 at 8:33 am
It’s simple and great to reuse. Strong enough to put in few more milk bottles. Thanks for great article.
April 8, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I think it’s amazing how many kids care about the earth. If all the kids on the planet think the way this boy does, global warming won’t be a problem in the future.
April 9, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] Easy Crafts using old t-shirts April 9, 2009 Posted by thefrugalvegan in General Content & Rants. trackback I recently came across a craft project involving the use of t-shirts. Most have you might have already seen this before; how to turn a t-shirt into a reusable bag. So I went to my local thrift store and picked up some really funky t-shirts; one with the Golden Gate Bridge (I love SF!), one with a skull on it, another with a Japanese character and flower….Here is how you make them: (though to be honest I found out how to do it on the Martha Stewart Website…accidentally I swear!) http://wildonionstudio.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/tee-bags-a-tutorial-to-recycle-a-tee-shirt-into-a-sh... [...]
April 22, 2009 at 11:26 pm
[...] you really want to reduce your impact you could use cloth bags you have laying around your house or make your own from old clothes or fabric scraps around your [...]
June 24, 2009 at 7:17 pm
That was simply great, very simple and just great.
Regards,
Mala