How to fix a hole-y shirt without really fixing it
Today's post is going to be a quickie (but hopefully it'll be helpful!).
I apologize in advance for the many color variations in the following photos. Who knew green was so hard to photograph?? It confuses my camera mightily.
So, Lisey had this long-sleeved hand-me-down shirt, and somehow, a hole happened in the sleeve area.
I'm always conflicted when I have things like this. I can't donate them, because no one would buy them at Goodwill, and because I hate to throw things away, I usually try to think of some sort of fix or alternate use.
I'm embarrassed to say that this shirt sat in my, "I don't know what to do with this" pile for a long, long, time before I had a revelation.
A long-sleeved shirt can be made into a short-sleeved shirt.
Duh.
So I laid one of Sonia's short sleeved shirts on top of the long sleeved shirt (I put this off for so long, the shirt is now Sonia's size, not Lisey's!).
And I just cut the sleeves right off.
If this were a woven shirt, I'd have to hem the new sleeves to prevent fraying, but for some strange reason, knit fabrics don't fray.
After a quick trip through the washer and dryer, the new sleeve edges are curling up just like I'd hoped they would.
Excellent. I love it when I don't have to hem.
Of course, if you prefer to do things all proper-like, you could definitely iron the edges under and do a real hem, or you could do a lettuce-style hem if you wanted a ruffly edge.
This is good enough for me, though, and I'm pleased that this shirt will be play clothes instead of trash. Yay!
Today's 365 post: She really is mine.
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As I discovered on "She's Crafty!", you could also tie the hem of the short sleeves in a cute little knot.
At my house, if the hole is by the wrist, I fold them up, tack them, and make them into 3/4 length sleeves. If the whole is somewhere else, the t-shirt gets cut into horizontal 1/2-3/4 length rings. When I have quite a few of these done, my daughters loop the rings to form one long ball of "yarn". This yarn is then made into all different sized rugs around my house. They are similar to rag rugs but are knitted. We love to look at the colors and talk about who's t-shirt was used to make the different parts of the rug. It's a great way to re-use t-shirts that shouldn't be given away because they are either stained or have holes.
I was going to suggest a 3/4 sleeved shirt would have worked also....
Yeah but what do you do with a sweatshirt with a torn cuff? (I just threw away one of those on Sunday)
If a sweatshirt is just for wearing around the house, I'd mend the tear and keep wearing it. If the sweatshirt won't do like that, though, I'd probably try to think of a way to turn it into something else...maybe a bag?
Pure genius! I love when you can recycle hand me downs! I just turned a pile of jeans with the knees that were badly torn into jean shorts and denim patches. I did sew two of the cut of bottom portion of the jeans into drawstring bags to put marbles in for Christmas.
Yes, what would you suggest for sweatshirt? I have one that is so comfy, but the cuff is torn. Just. Can't. Part. With. It! he he
I've been wearing the same sweat shirt around the house since 1991. It's stained and ripped, but down right comfy and warm. It has served me well to clean in, bake in, and lounge in. I have no intentions of parting with it any time soon.
I would like an answer to the sweatshirt question also. I have a favorite blue one that is showing wear on the cuffs.
My mother used to do this all the time! I remember one blouse that made its way from the oldest sister, to the second oldest sister, and finally to me (I never passed it along to the youngest sister - I loved that blouse!) It was black with dime-sized colored dots. It wore like iron and never faded. I did put my elbow through the sleeve eventually, and Mother turned it into a short-sleeved blouse. I wore it for many years after that. It went with everything.
Wow! How easy and no sewing involved (good for me). This will come in handy with two growing granddaughters.
On a similar note, a lot of times my kids get stains on their very cute shirts"”usually on the belly where food drops I guess. Goodwill doesn't want them and I hate to throw them away, so I take those Crayola fabric markers you can buy just about anywhere now and do little freezer-paper stencils right over the stains. My son was very into Pokemon for a while so I did tiny Pokemon characters for him"”he loved them. It takes about 10 minutes to do. Here's a flickr pool of similar stencils: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12280024@N06/5036277104/in/pool-65626752@N00.
Oh, how neat!
You said you don't like to donate such a hole-y shirt to Goodwill because no one will buy it. My Goodwill donating philosophy is to donate just about anything (unless completely atrocious) because someone else may be more willing to put the work into fixing it (I'm not a seamstress or very inventive, like you 🙂 ). Also, I tend to think there may be someone out there who is looking for a part or piece from my unwanted item for a project or repair. As an experienced and regular Goodwill shopper, do you think I am misguided in my assumption? Just curious because my husband regularly suggests throwing things away (the latest a pair of pants with a hole in the pocket) and I regularly suggest the item go to Goodwill b/c someone may be willing and able to fix/use it. [PS - I DO shop at Goodwill, but not regularly - I'm trying to work it into my routine, so I can spy things we may need before we actually NEED them.]
I had always heard that Goodwill will take clean, torn clothing, which they bundle and sell for rags. I always wash worn out, no longer wearable items & bag them separately, clearly marking the bag "rags." Sure hope I'm not wrong in thinking this is their policy!
Well, I know that my Goodwill doesn't put out worn, hole-y clothing. If it doesn't look like it's in decent shape, they won't try to sell it.
I'm honestly not sure what they do with donations that aren't sale-able...I'll have to ask next time I'm there!
I was at a presentation once by an employee of Goodwill talking about how they process all the stuff they get and what they do with things can can't be sold in the thrift shops or used by their clients. Much of this material is sold on the fiber market. Items that can't be used as clothes any more are sorted by fiber (wool, cotton, etc.) here in the U.S., baled, and then sold by the pound to buyers domestically and overseas. These fibers are reused in many different ways! They also sometimes sort t-shirts by color and then sell them by the pound--these shirts are sold in local markets around the world.
A note about shoes: you might think that a certain pair of shoes is not reuseable or resellable, and here that might be the case, but in many parts of the world a simple pair of shoes--no matter how they look--enables a child to attend school (you're not often allowed to attend barefooted and without a uniform) or helps a person to avoid contracting disease through the soles of their feet. Look to see if there is a different charity in your area serving these types of missions.
Deseret Industries does this too. They will take any old thing and make it into rags.
We have a local thrift store that sells unusable clothing as rags (in garbage bags).
So easy! And I'm with Carla - the best part is that there's no sewing involved! 🙂
Thanks great ideas. My friend is making old jeans into nifty purses. She sold them last year for $25 each at a craft sale. They are cute. Have a great day.
I had a quick look on google for sweatshirt ideas and I found this http://maidenjane.blogspot.com/2010/06/from-sweatshirt-to-sweet-tote-tutorial.html
You can't wear it as a sweatshirt, but at least it doesn't get binned.
So ingenuous, good thing the hole wasn't on the body part, that may have been a bit harder. or in that case you could have ironed on one of those iron on decors for shirts. Either way your camera takes awesome pics.
So, this may be a silly question but...My 2-year old has a 24-month one piece, snap in the crotch onsie/t-shirt thing and I would like to take your idea and turn it into a t-shirt. Are all t-shirts made of knit fabric? And all I would have to do is cut it off just above the snaps? I hope this makes sense. Thanks!!
I do this with my onsies. If it is just t-shirt material, it won't fray. I have done this to make play/sleep shirts from ill fitting onsies and onsies that live much longer as a t-shirt with shorts or pants. HTH
As for the Goodwill comments above, our town has a Goodwill Distribution center. Here is where I have found all the unsellable items with stains, holes, etc. They charge something like $1.00 for a pound of clothing. Not all of the clothing is terrible though and you can get a lot of shirts for a buck! 🙂
Now what I want to know is what did you do with that extra fabric from the sleeves? Hehe.