What You SHOULD Be Upcycling: T-shirts

ELEVEN MILLION TONS OF CLOTHING END UP IN LANDFILLS EACH YEAR! Are you as mortified as I am?  And did you know that two billion T-shirts are sold annually around the world?  Ladies, I think it's time we let the men keep their T-shirts...no matter how many they own.  

There is an interesting history to the T-shirt and it turns out that my favorite movie of all time, The Wizard of Oz, plays a hefty hand in it. While the word T-shirt became an official American-English word when it made its debut in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1920, it was in 1939 when the first promotional T-shirt made its debut, for the Wizard of Oz.  Its popularity as a outer-wear garment, however, didn't catch on until Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire in the 1950s.  And now....we're at 2 billion annually!

That 2 billion T-shirts translates to 800 billion gallons of water each year...just to grow the cotton required to make them.  JUST FOR T-SHIRTS, nevermind the jeans that you're going to wear with them!  As an avid thrifter, I can tell you that we waste so many resources on nonsense T-shirts.  Yes, I said nonsense!  Let me ask you, have ever had a large family reunion or company retreat and been given a T-shirt to wear for the day?  I see them all the time at the thrift store and they are not cute, not something that you'll ever wear again. 

T-shirts have quickly (and sadly) become disposable in our society.  So, I'm on a mission.  A mission to free the landfills of the world of the perfectly usable textiles that are smothering them.  And I'm going after the T-shirt (to start with)!  So raid your hubbies closet (or yours) or head out to the thrift store and snatch up some of those beauties and let's get started.

You've heard of T-shirt Yarn, right?  Well, if not, I've whipped up a little T-shirt Yarn Video Tutorial to show you how quick and easy it is to make.  And I've been hard at work developing new craft projects that will allow you to use T-shirt Yarn while never picking up a crochet hook or knitting needle. I just posted my first project and hope you'll check out my Finger Knit, Beaded T-shirt Yarn Bracelets.  

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel while you're there so you don't miss a single project.