Craftastic - T-shirt Drawstring Bag

by Annie

Rummage through all those too big or too small t-shirts and let your old favorite shirt live again as a drawstring bag! I used one of my favorite old Woot.com shirts, I thought my "let's get pumped" shirt would make a great gym bag.

This is a simple craft that is best done with a sewing machine. All you will need is an old t-shirt, a ribbon or shoelace for the drawstring, thread, scissors and a sewing machine. 

Start by laying the t-shirt flat and cutting a rectangle around the image. Be sure to cut through both the back and front of the shirt so you will have two identical rectangles.

Optional: I wanted my image to be centered on the bag so I cut a couple of inches off of the bottom on the rectangle and sewed it onto the top so the image would be further down and thus centered. 

Then flip the image side of the tee inside out and sew the two rectangles together. You will sew the sides together and the bottom but not the top.

Then fold the top edge over about half and inch (or larger if you have larger ribbon) all the way around the same way you would hem a pant leg. Sew this part together leaving room for your drawstring. 

Then flip the bag right side out and cut a little hole for the drawstring, or if you are fancy you can place a grommet or use your sewing machine to make a button hole. Since mine was just going to be a gym bag I just cut a hole.

Thread the shoelace through the hole until it is all through but be sure to pin or just hold onto the other end so it doesn't get pulled through the hole.

That's it.