Basically, I love crafts. Creating something special and unique is fun, often easier than you think and always impressive. I love new ideas so I thought I’d start sharing. This month’s column is all about how to reuse an old t-shirt. After all, if you’re like me, you probably have a few old t-shirts with great memories that are either too small or too big but have way too many memories to just trash. Enter a pair of scissors, needle and thread. (Sometimes not even that much).

Hint: Don’t have an old tee but still want to give the project a try? Checkout craft and thrift stores for great deals.

Corset Style:

1) Lay the shirt flat. Trim 2” (inches for those on the metric system) off the end of sleeves and 1” off the bottom, from just about the hem. Be sure to cut the bottom piece off in one piece, you’ll use it later. No, it doesn’t need to be in a circle. Just one long strip.
2) Cut out the neck band to about 2” from the shoulder seams on each side.
3) On the back of the shirt, and starting at the sides of the neckline, cut a scoop down from the center of the neckline, about 10” inches down.
4) Take that new neck edge, go out about 1” from the edge and snip 4 small incisions downward evenly spaced along both sides of the scoop.
5) Thread the 1” piece (the part from the bottom of the shirt) through the holes, crisscrossing like tying a shoe.
6) Put on the shirt and tie the ends together.

Gauntlets:

1) Mark and cut 2 rectangles at least 8”-10” wide and 12”-16” long from the sides of a t-shirt. By sides we mean, front and back, not literally sides up to the armpit.
2) Fold the pieces in half lengthwise, right sides in, and pin along the edges. Mark it with chalk at 2” and 4” on the open edges. Just mark from one end, not both ends.
3) Using a whipstick (demonstrated in the video), sew the 2 pinned edges together. When you get to the first mark, sew along the edge of just one layer of fabric and at the 2nd mark, sew them together again. That’s your thumb hole so you don’t want to sew it together.

4) At the end, reverse direction and restitch. This way you’ll have a good strong stitch that will hold. Repeat steps 3 & 4 on the other piece.
5) Know threads, snip ends, turn right side out and enjoy.
Got a craft you’re an expert in and want to share? Email me and I may just include it in a future issue— melissaleaman@hotmail.com