Make a Tote Bag from a T-Shirt ~ Guest Post

Lynzie and I are gone to England so my friends are running the show! I'm so excited to welcome my friend Audra as a guest blogger today! Audra is the one who encouraged me to start blogging over six years ago. Thank you, friend! Check out her blog at audrasilva.com.

The other day, I decided I wanted to make t-shirt tote bags. I don’t know what made this pop in my head, but off I headed to the thrift store to hunt for cute t-shirts. I found one I liked in the women’s section and two more in the girl’s section.

Once home, I decided I’d really rather wear the cute women’s shirt. So it’s safe until I try it on and decide for sure if it will stay a shirt or convert to a bag.  

I know there are tutorials out there, but I decided to wing it. This is something I’m prone to do. I think it’s hardwired into my DNA.

Anywho, here is the lowdown on the process I went through from t-shirt to tote bag…

Step one: Choose your t-shirts. You will want to consider how big you want your tote to end up, as well as how strong or stretchy the fabric is and how that might affect what to use it for. I wanted something small to carry little crochet projects in, so I hunted in the girls department. Thrift stores, yard sales, or clearance sections are great places to look.

Step two:  Cut off the neck and arms real close to the seams. You might want to trim the lower sides of the shirt a little if they flare out too much.

Step three: Flip t-shirt inside out and sew about a ¼ inch seam along the neck and arm holes, if desired. I did this on one tote but not the other. I’m curious if this step will reinforce the edges better or not.

Step four: Flip t-shirt right side out and zigzag the edges around neck and arm holes while gently stretching the fabric. This creates a little waviness to the edges which I find adds some fun. You could either have your thread blend in or have it stand out. Either way would be cute.

Step five: Flip t-shirt inside out again and straight stitch a seam along the bottom (and sides if you trimmed them) to close your bag. I followed along the edge of the original hems.

Step six: Flip right side out and voila! You have a new tote bag, waiting to be used.

Tips: You could always use a plain t-shirt and then add on décor with iron-ons, appliques, rhinestones, or whatever you find to glam it up a bit. You can also add beads or something blingy to the handles, whether the t-shirt is plain or has a cute pattern.

I’m not sure these would hold up to heavy loads without some reinforcement, but for this project, I wanted quick and simple, and will use them for light carries.

You could also get fancy with how you sew the sides and bottom with some tucking and fancier techniques, but I’m a sewing amateur.

These two totes took very little time to whip up. Seriously, give it a go---even if you are a sewing newbie like me. If you do give it a try, leave a comment over on Simply Audra Marie, so I can see your tote bag.

Injured Man -- Guest Post

Lynzie and I are gone to England so my friends are running the show! I'm so excited to welcome my friend Nahria as a guest blogger today! Nahria lives in Indonesia and has been an online friend for several years.

Have any of you ever seen that American legal comedy-drama television series? If I'm not mistaken this drama was started way back in 1997, way back when I was still in college!

Would you stop if you see an injured man? Maybe that's the moral of the story from one of the episodes in Ally McBeal I watched years ago. Ally became one of the bridesmaids of the daughter that her firm represented. The wedding started normally, until the moment the priest took the bride and groom's vows...

Suddenly Ally cut in and said, "May I speak to the bride first?"  Everybody in the church was stunned but Ally is Ally with her "be yourself" attitude, and she insisted to speak with the bride.

Then she and the bride-to-be entered a room and Ally started to talk saying, "I have met with the groom before and he is a great lover but he doesn't know how to touch a woman." (a.k.a abusive) Just that. The bride, being told like that by Ally, just kept quiet and went back out to the church saying, "I'm sorry, but the wedding is off."

The church audience were shocked, then looked at Ally with their, "it's-your-fault" look.

Later on, her colleagues asked her why did she even do that. Ally just answered, "will you stop if you see an injured man?"

Well...it goes the same with life, doesn't it?

Most of the time we just keep quiet when faced with a moral issue. From small things like seeing people throw something out of their cars or seeing old people trying to cross the road to big things like (maybe) not paying your credit card bills or watching someone you love get bullied.

The question is: why we don't speak up? Why won't we stop if we see an injured man?

What if "the injured man" is us? 

That is something we need to think about, isn't it?  

Lessons From My Mother's Journal -- Guest Post

Lynzie and I are gone to England so my friends are running the show! I'm so excited to welcome my friend Laura as a guest blogger today! Check out her blog: My Corner of the Woods.

“I don’t know who will suffer most and how to ease their pain.”

My mom died when I was 9.  My family never talked about it.  Not when they knew it was coming and not after she died. I don’t remember even knowing she was sick – except that on Friday I noticed the whites of her eyes were yellow and I looked at her and said, “Mom, your eyes look funny.”  Sometime that weekend she pulled me into her bed.  She was wearing a wide-ribbed navy blue turtleneck and I think she had her stockings on and she hugged me and said, “No matter what happens to me, I’ll always love you.”  On Tuesday in art my class made get well cards for her and I asked Dad if we could take them to her at the hospital. “Tomorrow,” he said.  But tomorrow she died.

We never went back to visit her grave, never spoke much of her sickness or death or even her life.  It has always seemed kind of strange to me.  Maybe it’s because I’m her only daughter, I don’t know, but it has always been weird.  Who was she, this woman who was my mother? In recent years my father has alluded to me being like her when I talk about cooking for my family and how we enjoy being together, but I don’t really know what he means.

Yesterday my daughter brought me a pile of stuff that my youngest had pulled off a shelf and one of the things was my mother’s journal. So I opened it, and started reading. There wasn’t much, and it was all written a few months before she died.  “I don’t know who will suffer most,” she wrote, “or how to ease their pain.”  Interestingly enough, she knew in May that she had cancer in many places in her body; she knew she was dying.  In her last entry in the journal, she spoke of her struggle with a friend and how she didn’t want to be a burden to people. Her final words struck me: “I hope I never drag other people down when I’m down. There is just so much to appreciate and enjoy if you take time.”

I’ve never forgotten her final words to me, and I pray I never forget her final written words either.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring?  In the meantime, there is just so much to appreciate and enjoy if you take time.

This article was first published on, My Corner of the Woods. Reposted by permission of the author.