Upcycled Design Lab Blog

Completely Unofficial Upcycled Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey T-Shirt

 

I am still chipping away at my 20 T-shirts. 

I was a little horrified today when I realized that I have been working on this project for almost four months and I have only completed four projects. 

 

But I have only two choices Stop or Continue. 

 

I am pretty happy with my most recent creation even if I am not proud of how slowly it was churned out and therefore the answer is obvious.  So, I will continue at my embarrassingly snail like pace. 

 

I would like to spin out beautiful creations daily and share them here but there isn't really a snowballs chance of that happening.  For now.  all I can do is continue to enjoy the process and accept the pace at which I progress.

 

 

And now a brief and slightly boring over view of the project.

 

I started with these two shirt.  (The yellow button down is actually the 21st shirt so I may or may not feel obligated to use it all up in this project)

 

 

The back had this big screen print on it so I thought I could cover it up with one of the sleeves.

 

I liked the arch of the sleeve and the hem of the yellow shirt made a nice bit of contrast.

 

I made the letter and number templates on my computer, ironed some interfacing to a piece of the  yellow shirt and cut out the design.

 

 

This is the back laid out to sew how it would look.

 

 

The shirt was too big for me so I needed to re-size it before I went any further.

 

I wanted a more fitted look than baggy jersy look.

 

As you can see there was a screen print to deal with on the front as well.

 

The sleeves from the yellow dress shirt made new sleeves for my t-shirt and I covered the screen print with a circle of black fabric. 

 

Then I trimmed and hemmed the sleeves and cut the sleeve stripes from the other t-shirt sleeve.

 

I bought a Steeler patch on line and then all I had left to do was hours of basting and sewing.

 

 

 

 

I got to wear my creation last Sunday when the Steelers beat the Bengals. 

 

:-)

 

Stylish Purse Upcycled from Fused Grocery Bags

I can't believe that it has been almost a month since my last post.  Oh dear how the time flies.  Sadly this post is not about another project that I have completed.  I am still working ever so painfully slowly on Upcycling 20 T-shirts.  I have one project that I do hope to have completed by the end of the week but of course no promises.

 

I have been meaning to post about my new plastic grocery bag purse for awhile now, a birthday present from my sister.  I had been using another one of her creations that I wrote about here.  But I have completely moved in to the new bag and I think there is no going back.  I am just not one of those women who bothers with matching her purse to her shoes.  I am also pretty hard on them (ie: I carry a lot of heavy stuff and don't like moving it from one purse to another) 

 

There are a lot of things I like about this new bag but the best thing is how sturdy it is and the fact that the bag itself is so light weight.  I have picked up a few purses in department stores and felt like they where already too heavy when the were empty (Not good for a woman who needs to put 10 pounds of.... well of course it is all very necessary stuff, in her purse.)

 

Anyway my new purse is part purse / part brief case and I couldn't be happier. 

 

 

Oh and it kept 60 or so grocery bags out of the land fill.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

I love the fun red lining and all the pockets.

 

 

 

You can find more of her purses at HFR Designs on Etsy or become a FB Fan.

 

And if you are wondering why I can't get more done on my own projects, here is my latest excuse. 

 

I was working on my halloween costume.

 

 

 

Happy November 1st.