Retread Your Threads: T-Shirt Trays

Happy Monday and welcome to week dos of Retread Your Threads, I’m Jenelle from TrashN2Tees and we’re celebrating Earth Month with this great series sharing creative ways to repurpose clothing and textiles using a variety of Pellon® products. Be sure to check out last week’s project which had you playing with denim, sharp scissors, and fire! Today’s tutorial is super simple and a great way to reuse t-shirts and also to re-organize. A quick fact to share: If everyone in the US repurposed just 1 t-shirt we would recover 210 billion gallons of water and keep 1 million pounds of CO2 from our atmosphere! (Just in case you needed some added motivation!) So grab your tees and a pair of scissors and let’s get started!!

Materials Needed: 
Scissors or Rotary Cutter 
(2) t-shirts 
Pellon® 987F Fusible Fleece
Pellon® 72F Peltex® 2-Sided Fusible
Sewing Machine
Walking Foot (optional)

This project is completely customizable. Depending on your needs and the materials you have on hand, your tray size may vary. 

For a small trinket/toy tray I used: 2 pieces of 8″x8″ t-shirt material, 1 8″x8″ piece Pellon® 987F Fusible Fleece, and 1 5″x5″ piece Pellon® 72F Peltex®.

For the larger tshirt tray I used: 2 12″x12″ pieces of t-shirt material, 1 12″x12″ piece Pellon® 987F  Fusible Fleece, and 1 8.5″x8.5″ piece Pellon® 72F Peltex®.

1. Cut your materials to size 

 2. Fuse the fleece to underside of main pattern. Fuse Peltex® to center of underside bottom pattern.

3. Pin & sew along all four edges using preferred seam allowance (I used 1/4″) and be sure to leave a 4″ opening for turning.

 

*I opted to utilize my walking foot attachment for this project, however it’s not necessary. A walking foot attachment has a feed dog that moves the upper fabric while the lower feed dog moves the lower fabric. This keeps the fabrics together when many layers are stitched, important when quilting and equally when sewing with jersey knit material (tshirts) to keep from puckering. 

4. Snip and flip. After trimming corners, turn your project right side out. Then press, tucking in raw edge (pin that) and also fusing the Peltex®. 

5. Topstitch around the edges, this will also finish the closing you used for turning.

6. Pinch corner and sew. Repeat x4. If you use the Peltex®, you’ll be able to feel it and pinch there- if you opted not to use Peltex® it’s approximately 1″ to 1.5″ in from the corner. You could also hand stitch this with embroidery floss.

And there you have it, a finished t-shirt tray. In my opinion, the perfect catch all for  those playmobile and legos I step on find around the house. They’re also great for organizing a craft drawer, sock drawer, coloring books/magazines, and if you happen to be a crafterprenuer too, it’s  an excellent way to display products at an upcoming show. 

 

Share your finished upcycled projects with us by tagging @PellonProjects and @TrashN2Tees on Instagram and Twitter with hashtag #RetreadYourThreads. I hope you’ll join me back here next Monday for more, but until then find Retread Your Thread Project inspiration on Pinterest.

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Thanks so much Jenelle! We are loving these T-Shirt trays!! For all of your crafters who are following along, Earth Day is April 22. How will you give back?

About Jenelle: (in her words)
Hi! I’m Jenelle. Though these days I am most frequently referred to as Mommy, I used to hold such titles as President, Waitress, College Student, Mud Bog Racer, and I even donned a big furry cat suit in high school as Suzy Stateliner- the school mascot! Between crushing cars with Monster Jam trucks, judging silly dance contests, and those other less fun household chores… I rescue clothing and textiles from our landfills. I’ve been called a recycling and repurposing revolutionary. I am here to not only encourage and inspire you to consume less and recycle more but to transform discarded materials into wearable, practical, fun, personalized and stylish works of art. When we find creative ways to repurpose what we no longer need we can inject color, texture, personality, and wonder into our lives and communities. You can find out more about my commitment by visiting  www.trashn2tees.com.

Find Jenelle online: Website :: Blog :: Facebook :: Twitter :: Instagram :: Pinterest :: Etsy