t-cycle: Mini re-satchel from grungy white T-shirts

My son Jasper has had a personal style for several years of wearing a white T-shirt every day under any shirt he has on. Needless to say, that creates quite a collection of old, dingy "white" T-shirts. I used to throw them away when they reached an unacceptable condition, for they were even unworthy of the Goodwill. Recently, I began adding them to my recycle pile, believing that even these shirts could have a new life. So my project this week is making a mini re-satchel from two of Jasper's old, white T-shirts.

Jasper's old T-shirls, stained arm-pits and all.

My first step was to de-construct the T-shirts. I will need three pieces for my dyeing technique.

I used a low-water immersion dyeing technique from the book Color By Accident by Ann Johnston. I did a "color parfait" in which I dye all three pieces in the same container, but I stack them one a time.

This is my dye bath with the first and second piece. The first piece was in blue dye and it is now underneath the green piece.

This is the third piece on top of the second. It is brown.

Here are the results of my dyeing. Even though the pieces all sat in the same dye bath, each one is different because they were added at different times. I always love the results of this technique.

Next I cut out the pieces for the purse. There is actually four layers - outside, inside, and two layers of muslin for stability.

Here's my mini re-satchel, all sewn. The dimensions of the purse are 6" x 6" with a depth of 1 1/2". I showed it to my almost 16 year old daughter, Hanna. She immediately told me that it was "hipster." "Is that good or bad?" I asked her. "Well, if you're a hipster, you don't want to be called a hipster. It's very complicated. But I really like the purse," she assured me.

I always try to use things I already have to complete my projects. In the case of this mini re-satchel, I didn't have the perfect button. So I thought a trip to visit Shirley Savoy, nationally famous button lady at F and S Fabrics in Los Angeles, was in order.