Senior Meredith Monke and junior Hannah Avila write a bi-weekly blog called Frugal Teens. Their blog focuses on various projects that teens may do, but they try to do it as frugally as possible. Each project has a text-type blog that precedes their VLOG.
Monke and Avila have published 12 posts, including 6 videos throughout this school year. Their latest blog focuses on reusing t-shirts to make new, fun items.
We successfully up-cycled a few of our old t-shirts! When the two of us got together to film our video, I (Meredith) had just gotten back from a three-day choir trip that morning at 4 a.m.. As a result, our level of energy was quite low. Figuring out how to make new creations out of our shirts (and messing up along the way) definitely brightened our days.
We started with a classic workout shirt. To make this type of shirt, first cut off the sleeves, collar and hemline at the bottom of the shirt.
After you’ve finished, you can choose to either leave it the way it is, or turn it into a racerback shirt. To accomplish the latter, cut the back of the shirt to make the sleeves bigger until it looks the way you want it to. We struggled a bit with this one. The first time we tried to cut the shirt, we accidentally cut the front of the shirt, too . . . which made the shirt look very . . . interesting. But we tried again and figured it out; now we’re experts!
Next, we made a bag out of an old shirt. To make this, start the same way as the workout shirt, cutting off the sleeves, collar and bottom hemline. The sleeves become the handles of the bag, so feel free to make them whatever size you want. The neck hole becomes the opening to the bag, so it might be a good idea to make it slightly bigger than the one on the workout shirt. After you’ve cut the shirt, turn the shirt inside out and sew the two sides of bottom hemline together. You can do this with a sewing machine or simply with a needle and thread. Once it’s sewn, just turn the shirt back so that it’s no longer inside out. Then you’re done!
For our third and final creation, we made headbands out of a shirt. To do this, first cut off the bottom part of a t-shirt, specifically the part without the sleeves. Then cut the shirt into strips. Pick three of these strips of fabric and braid them together to make the headband. Once you’ve made a braid long enough to fit around your head, tie a knot at the bottom or find some way to end the braid. Tie the two ends together, and you have yourself a headband!
We hope you learn something from this video. We had a lot of fun filming it and learned a lot! Look for our next blog post on April 19.
These writers can be reached via Twitter: @meredithmonke and @han_avila. Follow The Feather via Twitter: @thefeather.
For more features, read the April 4 article, PC hosts community outreach over Spring Break.
