Saturday, February 6, 2010

A little story

Any of you who have teenagers know that they change their minds about 500 times an hour!

(PARENT)"What do you think you'll do when you graduate?"

(TEEN)"I was thinking I'd be an attorney"
"No, wait...that's eight more years of school right?"
"I think I'll be a teacher!"
"No, wait...they don't make a lot of money, do they?"
"I think I'll be a ......"

You see where I'm headed?

When my teens came to me and said, "Mama, we just found this great book!" (I think...WHAT? You're reading?!?! GREAT! I'm in!!)

"Yeah, its on taking old t-shirts and making them into all these cool things! They even say you can have "T Parties" where you invite your friends over and you all make things from your old t-shirts! Can we do it?!?!"

"SURE!! Call your friends...lets do this!" (MISTAKE #1)

So I have a house full of girls, and t-shirts! "Decide what you want to make and I'll help you if I need to" is my first directive. (AND SO IT BEGINS!! MISTAKE #2)

"Mrs. Gaynor, how do I measure this?" "Mrs. Gaynor, can you cut this for me?" "Mrs. Gaynor, will you sew this for me?" Four hours later we have an assortment of bags, skirts, and tops. They are ecstatic and I am exhausted!! Turns out, NONE of them has ever sewed as much as a button on!!

My teens enjoyed it so much they ask if we can go to Goodwill and buy more shirts! So, Forty dollars and two bags of shirts later I ask, "When's the next T-Party?" "Aw, that wasn't really that much fun so we don't really want to do it again. If you just wanna make us some stuff though, that would be cool!" (WHATEVER!!!) So I pack it away in the attic.

One Year Later....

Im cleaning out the attic which is being consumed by HUGE bags of unknown stuff. I pull out this one bag and think "What the hell could this be?" Yes, you guessed it....T-SHIRTS!!!

THAT'S WHEN IT HIT ME!........If you keep them (the t-shirts, not the teens. Apparently there is a "no return" policy on Teens!)...the teens will expect you to make stuff for them.....BUT, if you are going to be making stuff anyway......why not list it on Etsy?!?! So a shop was born:

www.RecycledTs.etsy.com

Funny thing is, once you start making these items, you can't stop! You want to start recycling everything!! All that fabric that has been laying around your shop, all those placemats you bought, the ribbon, the yarn, the buttons....you GOTTA find a use for it!!!

What will come out of my workroom tomorrow? I dont know yet, but I did just found some fabric paints that are begging to be used!

1 comment:

  1. What a good idea. With the kids and changing trends you have an endless supply of material too!

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