Shirt deconstruction

As any of you who have been reading the blog a while will know, I like to use recycled shirts in my sewing.

I use them both for lining and quilting and you can see some of them here, here, here, and here.

I am lucky enough to have a good supply from my husband and brothers as well as various other kind donators to the cause,
 and they have been stacking up recently in an unruly heap in the corner of my sewing space.

So this weekend I sat and did some deconstruction.

I cut off the collars, cuffs and yoke and then cut down the side seams and shoulder seams so that I am left with a square from the back, two front panels and two sleeves.

These can them be folded and stacked...

 

 

The possibilities are endless and I love that they are recycled.
 

Every so often I wonder if it would be possible to put recycle bins (like those for bottles) in some of the city firms where hundreds of shirts must be thrown away by employees on a regular basis.
 

 

I have a plan for the cut off scraps as well as other bits of fabric waste which I am planning to share when I get around to it.

 

 

And these little beauties will be going in the button box.

They are from the cuffs and collars because I leave the shirt fronts with button on until I know whether they are destined to be a cushion back,
in which case the buttons are perfect for the fastening.

 

There are seven sails now and I will hopefully be doing some more this week.

 

The shirts have made me wonder if I could do some sort of 'sails on the ocean' along the same lines as the 'leaves in the breeze' I did with shirts some time ago.
I've got plenty of blue shirts!

I've got so many ideas in my head at the moment and not enough time to do them all.



 

 

I did make time for a bit of this today though.

Not all of them, just a few.

Leeks, toms, sweet peas and broad beans.

 

Have a good weekend.

x