Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Earth Day Activity: Repurposed T-Shirts

Hello Respectful Exploring Creators' families!

This week, Hope (Calvin's mom), came to our class to talk to us a bit about the Three R's---- plus a couple more!  In a nutshell, she commented on:


R-recycle as much as you can and avoid non-recyclable materials
R-reduce the amount of waste you might produce (compost food scraps instead of throwing them away!)
R-reuse things instead of buying brand new things (hand-me-downs or thrift stores!)
R-repurpose old things into new things (tattered pant knees?  repurpose them into shorts but cutting off some material!)
R-refuse convenience items such as plastic bags or straws to minimize the amount of plastics in the landfills

Hope then led us in a simple tutorial of how to REPURPOSE an old t-shirt into a REUSABLE tote/grocery bag, so that we can REFUSE plastic bags when we are out shopping, REDUCING the amount of waste we produce--- using totally RECYCLABLE materials!

Step 1:  lay out your old t-shirt


Step 2:  trace a rounded item near the neckline with a piece of chalk (the smaller the shirt, the smaller the rounded item you should use)


Step 3:  cut along the chalked outline.


Step 4: cut off the sleeves (if you have an old tank top, you can skip this step and if you have an old long sleeve shirt, you can repurpose the sleeves to make a small storage bag for your new t-shirt tote!)


Step 5:  flip the shirt inside out and head over to your sewing machine.


Step 6:  use the shirt's hem line as a guide to sew the bottom opening of the shirt shut.  Reverse the stitching at the end to make sure it is secure, and when finished, turn it over and sew along the bottom one more time to ensure extra security.


After watching the tutorial and hearing the safety agreements, friends joined Hope, Sally (Bethel's mom), Dawn (Kellan's mom), and Genia (Ryan's mom) and got to work on making their own reusable bag.























This was a really lovely experience for our friends, many who've never used a sewing machine (including myself!!) and we were able to try something new!  Thank you all for helping us learn valuable life skills that we can take with us for years to come!

Happy Earth Day!
Love, Gaby






No comments:

Post a Comment