Thursday, October 08, 2015

Mining Water 1

Do you like cotton jersey pillowcases? I purchased a set of cotton jersey sheets ~20 years ago. The pillowcases wore out first, because I like the softness next to my face. The jersey sheets, OTOH, took so darn long to dry that I didn't think they were worth the energy premium over other sheets.
I found half a dozen XL or XXL cotton t-shirts at a thrift store when they were $1 each.  It looked like an XL person took a bunch of cruises and got a shirt for each destination.  Large or XL t-shirts can be a cost-effective way to get good quality cotton jersey.

Moreover, at ~900 gallons per XL cotton t-shirt, it's an excellent way to mine water.  If the thrift store is in your neighborhood, you are even mining water transported to your local watershed!

I trimmed the sleeves and top part off to make rectangular shapes, preserving the hem.  I then augmented the length with rectangles of denim that I purchased online but weren't suitable for the project I had in mind for it.

In about 90 minutes, I had 6 pillowcases.  The backsides of all these Ts are plain and soft against the face.  I left the motifs on the outside because I find them amusing.  If the motifs bother you, just use the t-shirts inside out.  If the inside-out hems bother you, sew the denim or other fabric rectangles on the hem/opening side.

Aside:
I found a blouse-weight soft 100% cotton dark indigo denim in the remnant bin at Joann's ca. 2009 and used to make ruffle skirt #1.

unvented this style of skirt because 2/3 of a yard of fabric (even if it is 60" wide) is not sufficient for four tiers of ruffles.

I liked the fabric so much, I went back to buy more only to discover that the dark indigo color had been discontinued.

I found a light-weight denim from Robert Kaufman at Fabric.com, but it was too heavy and stiff for the t-shirt I wanted to make.

Fortunately, Joann's brought the dark color back in 2011 so I got the t-shirt I envisioned after all.

This time, I bought plenty and Iris got denim ruffle skirt #2.

I'm glad that the mail-order denim found a good use.

2 comments:

  1. Yay for finding the right use for fabric. I have decided there are times when I just have to spend my energy determining the right "home" for fabric I bought that wasn't right for my intended purpose. The recipients are glad, and then so am I.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are open for recent posts, but require moderation for posts older than 14 days.