the ethical implications of old t-shirts

These days few things invigorate me and challenge me as much as seeing people creating new stuff out of old stuff (my high school literature teacher would cringe reading that ambiguous last sentence, but bear with me here). Since I rediscovered sewing last year, my ultimate goal has been to focus on the construction of clothing and learn how to tailor. I see salvaging old clothing items as an act of stewardship, simplicity, recycling and great respect.

But as you probably very obviously notice, I tend to get distracted by more pretty and frivolous things like baby quilts. But even in my quilting I'm trying to buy as little brand new fabric as possible and focus on reusing other materials or second-hand, unused fabrics. Those projects are by far my most gratifying because I love looking back over a quilt and identifying the epic journey each of the materials has taken. And I apologize because if you've ever seen any of my projects in person I know that I've spewed out the entire quilt lineage to you with excruciating detail.

I'm fortunate enough to have friends who also see value in the act of re-purposing and reusing. One such couple (who also happen to be my brother-in-law and sister-in-law) have the added bonus of an adorable 4-month old daughter. And to make this situation even more perfect, they love free stuff. So when they handed me a short stack of my brother-in-law's old landscaping t-shirts last week, I was ready for some action (in the vein of Wardrobe Refashion).

Here is what I came up with, using a baby sundress pattern, two florescent green shirts, and a certain giraffe fabric that's been getting a lot of face time on this blog as of late:


ps. Due to my lack of technical savvy, you may want to click on the above collage to better see the gratuitous details I typed.