Eye Bag Variations. Nr.1 & Nr.2
City Lights in the Water
Crocheting seams to always be the easiest re-entry after summer break for me.
This time with textile yarn upcycled from preloved T-Shirts.
I don’t know why, but every time I come home from vacation, I have a hard time starting to sew. Maybe it needs more planning. Maybe it’s because I usually finish every project before I leave, so there’s nothing left waiting for me. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to dig both machines out of the wardrobe.
Either way, crocheting is always the easiest re-entry. The last bag I made before summer break used a whole sack of cut-up socks as yarn. After summer, I moved on to balls of textile yarn made from old cotton T-shirts.
Upcycling used tees
There are plenty of DIY tutorials for this – cut into strips, sew into round rugs, use as cordage for African-style baskets, macramé bags, plant hangers…
I like all of these ideas, but when I tried them myself, I wasn’t satisfied with the results – mine never lasted long, or never looked quite like I was hoping for. It’s a condition, I think: I only really enjoy it once I’ve found my own recipe, and that recipe is rarely the easy one.
What just simply didn’t work
I’ve tried embroidery and appliqué, but worn fabric doesn’t forgive extra needle holes – it just gets less stable. I have one finely knitted T-shirt that earns new mending stitches after every wash. Most people would’ve binned it by now. I’m stubbornly adding stitches until the shirt is basically held together by them, and I suspect I’ll love it more for it.
I tried taping and reinforcing seams when adding ruffled cotton pieces on used T-Shirts I wanted to upcycle. Same story – a few wash cycles in, the base fabric gave out regardless of what I did to support it.
Heavy heart, but I let those ideas go.
The only thing left standing was cutting the T-shirts that were not fitted to be used or not wanted into fine, even strips and crocheting with the yarn directly.
“How Is This Easy And Fast?”
A few weeks ago I watched a reel – socks cut into loops, braided into a long chain, then hand-sewn into a round rug (if I ever find the reel again, I’ll link it here in case someone wants to try it out). No crocheting at all, but it started the same way I always do: cutting the loops.
One comment stuck with me: “how is this easy and fast?”
Well- it isn’t. It was never meant to be.
Craft takes the time it takes, that’s kind of the point, right? Not greedy, just fair.
All about the bag…
It continues with the same recipe, just like the Eye Bag – Upcycled Crochet Bag with Two Handles. Preloved cotton T-shirts and underwear, cut into strips, crocheted by hand. Same base as last years idea, just in different colour logic. This one mixes yarn colours instead: white as base mixed with pink, orange, dark purple, green, grey and mustard yellow handles.
End result – it reminds me of city lights reflected in the water in summer.
Somehow, all the shades that were not supposed to work together, are telling us a very nice story and somehow, unplanned, the whole upcycling process became even more meaningful.
Let’s see if you like it as much as I do.
Close the loop.
Enter the FrenzyLoop.
