Here’s How You Can Turn Your Old T-shirts Into A Fashionable DIY Tote Bag

On International Plastic Bag Free Day, we have a fun activity for you on how to make your own tote bag. Want to know the best part of it? It is super easy to make and requires no sewing at all. So if you don’t have a sewing machine or a set, don’t fret, you can still have your own fashionable tote bag in your wardrobe! 

Before we proceed further, let’s take a moment to appreciate tote bags. We all love them, don’t we? What’s not to love? They are useful, cute, fashionable and above all, they are so baggy. 

Here are five easy steps to make your own tote bag.

All you need is:

• An old T-shirt 
• A pair of scissors 
• A bowl
• A marker

Materials Required for the tote bag

Step 1

Take any of your old T-shirts. It could be a solid tee or even one with a print on it. Next, cut the sleeves off. You can fold the T-shirt in half and cut the sleeves so they are identical. 

Take a bowl and place it around the neck of the T-shirt and mark a semi-circle with a marker or any pen. Once this is done, take a pair of scissors and cut around the marked line.

Cut the sleeves off

Step 2

Turn your T-shirt inside out and cut slits from the bottom of it. The slits can be up to 3 inches or longer depending on the depth you’d like the bag to have. Be mindful to hold the back and front of the T-shirt while cutting it up so you’ll have evenly-cut splits. The fringes will look something like the picture below.

Create evenly-cut fringes at the bottom

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Step 3

Once the splits are cut, tie each pair into a knot. Complete tying knots for each of the fringe pairs. The next step might seem complicated but trust us, it’s not.. Just refer to the images below and go ahead. 

Take the first three fringes for reference. Take one strand from the middle knot and tie it with a strand from the left one. Take the leftover strand from the middle knot and tie it with a strand from the right one. Continue this for the remaining knots. Remember, the objective is to close the holes in between the knots in order to give it a sturdy base. 

After this step is completed and you turn the T-shirt inside out again, this is how it should look.

Close the holes at the bottom by tying the fringes into knots

Step 4

Turn the T-shirt inside out again. Tie the straps on the top into knots to give it that extra edge. You could also try another variation of not turning the bag inside out before tying the fringes at the bottom into knots to give it a boho look.

After turning the tee inside out, here’s how it will look

Step 5

Voila! You have your own DIY tote bag. You could try this with vibrant, cool print t-shirts and use it for various purposes. Be it shopping, groceries or just a casual day out with friends and family. 

Here’s how your tote bag would look

Now that your tote bag is ready, would you like to paint on it and make it more chic? Here is a video on tote bag painting.

Would you try making this tote bag at home?  Let us know in the comments below. Also, feel free to share any alternate methods of making your own tote bag. 

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