New Year Resolution

Happy new year!

While I was scratching my head, literally (long story), and tried to decide on what my new year resolution was this year, I looked at last year's resolution and realized I didn't do much with resolution #2: up-cycle. I did cut off a T-shirt and made an infinity scarf that I never wore. I also cut off the toes of husband's sock and used the tube part to make a "donut" for my sock bun. Although these simple projects are technically up-cycle projects, this year I want to make something a little more advanced.

I love tote bags. It's an obsession. I can never have too many of them. When I saw this Abercrombie shirt from Nano's Salvation Army 49 cents stash, a vision came to me.  I didn't take a photo of the shirt before it was taken apart but you can see from the photos below that it has two flap pockets in the front and an embossed pattern on the back.  The bottom piece was a sleeve.

My initial design was to simply turn the front of the shirt into the front of the tote. I thought it was the easiest way although I typically don't like bags that look like a shirt. I'm not a big fan of recycled jeans bags either. Totes shouldn't look like shirts or pants. Period.

So after putting in some Googling efforts and in talking to my sister-in-law, I decided to turn the shirt into a knitter's tote. Inspired by Spotted Stones, here's what we ended up with. I say "we" but it was all Nano.

It looks nothing like a shirt but we used every part of the shirt to make this tote. The top pocket in the front of the tote was once the shirt placket. 

 The back of the shirt is the back of the tote.

The front flap pockets of the shirt are now in the inside of the tote. 

Oh, forgot to mention the beautiful chandelier in the sewing room.

 

I'm so excited about this tote. Hopefully, I'll knit more and sew more this year.

Let's see what lili found this month.

Next month, Valentine's Day.