Not Because I am Green, Please

Truly,

Completed Skirt, Wrinkly from Wear

It's not because I am "green" that I decided to make rags out of t-shirts.  I happen to no longer know what to sew considering my very limited supply of fabric.  With skirt complete, and place mats and pillow cases finished, I have nothing to do!  

I do love a clean bathroom, and being home for the summer I seem to clean it more than necessary.  This makes me acutely aware of how many paper towels I do, in fact, use.  Mostly, I use the paper towels with no shame; however, I decided it really could not hurt anyone for me to try to use T-shirts as rags for some of my more serious cleaning.  This also provided an excuse to get rid of some of my ratty shirts, although I suppose one does not need an excuse.

Shirts ironed, I set my shears to the cotton.  One shirt makes three to four solids rags.  I admit, I do not use the sleeves; much to my surprise, the sleeves are truly useless apart from their parent shirt.

After aimlessly cutting my first shirt, I discovered there was a way to reduce the chance of fraying and to sew only two edges.  It could even fit like a glove.

Open red rag to show the smooth edges.

With the shirt face up. I cut off the bottom 6 inches or so of the shirt.  This leaves one raw edge, the bottom of the shirt, and the two sides of the shirt that are nicely folded over and without a seam.  These two rounded edges serve as the top and the bottom of the glove. 

This piece was folded in half such that the rounded edges meet.  To sew up the two sides (raw edge and bottom of shirt), I used a heavy back stitch at the beginning and end such that the cloth could enduring dirty bath tubs and vigorous dusting. 

Heavy-duty glove rag

Leaving the bottom open allows one hand to slip right in and begin cleaning.

More to come about how to use the shoulders of the shirt to really make a heavy-duty glove-rag.

Things to note:

1. I used a long and wide zig-zag stich.

2. Although I iron the shirt and kept a nice line, it looks nice to trim the edges with some scissors when you are done.

3. You could even turn these gloves inside out to look seamless if you prefer.  If that is the case, I would sew about 1/4" from the edge.

4. My favorite rag is a red shirt with white stiching.