Part of being a geek is collecting T-shirts. There is apparel for your favorite games, comics, movies, and books. At cons, you pick up too many shirts to fit in your suitcase as souvenirs or swag. And don’t forget some awe-inspiring wolf T-shirts.
After a while, the shirts naturally begin to stack up. The big pile o’ shirts in my closet finally got to me, and this week I decided to do something about them. A lot of shirts were just too cool or too sentimental to toss, though, so I had a plan for a few new ways to use my old geeky shirts.
I started by sorting my shirts into four categories: wear, donate, re-purpose, and University of Texas. (I have a lot of burnt orange clothing.) I put the ones I actually wear and the UT shirts back in the closet and got to work on the other two piles.
Donate
Of course, the first thing you should think about is donating any old clothes in good condition that you don’t feel particularly attached to. Someone out there will happily rock your old "All Your Base is Belong to Us" shirt! There are many places to donate, including Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Just remember to wash your shirts and check for holes before dropping off your donation.
Re-Purpose
This is why the Internet invented Pinterest -- for all of my old T-shirts. You can find a great number of ideas here, from the ubiquitous T-shirt scarf to jewelry and other fun things to make. I tried out two tutorials, neither of which required sewing: braiding strips of worn-out tops into bracelets, and creating a bag from an old shirt.
I found a terrific walkthrough for a braided bracelet on a blog called Lil Blue Boo. I used one of the aforementioned Texas shirts and a torn white shirt to make fabric strips, and ended up with three cute orange and white bracelets for game days. These would also make great gifts in other school colors for just about anyone.
Jewelry is a great way to re-use your shirts, but you lose what makes the shirt “cool” when you cut it down to strips. I wanted to find a way to show off those great designs and art on my old shirts, so I was excited to try my hand at this T-shirt bag on the crafty blog leethal.net.
It took a few attempts to get the drawstring through the hem, but that was my fault for not having a safety pin. The bag is surprisingly sturdy and is almost better than actually wearing a geeky shirt; you can use the bag day after day without worrying about getting that special geek T-shirt smell. You know the one I mean.
If you know how to sew and have an extensive collection of shirts, there is a step-by-step guide to making a blanket out of T-shirt swatches in the phenomenal Star Wars Craft Book. I'd love to make that one day.
Re-Gift
And finally, you can still save those old shirts in a bin for your kids to show off in the future. I’m planning on convincing my daughter that a shirt that reads “E3 2005” is really cool and vintage, and that she’ll be envy of all her geek friends. It might work.
