5 recycled T-shirt sites you should revisit
Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 5:35PM Teecycle.org supports changing your shirt and changing the world whether you do it here, elsewhere or all of the above. Here are five other sites that help reduce, reuse and teecycle T-shirts. Have others to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.
Ashley from Little Blue Boo
Lil Blue Boo is the genius creations of Ashley Hackshaw, who combines her love of sewing, painting, printing, power tools, motherhood and recycled t-shirts. Ashley repurposes old t-shirts with screenprints, dye and transfers. She frequently makes creations for and with her daughter Boo, including hats from old t-shirts, painting and stitching a stained t-shirt, and auctioning off upcycled t-shirt dresses for charity. Also, she used to fly airplanes, so she's pretty badass. New updates added to her site almost daily.
Juyorican gives old t-shirts new life by making them into custom blankets, bags,
pillows, aprons and more. Creator Mayra Lentz is a mom to teenagers and art enthusiast has designed, built, painted or hand-sewn almost everything in her house. "There is no task that can be done with a sewing machine, a saw, paint, glue or a nail gun that I won’t tackle," she says on her site. "My favorite thing to do is to recycle, re-purpose & re-design older materials into something new that can continue to be enjoyed for years to come." I think my favorite creation of hers may be the Muppet Swedish Chef t-shirt turned into an apron.
"Baby clothes should be fun," declares the Dressme manifesto. "Dressme stands for hip, handmade and recycled. Re-use to make something new, beautiful and unique." Dressme is the brainchild of fashion designer Liesbeth Soeterbroek of Amsterdam, who launched the business 7 years ago to make recycled outfits for her newborn son. Each shirt and dress is handmade from specially selected unique, original and eco-friendly recycled materials. The result is baby clothes like this one made from old t-shirts. Based on their Etsy feedback, people love them.
Jimmy from Defunkd is the man. He's the guy who originally introduced me to the vintage t-shirt community on the internet, and today he continues to sell his own wares and blog about others at Defunkd.com. I'll let his manifesto speak for itself: "At Defunkd we take vintage very seriously. We exclusively feature real vintage tees aged a minimum of 15 years, up to three decades. You wont find vintage 'style', 'retro', or other sinful reproductions amongst our store and blog pages. Each piece of clothing is hand selected by experts who view them as collectible snapshots of fashion and popular culture. We aim to satisfy the discerning tastes of the true vintage aficionado."
"There’s two things that I know a lot about and love: reusing and t-shirts," Stay Vocal founder Alex Eaves writes on his site. About half of the Stay Vocal apparel line is made from new t-shirts that were going to be destroyed, and the other half is found at thrift stores and through donations. Here's an example of one of their recycled shirts that was printed over and given new life. Reusing doesn’t stop with their T-shirts, either. Orders are printed on the back of would be recycled paper and shipped in used packaging (mainly cereal boxes) with labels printed on scrap paper. Even their business cards are printed on used t-shirts pieces.
