Monday, April 20, 2009

I Feel Like Giving Books Away - Your Chance to Win!

Today I posted a review of What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe? for Nonfiction Monday. If you leave a comment ON THAT POST with your best crafty recycling idea, you could win a copy of the book. Actually, THREE lucky folks will win!

One of the projects in the book that uses a raggedy T-shirt to create something new. This got me thinking about the following poem from Alice Schertle's new book Button Up!: Wrinkled Rhymes.

Tanya's Old T-Shirt

I live in a bucket shoved under a stair.
They call me a dust rag!
It don't think it's fair.

I'm still the same size as when I was new.
I didn't shrink—
it was Tanya who GREW.

She started out small and we fit to a T.
Now she's big as a sofa!
She's tall as a tree!
She's out of control, and they're dusting with me!

You'll never, not ever
hear anyone say,
"She's gotten too big, she's just in the way,
let's dust the piano with Tanya today."
You can win a copy of Alice Schertle's book by leaving a comment about your most creative use for old shirts, socks, underwear and the like. Let's hear your great ideas! You have until midnight to enter to win.

14 comments:

  1. cute! I have all of my old blue jeans (and some from friends and family) cut up into squares and rectangles to make a denim picnic quilt someday...

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  2. Old tee shirts are used in the garden to tie things up.

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  3. I use lint from the dryer to stuff dolls with, that I make out of old T-shirts and other garments.

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  4. My husband and I use old boots to make planters.

    shelcows AT gmail DOT com

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  5. socks are easy--we have a zoo of sock puppets!

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  6. I've made bags out of t-shirts before. Kids love them for scavenger hunts, dramatic play, or party favor bags at a birthday party.

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  7. It isn't clothing, but I use all those baby washcloths to dust. They are so soft and work very well. As far as clothing most of my old t-shirts (and there are a lot) end up as smocks.

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  8. There's a women's group in our church who take old church t-shirts and make patchwork bags with them. We use them as worship bags for children in worship and also as reusable shopping bags that church members can take home. The uses are endless. It's been a great project for our women and is helping the environment!

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  9. We make cylindrical neck pillows out of old blue jeans... and infant bathrobes out of old towels that are just a bit faded and/or have a stain, but still thickness. A small girl's smock can be made of a pillowcase, too -- some really CUTE ones, if you have stained one, and just have one left. Also a straight skirt for a first grader can be made from one...

    I'm not in the running for the books, just enjoying reading others' thoughts and celebrating all the fun things to do with left overs.

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  10. I'm not very creative but my mom sewed up the bottom of a dress I grew out of when I was a kid. We then hung it on the closet door adn I used it as a clothes hamper. I loved it and it encouraged me to keep my dirty clothes off the floor.

    I loved the t-shirt poem, too.

    sally at paraklesis dot com

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  11. Most of ours end up as rags or sent to Goodwill before they reach that point. Other have ended up as scarecrow clothes. My grandmother used to make rag rugs out of hers, but I have no idea how she did it.

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  12. It's not exactly innovative, but old socks or t-shirt squares make great erasers for my student's individual whiteboards.

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  13. Tricia - this is a very funny poem! thank you for sharing! My students will definitely giggle with it.

    My daughters love turning their clothes that are too small into clothes for their over-sized stuffed animals. So we have giant unicorns parading in all sorts of outfits.

    Thanks for brightening my evening!

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  14. Great ideas here!

    I've cut up squares from old tee shirts to make eye-glass cleaning squares. Also made covers for gel ice/heating pads (the kind you heat in the microwave) from tee shirts.

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