Make a Flower Brooch From Your Old T-Shirts

In my hometown - Austin, Texas - everybody knows somebody in a band. It's a music-loving metropolis, and as a result, we Austinites tend to accrue a lot of concert minutia: ticket stubs, EP's, the odd glow bracelet, and...concert T's. Way, way too many concert T's.

When my own drawers are stuffed beyond their natural capacity with t-shirts, I am faced with two options: I can either A) haul them to Goodwill, or B) attempt to make something out of them. Being a closeted Gossip Girl fan (closeted no more, since I just announced it on the internet), I was pretty excited to discover The WonderCraft's craft activity for turning those old T's into a preppy, Blair Waldorf-like fabric flower. (Blair Waldorf, for the unitiated, is Gossip Girl's headband-wearing, gala-attending, sass-dishing aristocrat. Who dresses impeccably).

The WonderCraft is both a mobile arts-and-crafts studio, as well as an online Etsy retailer. They're based in Austin, but no matter where you live, you can shop their web store to buy craft kits and instructions that use recycled materials. Here are simple directions to make one of their crafts, "Upcycled Grunge Flowers." To purchase detailed instructions accompanied by helpful photographs (for a mere $2.50), head to their Etsy site.

Upcycled Grunge Flowers

1. Gather 3 old t-shirts. Decide which will be the bottom layer, which will be the middle layer, and which will be the top.

2. For the bottom layer, cut a flower shape out of one of your t-shirts. Think a slightly scalloped circle. Don't worry about it being perfect.

3. For large flowers, cut a piece of cardboard or cardstock to use as a stabilizer. It should be just slightly smaller than your bottom layer. (This step isn't necessary for smaller flowers). Fold the stabilizer in half and cut a hole in the middle.

4. Using the first, bottom layer as a template, cut increasingly smaller sizes of the rough flower shape out of your other t-shirts.

5. Use the needle and thread to create a stitch in the shape of an "X" in the center of the smallest piece. Then, pull stitches through the base of the flower at different angles to create a gathered, "flower" shape.

6. Now pull the thread through the center of the next (middle) layer to anchor it to the first piece.

7. Use your fingers to gather the second layer into a flower shape, and pull several stitches through the gathered layers at different angles back into the middle to hold the shape.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 with additional layers.

9. For larger flowers: Apply fabric glue to the stabilizer. This step is not necessary with smaller flowers.

10. Apply to a brooch base, or alternatively, a headband, magnet, ring base - wherever you'd like a fabric flower in your life!