Turn a t-shirt into a colourful and creative homemade tote bag that you can use as a grub bag (to keep your cutlery, plates, bowls and cups) for camp. This activity can also help to start discussions around fast fashion and upcycling.
Before you start
Tell your group the week before you do this activity that they will need to bring an old t-shirt or vest top to the next session. This ideally would be a plain-ish top so that young people can personalise it themselves.
You will need:
- An old T-shirt or vest top (one per person)
- Coloured pens (non-washable. Fabric pens if you have or permanent markers work too!)
- Scissors
- A table or hard surface
What to do
Firstly, it is easiest to start by putting your design on your t-shirt. Get each member of the group to lay out their t-shirt flat on a hard surface.
Decide with the group what they need to put on their bag. e.g. your name, group name or you could decide to just draw pictures about a theme such as protecting our environment, Woodcraft Folk, peace or write a message with words.
Once everyone has designed their shirt, cut out the arms (if using a t-shirt) and cut round the neck line.
Lay out the shirt again. Cut the bottom of the shirt vertically (upward toward the head of the shirt), creating small slits about 5cm up. This will be how we attach the bag together to ensure your possessions don’t fall out!
Next, find two strips that are in line with each other. With your pair of strips together, knot them with a standard knot. It’s best to make 2 or 3 knots to make sure that it is as secure as possible.
The bags should now be secure! You could bring some plates, bowls and cups to test out the grub bags and give an example to the group of what they need to bring to camp.
