Mermaid Craft: T-Shirt Posters

When it comes to my clothes, there are some things which I am just loathe to throw away. Even with my sister giving me her judgey look while I cling to something which has not fit me for years. There is still hope that I may one day be able to say no to biscuits and slim down! I'll give you a minute, let the laughter die down.

If the title wasn't a give away, I am on about t-shirts here. Over the years, between Qwertee and gigs I have amassed an impressive collection of t-shirts which have a weird amount of sentimental value. However, I am very good at shrinking shirts and they don't always sit on my frame well at the best of times. And, they get old. So when it came to gutting my wardrobe, this seemed like a great way to weed out the ones I don't wear anymore. Except, I really didn't want to throw any away.

While they may not sit right on me any more, the t-shirts were still in good nick. I managed to wrangle a few by "demoting" them to pjs. Still reluctant to straight up bin perfectly good (and, frankly, beautiful) t-shirts, I had an idea.

The fashion industry is massively wasteful, uses insane amounts of water, and is very polluting and generally bad for the environment. (Because why do anything sustainably when you can cause massive amounts of irreparable damage?) With that in mind, I am trying to be more conscious about how I use my clothes. I have always donated unwanted items to charity shops or in the clothes bins for different countries. I am teaching myself how to sew so that I might be able to repair broken clothes and give them a little more life. But these weren't really options for my t-shirts. They weren't unwanted and they weren't broken. I wanted to be able to look at them and relive good memories or appreciate how awesome they are.

I wanted to look at them.

In our home we have an odd array of pictures collected from charity shops, childhood nostalgia, and pop culture. Most of them neither me nor my partner particularly care about. They are just breaking up wall space. So, wouldn't it be cool to replace these bland and boring space breakers with something a little more awesome?

T-shirt posters.

I decided to test this idea with the t-shirt I harvested for my Hallowe'en costume. Rather than buying a photo frame, I sent my partner up into the loft to grab one from a photo we weren't using. He was going up to get the Hallowe'en decs anyway. (And no, I do not go up there. Far too scary!) We got a nice A4(ish?) sized frame which would allow plenty of space for the t-shirt's design. A Mew made up of the original 150 Pokémon, if you're interested.

Making a start

To begin with, I chalked on the frame's parameters to give me an idea of where the picture would sit in the frame and how much I needed to cut off. The initial plan was to cut it to size which I was a little nervous about. It's a stretchy material, I can't cut straight to save my life, and it was beginning to look like a sure-fire way to create a wonky donkey picture. So I cut away the excess to start with, get it down to nearly size. Next, I put it in the frame with the idea what I would cut it down to just bigger than size by pinning it to the frame and cutting inside the pins.

This did not work. Partly because the frame was a little too tough to push the pins into. But also because it kept moving about and putting the picture off-centre. To remedy this, I decided to put the back of the frame in place, just to keep it all where it was supposed to be. In doing this, I realised that I had actually cut it down to a pretty decent size when I'd initially taken the excess off. I had to fiddle about getting the picture in the right place again, and then again when I realised it still had chalk marks on it. But once the back was on officially, it was clear I didn't actually have to do anything else.

The excess did not stick out beyond the frame. The picture was pretty much centred. And the whole thing looked fab! There were a couple corners I trimmed down, but after that it was ready to hang! Originally, it was going to go in our bedroom and replace our workout whiteboard which has not been filled in since April (roughly when my year started going downhill). But the frame overlapped the picture already hanging above it. This was actually when my partner suggested that we replace some of the boring pictures.

So it went up in the living room, along with my IT poster which lost its home in the study when we got the piano. (Everything is so tightly Tetrised into that room!)

IT, bookshelf, Mew. What do you mean we're geeky?

The T-shirt poster in all its glory.

The whole process was so easy, it seemed silly to not keep going with it all. I have more T-shirts which need postering (new, legit word) and two redundant frames ready to be filled! Now, my original plan was to use both frames, but one ended up being destroyed. Why? Because someone nailed the back onto the frame and wallpapered over it! No picture is that permanent! (PSA: Please never nail and wallpaper your pictures into the frame, it makes life very difficult for upcyclers.) Anyway, despite losing a frame, I still managed to make a second T-shirt poster. Once again, the making the poster was easy-peasy. Adjusting the frame from landscape to portrait, less so. Thank goodness for handy partners with a garage full of tools! The new poster is not hung yet, we're thinking on the stairs somewhere. Or perhaps the bedroom. There are options and plenty of space for more!

No, I cannot figure out how to keep my hands out of the reflection.

I am always looking for new ways to upcycle and recycle things to give them new life. This way has been so fun and easy, I'm almost looking forward to the day some more of my cool T-shirts become unwearable! I already have plans for some Harry Potter socks which are starting to get hole-y.

What do you do with tired and unwearable clothes? Do you know of any other creative projects I can try with them? Got any T-shirts you want postering? Lemme know below!

Listening to: This Is Robbie Williams