What Is Old Can Be New Again

When I was in high school, a summer vacation trip to see family in Mississippi usually also meant a shopping trip for school clothes. One year I got a tie-dyed t-shirt and matching leggings. The leggings were ok, but the t-shirt... oversized with really bright, rich colors, a saturated rainbow with black on white cotton. In spite of many washings, the colors have stayed bright, though the black isn't as dense as it once was. That t-shirt went to college with me, it moved to Chicago with me when I got married, it moved to the 'burbs when my baby was born, and moved again when we needed to find bigger digs. That t-shirt is older than my daughter, older than my marriage! The collar was stretched and fraying, there was a small hole in the front that my previous dog put in it with a toenail, and the seams in the underarms were giving way. Its condition wasn't good enough for donation to charity, but I had seen a way to recycle t-shirts that I wanted to try. Today, I cut up my beloved t-shirt, using a tutorial I found at Polka Dot Pineapple.

Top left, cut and stretched "yarn;" top right, cut but unstretched t-shirt;
bottom, the rolled up skein.

I also saved the sleeves and the shoulders. The pieces are too small to make yarn from, but too big to toss. I have an idea for some of it, but that will only use a small rectangle. It won't be wasted.

My plan is to make a necklace with it, something along these lines but in reverse (multicolored necklace with white embellishments), and not as full; more like this:

I think I want plastic or wood for the beads. It needs to be lightweight, and glass beads would be too heavy. Too, the holes are going to need to be sizable, and I'm more likely to find what I need in wood or plastic. I'll need to browse to see, and if I can't find what I want, I'll just make my own! I might make a bracelet to match, and earrings? Hmm..