I came home from work last Thursday and was motivated to sort through our t-shirt collection.  The only reason we had room for all of them in the closet was because they all weren’t clean at the same time.  Normally I have a very difficult time getting rid of things, but as I mentioned, I was motivated.  I was very strict – anything with a hole or a stain was trash.  T-shirts that passed the test were sorted into three categories – dress (the nicer t-shirts that can be worn in public), exercise, and sleep.  The unofficial fourth category was Cubs.  I refolded and put the shirts back into labeled drawers in the closet.  And surprise of all surprises, there is room for more t-shirts!  Hurrah, because there’s at least five in the dirty clothes!

Now what to do with all the t-shirts on their way to the trash?  It seemed like such a waste.  Many of them were garbage because of a small dog-sized teeth holes.  (Our punkin loves to run around with a t-shirt in her mouth and because she looks so darn cute we let her.)  The logical choice was to make them into rags, but I never use the rags.  But then inspiration struck and I had a plan – a mitten rag.  Maybe it would be more functional than a square rag.

My first step was to  create a mitten template by putting my hand on a piece of paper and drawing around it in the shape of a mitten, giving myself a little extra space so my husbands big ‘ol hand could fit inside it too.  Then I laid out the t-shirt inside out, matching up the bottom edges, making sure to utilize the finished edge of the shirt.  I traced the pattern onto the t-shirt checking that I didn’t include any holes or stains in my mitt.  Next I pinned it, and then sewed around the pattern with a straight stitch.  I made another pass around the edge using a zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying.  I cut around the stitching, leaving a slight border.  Once that was complete, I flipped it inside out and had my completed mitt.  Not perfect, but good enough for a rag.  As you see below, Harrison approves.

Bill tested out the mitt when he scrubbed the cats’ litter boxes.  They worked well for both scrubbing and drying!  If you use a super soft t-shirt, it would also make a good pedicure mitten – slather on some lotion before bed and then put on your mittens.

I do realize that I put entirely too much time into making rags.  But it did make me feel less wasteful. Maybe I’ll even use less papertowels now too!