Category Archives: Recycling

The Peppermint Stick Boxers

The Sips N Sews studio, where I do a lot of my project work, offers several beginner’s sewing classes. One of them is a “pajama shorts” class, otherwise known as boxer shorts.

Jess, the Sips N Sews operations manager, showed me the assembly steps for the pattern used in the class. I had about a yard of spare fabric after completing the Peppermint Stick Shirt, so I made matching boxers.

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Shirts Reborn as Boxers, Part 1

I have some really wonderful friends in San Francisco, some of them part of the Maker Movement.

Several years ago, I made a simple plush toy (with light-up eyes) at a Maker Faire event with my friends Annie and Rachel.  I didn’t finish my toy at the event, but they invited me to bring it to the next SCoW (Sewing and Crafts on Wednesdays) event at Rachel’s warehouse loft.

Knowing nothing at all about sewing at the time, I sat down at a sewing machine and received just enough instruction to close the final seam.  All around me, people worked their own personal projects, doing incredible things like recycling fabrics and old clothing into stuff like fashionable kilts, and costumes.

Fast-forward a few years, and now I sew my own clothes as a hobby.  And though SCoW is no longer held in that San Francisco warehouse loft every Wednesday, Annie has resurrected it in her home in Oakland, CA on Thursdays.  Now it’s called SCoTH, or Sewing and Crafts on Thursdays.

The Recycled Boxers Project

I thought it would be nice to have my own little dedicated project for craft night, so I started one. Several shirts in my closet were starting to wear out around the collars and cuffs.  The fabric is pretty sturdy, so the shirts could be recycled into something else.

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