{"id":357278,"date":"2019-03-11T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=357278"},"modified":"2019-03-11T07:59:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T14:59:00","slug":"recycle-reuse-repurpose-thinning-swim-t-shirt-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/recycle-reuse-repurpose-thinning-swim-t-shirt-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose: Thinning Out Your Swim T-Shirt Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/i> Emily<\/i> Thirion<\/i>, Swimming<\/i> World<\/i> College<\/i> Intern<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Whether you are an agegrouper or a newly-minted swammer, chances are you have an excessive amount of swimming T-shirts overloading your closet. It\u2019s the beginning of March and nearly time to begin spring cleaning. This often involves purging your wardrobe of unwanted or unwearable articles of clothing. While we love the T-shirts that we have collected over the years spanning countless meets, at some point they overwhelm the rest of our clothing.<\/p>\n

Discarding perfectly good clothing is wasteful, so without further ado, we have some ideas how you can reuse, recycle, or donate your bits an pieces of your T-shirt collection.<\/p>\n

1). The famous T-shirt quilt<\/h3>\n
\"t-shirt-quilt\"

Photo Courtesy: flickr, @Sonja Lovas<\/p><\/div>\n

This is one of the most commonly used and recognized forms of repurposing a bunch of t-shirts at once. Many swimmers receive the quilt as a birthday, Christmas, or graduation present at some point throughout their careers. They are warm and practical. But what most people don\u2019t know is how easy they are to craft on your own. This<\/a> website gives directions that are clear-cut and easy to follow along with if you want to try and make a quilt of your own. Both YouTube and Pinterest offer dozens of sets of directions ranging from simple to complex depending on how intricate you want your quilt to be. It is a great project to begin during taper or through off-season to kill some time.<\/p>\n

2). Donate them to a family member, friend, or an organization<\/h3>\n
\"david-plummer-tshirt-toss-mesa-2016\"

Photo Courtesy: Maddie Kyler<\/p><\/div>\n

Oftentimes, swimming is a family sport. Many swimmers have younger siblings who also compete in the sport. Little siblings love to get gifts from older family members who they look up to, especially a sibling or a cousin who they can see working hard and succeeding every day. If you don\u2019t have swimmers in your extended family, there is never a shortage of younger swimmers on your club or Y team. In giving your T-shirts to the younger members of your team, you are demonstrating to them what they can become and where they can go if they, too, commit to the sport. Many different organizations also ask for old T-shirts throughout the year, so keep your eyes peeled for a local charity looking for clothes.<\/p>\n

3). No-sew T-shirt tote bag<\/h3>\n