A couple of weeks ago I got a delivery.
All of my old race t-shirts.
Apparently my mom caught on to the fact that I had been secretly storing my old race shirts in my bedroom dresser at my parents’ house. Technically the room is “my” room, but since I went to college a couple of months after my family and I moved to Florida from Illinois, my bedroom has always been more or less a storage room for my mom’s family’s stuff.
When I got my first apartment after college, it was a small place in the back of a house. Since I didn’t have much room, I started to store some clothes that I wanted to keep but never really wore at my parent’s house in a spare dresser drawer in my bedroom. Now that they’re getting rid of the dresser and reorganizing some things in their house, my shirts were spotted and returned to their rightful owner.
I am thinking of just taking them to Goodwill, but part of me feels like I should do something with them since a lot of good memories are associated with the shirts. I thought about turning them into a t-shirt quilt like the one we gave to my friend Leah during her bachelorette party.
While I would normally go that route, I already have a t-shirt quilt made with all of my old sorority shirts from college, so I’m hesitant to have another one made, even though it’s such a neat way to remember so many great times. (If you’re interested in a t-shirt quilt and live in the Orlando area, email me and I’ll give you the contact information of a wonderful woman who made my quilt and the above quilt. She does a great job and she’s Jess’ mom!)
Here are two additional ideas that popped up as I started to search for things to do with my old race t-shirts:
- Tote Bag: Mile 22 and Races R My Bag will take your race t-shirts, bibs and other memorabilia and turn them into a tote bag, backpack, messenger bag, etc.
From Mile 22:
From Races R My Bag:
- Homemade Tote: Time Out Chicago has a neat DIY t-shirt tote bag.
There are also a ton of ideas out there for repurposing your old race bibs that I thought might interest the runners out there.
Check ‘em out:
- Jacket: ElevenGear will make a jacket from old race numbers.
- Coasters: MileStones’ Etsy shop transforms race numbers into coasters.
- Race Bib Displays: Etsy seller Running on the Wall makes handmade displays for race numbers and medals.
- Race Bib Wallpaper: According to the Brooks Running blog, runner Glenn Tachiyama decorated an entire room with his race bibs. Hardcore!
Question of the Afternoon
- Have you ever done anything unique with old medals, trophies, t-shirts or race bibs?
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Why don’t you just wear them to workout in?
ha! i was waiting for that comment. 🙂 i will occassionally, but for some reason i get really overheated in t-shirts and prefer to workout in tank tops. plus, i have WAY more shirts than i need even if i keep a few to workout in periodically.
hahah- I was being serious! You can always make a cute tank out of them 🙂
I’m the same way–cotton tee’s just don’t cut it for me. I get way too hot!
I’m the same. But I recently tried out the Pinterest ‘turn your t-shirt into a workout tank’ and am in LOVE with my tank! Great sleep shirt too.
I bought one of those Running On The Wall displays for my bibs/medals. I absolutely love it!
I need to have a quilt made for all my swimming t shirts I have from over the years. Its just ridiculous how many I have and I don’t know what to do with them!
I had a t-shirt quilt made with a bunch of my old high school sports tees; but since I still have a ton left–yeah, I’m kind of a t-shirt hoarder, lol–I’ll look into the tote bag option. 🙂
My husband and I made a t-shirt quilt out of them. You are right, after you have one or two t-shirt quilts it gets hard to justify another one.
It doesn’t work for all types of material, but some of my old race shirts I turned into head bands/sweat bands by just cutting and tying to make it as tight as I wanted
The most creative thing to do with old shirts that I’ve ever thought of is to cut them up and use them as rags…hehe…these are definitely better ideas!
Medals4Mettle also donate your old race medals to people with illnesses.
I did 110 burpees and 110 squats yesterday.
The workout:
1 burpee 10 squats
2 burpees 9 squats
3 burpees 8 squats
4 burpees 7 squats
5 burpees 6 squats
6 burpees 5 squats
7 burpees 4 squats
8 burpees 3 squats
9 burpees 2 squats
10 burpees 1 squat
Then repeat starting with 10 burpees.
It’s a powerful workout. Definitely makes you drip sweat.
But I’m staying at a Cabin on vacation and needed a hard quick workout, and this does it.
That quilt looks pretty awesome. That would be so cool to have
Hehe ok, the wallpaper is a little extreme for my tastes, but I really like the tote bag idea! My race shirts usually become painting walls/cleaning the house/washing my car shirts but I like the idea of putting them to a more fashionable use!
I really like the coasters—too cute! Well, I only have one racing shirt—the 2012 NYC Half Marathon. And gosh darn it, it’s green and not very cute, but I wear it with pride. 🙂
haha that’s so funny lol I usually just wear my old college shirts and stuff to bed lol
I actually just recently cut up my ex boyfriends shirts he gave me– they make a nice cute crop top/pool cover up 😉
I scrap book my running adventures so I am saving my bibs for that. I also have a running medal hanger that a friend made me for my birthday 🙂
I love that coaster idea!! How awesome!!
I made coasters out of my old race bibs and they turned out fantastic (I actually got the idea from the link you posted above). It’s nice to see them whenever I am sitting down to enjoy a beverage or two (and it motivates me, as well)!
As for shirts, you could always make pillow cases from them!
ooooh! i like the pillowcase idea!
Ah I love the t-shirt into quilt idea so much – my BFF and I had grand plans to make those ourselves on summer. We cut up all of our race shirts, and then got side tracked and never finished the project. This had motivated me to try to track down all our cut up t-shirts and finish it somehow!
Hahahaha that jacket would be a bit much! And all I can think when I see the wall papered room is how much money they spent registering for all those races! I’ve only done about 8 races total so I don’t have a lot added up yet. Right now my numbers are hanging in my walk in closet along either side of my full length mirror. Works for now!
My friend had her old shirts made into skirts by a company called Loveworn. They were pretty cute 🙂
I was a gymnast and my grandma made a quilt for me out of my old team and practice leotards; it’s funny because even after all these years…they still have the gym smell. I was curled up with it last night watching the Olympics.
She also made me shadow boxes with my medals, numbers, and, competition leotards that I wore for each each I competed.
This is awesome! I actually have a coaster making kit so maybe this can be a new weekend project 🙂
I love that tote bag and coaster idea! I think handmade coasters are so fun! And they add life onto the coffee table.
A few years ago, I biked by a neighbors’ house and there was a big box that had toppled over and 20-30 golden statues of prices won had spilled out on the street, ready to be picked up by the garbage truck.
It almost made me cry. — All that hard earned, proud history… discarded.
You could make it into a quilt and dontate it to someone homeless. It would be a fun thing to do, and I am sure he/she would really appreciate sometihng so comforting.
Thanks for the shout out!
And I think you can never have too many quilts 🙂 but then again I may be slightly biased. I have a KD one and a running one. My mom is going to make Mason his first tshirt quilt for his 1st birthday (hahaha next march) using all of his baby clothes from his first year 🙂
I like the coasters! So funny story, I used to work out in all my sorority tees. When it came time to gift them down at senior send off, every other girl gave out like 20 tees and I only had 2 to give away, and my “family” wondered why I was being so selfish, I was like uhhh my shirts are absolutely disgusting! haha
I love the coaster idea! I wear most of my race shirts to workout in and then throw them away after a while,. Although several are way past throw away stage but have sentimental value to me so I keep them. I hate having too many tshirts so they eventually get the boot, or become cleaning rags!
Triathlon Obsession just posted about giving away old shirts in her uncle’s memory and how others could do it too.
http://triathlonobsession.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/the-butterfly-effect-uncle-michael/
Love the tote bag idea- would be a snazzy gym bag!
my mom has made the coasters for me and for friends as gifts after milestone races. it’s really easy to do! my cotton shirts end up as work shirts (i.e. painting,etc) but the tech ones i keep wearing. my running partner has done over 60 marathons and and the first 60 are divided up into batches of 20 in some beautiful frames she had custom made in Panama City. (that’s why she got to the number 60….had to finish off another frame!) i guess she’ll keep going until she hits 80.
oopps! i meant my friends 60 medals…not her shirts!
SUCH cool ideas! I love the bag idea–and the coasters. Great stuff!
We were gifted a beach/picnic blanket with my husband’s old jerseys–very cool idea.
Those are such cool ideas! Being an avid runner myself, I really like the jacket idea, though it may be too much! 🙂
I love the quilt idea…I’ve been sitting here trying to figure who I can make one for!
My husband and I put our race numbers in our garage and use them as wallpaper like the last picture you showed. I love that idea and every time we pull in the garage we feel all “giddy” that we have done so many races. As for the shirts, they are usually not flattering, so its sad to say we use them as cleaning rags. The really nice ones we display in our trophy room/den.
I am just waiting for they day when I’ll have enough race shirts to make a quilt out of them!!
I love the idea of the quilt – but I understand your hesitancy since you already have a similar one. I’m planning to surprise my husband one day with a quilt made from all our concert t-shirts! Talk about shirts that never get worn…
I thought for sure you were going to say you saw the popular pin going around on pinterest on converting old tshirts and race shirts into tank tops!! I haven’t done it yet, but a girl on my Ultimate frisbee team did and it turned out great! Here’s a link to the pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/144396731773127943/
Obviously you wouldn’t want to do ALL your shirts – but a few of your favorites maybe?
I keep all my old race t-shirts too and some are so big and awkward, it’s silly. But I love them! I think I actually started doing 5k’s JUST so I could get a “free t-shirt” haha. I recently got the race bibs display and its fabulous.
I have been wanting to make the race bib coasters for so long now! It seems like an easy and fun project. But I’m in the same boat as you – What do I do with all of these t-shirts?! I cut up a few of them to make t-shirt yarn and then braided them together to create a rug. The rug was neat, but the shirt designs are now hidden which pretty much defeats the purpose of saving the shirts.
You could always frame the shirts in a shadow box along with your bib number or metal and hang them in the home office.
These are some awesome ideas for preserving your shirts and race bibs! I would go with the quilt. You can never have too many blankets (at least here in the northeast!)
~Cat
I absolutely love the idea of coasters – but I’d only want to do a couple of shirts, because otherwise if you race a lot you would have sh*t ton of coasters!
Tote bag is also a cute idea – I’ve only done one race, so only 1 shirt. Not a problem yet. 🙂
i love the bag idea, so long as its not a pricey penny to have someone do that for you! but also, cutting them into tanks for working out would be a great use too… and get crafty with the scraps! isn’t that why we all love Pinterest anyways???
My boyfriend has been running since high school and his old bedroom is wallpapered with his bibs. He wallpapered the ceiling with the post marathon space blankets. However, just like you, eventually his parents are going to take them down and give them to him to deal with since we now live together. The thought of having a race bib wallpapered room in our house is not very practical, but I really like the garage idea!!!
I have two Mile 22 bags and they are great! I can give you a discount code if you are interested.
I really want to to turn all my old race shirts into a quilt. I have been thinking about that for a long time! I need to just bite the bullet and get it done. I never thought about doing it with soriority or college shirts but that’s a neat idea too. A lot of my race shirts are college shirts since I ran track in college so mine quilt could maybe kill two birds with one stone. ha!
Instead of a quilt for you, make a dog bed cover for Sadie. She might like that it smells like you, and you can get a kick out of seeing her sleeping on all the t-shirts.
I collected Hard Rock Cafe shirts and as the collection grew, my size shrunk and the shirts became too big. A friends mom made me a quilt out of them and I love it!! I wouldn’t hesitate to do another one because you can never have enough blankets, someone is always wanting one!
Oh my goodness I love that bag idea! And the quilt! So creative! I myself am not a big marathon runner, maybe one day, but my cousin is and this would be a perfect present for her!
Thanks for sharing the ideas! 🙂
When my daddy died. My mom had a plethora of ties. She had them made into a vest. It is lined and so very coloiful. The lining is black silk and goes with everything. Shorts,jeans, tshirts, botton down shirts, skirts and professionl pants. It may sound silly,but, when I know i have a difficult case in court, I always wear it. Few people know this, on the the inside, in the inside corner. In his handwriting, this iis what it says. “Your destiny is in your hands, ilu daddy”. My family all wrote on my shirt, when i got notification of “WHo is who in AmericN colleges” it was an accomplishment for me and my family. I DIDnot go to school in theUS.I wear it frquently. I wear it frequntly.He iis with me always, on certain days, I feel hhim more. I know righ know he is cheering Team Guatemala!
Ah! I love the Mile 22 bag! My mom (much artsier than me!) made me a shadow box with some of my more meaningful race things. I also have a pillow with one of my favorite sorority t-shirts. Maybe you could turn some of them into a bed/seat cover for your Sadie girl? She did help you run some of them after all 🙂
You can add me to the list of people who will make a quilt for people … I llive in Canada but if they are willing to pay for postage either way and ALL supplies I will make them a quilt or a bag for free … Yes FREE. (I’m always looking for projects that don’t cost me any money.