Upcycled T-shirt Succulent Planters

Welcome back friends! If you are an owner of succulents, then one thing you should know by now, is that succulents require potting. Another thing you should know by now is that whatever you plant succulents in can make or break the look of the plant. As you can see by the name of this post, I am going to be discussing ideas for upcycled t-shirt planters. I have three ideas that I cannot wait to share with you, and I have ordered them from easiest to most difficult (in my opinion). I will start by saying that these ideas can be very cute, and hopefully make (not break) the appearance of your plants. I will link some videos after the steps for each idea to walk you through exactly what those steps mean and for if you are a visual learner. So, let’s get started.

Why Upcycle?

Upcycling is basically a mix of reusing and recycling. You take something that is used or old and turn in into something fresh. You can upcycle many materials, but what is good about it is that even non recyclable things can be upcycled. Upcycling is a great thing to take advantage of because it takes what used to be trash and turns it into something useful or pretty. It’s also a positive thing for the environment. I have been trying my very hardest to not have as many things. By this I mean that the production of more and more things is bad for our environment, and in my opinion if we want the world to continue on, something needs to change. So I have started with myself and now have the mindset that buying from secondhand shops and re-purposing things I have is helping the Earth, and therefore, it needs to be done. There’s also the plug for saving money when it comes to upcycling. Upcycling can take old furniture from second hand shops and turn it into something new and modern looking. There are so many possibilities.

Upcycling T-shirts

So, now that you have heard my thoughts on why you should consider upcycling before throwing something away, I want to introduce you to my favorite thing to upcycle. Old t-shirts. Here’s some background to explain why I got into upcycling old t-shirts. I am a college student, and the summer after my freshman year, I decided it was time to clean out my closet. As I threw aside old clothes to give to Goodwill, I found that I had soooo many t-shirts that I knew I would never wear again but that no one at the Goodwill would find a purpose for either. For example, I had several from my high school sports teams that had my last name on the back. Or I had some from softball tournaments from when I was 12, or free shirts that my high school gave out every year. I think you get the picture, and that it is reasonable to say that these t-shirts would be trash before a random person on the street would wear my 2012 neon green Santa Claus Indiana Softball Tournament shirt. So, I decided to start coming up with ways to turn my old t-shirts into something possibly useful. I started with small rugs, but with this succulent thing I’ve got going, I thought surely I could come up with some ideas for succulent related upcycled t-shirts. And that I did. I’ve got three ideas for you of how to spice up planters with some old t-shirts.

Idea 1: Pot with bow

For my simplest idea, I present you with a t-shirt bow. Now, this isn’t just a regular bow that you tie your shoelaces with. In my opinion, this is a more fun take on a bow, and looks pretty cute when tied to a glass pot. Like I said, this is the easiest of the ideas I have for your today, so, it may seem like there isn’t much to it, and that is because there isn’t. It is super easy and can be a super cute way to bring something more to a plain pot. I will walk you through how to make it and also attach a video if you need a visual.

How to:

All you need for this is an old t-shirt, a pair of scissors, and any type of pot (for mine I use a small glass old yogurt container). If you don’t have those first two things just laying around your house then I am sorry but you are not normal. And if you have a succulent you are trying to spice up in the first place, I would hope you have something to put it in.

Step 1: Cut your t-shirt into 3 inch strips

For the bow, you will need several thin three inch long strips. I think the best way to do this is to first cut the hem off of the bottom of the t-shirt you are using. Then measure three inches up from the bottom edge of the t-shirt and cut those three inches off of the bottom of the shirt. This will give you a loop, but just cut to make it one long strip. After you have this three inch wide and however long strip, trim from the length until you have 25 to 30 thin strips.

Step 2: Assemble the bow

Place one of your t-shirt strips to the side and bunch the rest of the strips together. Try to line up the strips as best as possible so that the ends are all even and no strip sticks out farther than the others. Place the one strip you have set aside the opposite direction in the center of the bundle of strips and tie tightly.

Step 3: Attach the bow to your pot

For this you are going to need another “string” from your t-shirt. To determine the length of this string, measure the circumference of the pot you are attaching the bow to. Make the string long enough that you can tie it after wrapping it around your pot. To attach the string to the bow, pull the string through the center string that is holding the other strips together, center your bow on the string and simply tie around the pot. To tie you can simply tie a knot or tie a cute little bow (this will be the back of the pot so it’s really up to you.)

Review

Difficulty 2/10

Duration 10 min

Appearance 5/10

The description may not be the easiest thing to follow, but with the pictures and video, I’m sure you can see that this is not a hard project. It also takes very little time and resources. Another good thing about this idea is that you can make multiple with one t-shirt. As far as the looks of it, I would say that picking a good color is important. I just happened to have a lot of red t-shirts from high school, so I think the example I used would make a good pot when decorating for the holidays, but definitely does not match my room at the moment. Honestly, this isn’t my favorite looking t-shirt DIY, but it does add a little something extra to a plain succulent pot, so if that is what you think your pot needs, then give it a try. And if you don’t like it, it only takes about 10 minutes of your life away.

Idea 2: Plant hanger

If you love succulents, or even plants in general, than you have probably seen or heard of rope plant hangers. Rope plant hangers can be made with any type of string, and also out of other things which I am sure you can guess. T-shirts make great plant hangers, I prefer the stretch that the t-shirt gives as compared to string I have used in the past. So, if you think plant hangers are cute and want to learn the easiest and cheapest way to make one, stick around.

How to:

For this, again you need a pair of scissors, a t-shirt, and the pot you are wanting to hang. I also find it helpful to have a tape measure and a marker, as measuring is more important when it comes to these. And that’s it, so let’s go!

Step1: Cut your t-shirt

So, I bet you could have guessed that this would be the first thing you need to do again, but this time it needs to be more precise. You need to cut the shirt into one inch wide strips, depending on how long you want your plant hanger to be, the lengths the strips of t-shirt are going to vary. I suggest using the length of however wide the t-shirt you are using is, it makes the cutting take half as long. For cutting your shirt you should lay the shirt flat on the floor and make sure there are no wrinkles and nothing is bunched up underneath. Then, cut off the hem at the bottom. After the hem is off, measure one inch in several places along the bottom of the shirt so that can can get the straightest cuts possible. Then cut along the one inch marks at the bottom of the t-shirt making sure to get both the top and bottom layer. You are going to do this three more times until you have four, one inch circles of t-shirt. Cut the circles to make long strips and then cut these strips exactly in half so that you have eight one inch wide strips of even length.

Step 2: Tie the strands together

Take the eight strands of t-shirt you just cut and tie a knot at the end to combine all eight together. You should make sure to get all of the strands as even as possible as to keep them close to the same length when tied together.

Step 3: Tie the first 4 knots

While all of the steps prior have been somewhat self explanatory, this step is going to take a little more explanation. By this point you should have 8 strands of t-shirt all tied together at one end. For the next step, it is easiest if you place your pot upside down and position the knot of your combined strands in the center of the pot's base. Then take two of the strands and tie them together slightly past the edge of the pot. Do this again with the other six strands tying two together until you have 4 knots all the same length away from the center knot.

Step 4: Tie the next 4 knots

For the next set of knots, you are going to take one strand from one of knots in the first set and another strand from the adjacent knot and tie those two stands together leaving a couple inches between the two knots. Repeat with the remaining strands leaving the same amount of space between each knot. (If this is too confusing, refer to the video).

Step 5: Tie off the top of the hanger

Now the hanger is almost ready for planting. The only thing left is to tie a knot at the top. Take all eight strands of t-shirt and tie them together as close to the end of them as you can/want.

Step 6: Place your pot in the hanger

The hanger should be ready to go and all that is left is to place your potted plant in the hanger. The t-shirt should stretch, so this shouldn't be too difficult.

Review

Difficulty 5/10

Duration 15 min

Appearance 6/10

This is somewhat more difficult than the pot bow. The main reason for this is because if knots are not tied evenly apart, the hanger can be a little wonky. Also, if the knots are too far apart, the pot you have may fall through. A good thing however is that if you mess up on your first attempt, it doesn't take long to make another, and it is much easier to know what you need to do the second time around. I think these plant hangers are cute, but if you prefer the rope look, you can do the same steps with rope. Overall, I would recommend giving this a try.

Idea 3: Braided planter cover

Horray! The third and final upcycled t-shirt idea! For my final idea, I present the braided planter cover. I got the idea for this from making t-shirt rugs. I could never quite get the rugs to work out and also they take a very long time, but I found that the same concept used to make rugs could be slightly modified for the purpose of making a planter cover. While this project is the most difficult on this list and ultimately takes the most time, in my opinion, it is the cutest idea, so it evens out right?

How To:

Similar to the first two projects, all you will need is a t-shirt, scissors, and whatever you are planning to plant your succulent in. Seriously, that's it.

Step 1: Cut your t-shirt

So, by now you should have an idea of how this needs to be done. For this DIY, you should cut the strips as long as you can get them from your t-shirt and about one inch in width. You need minimum of four strands to be able to do the project, but I recommend having eight ready to go just in case. I suggest using at least two different colors of shirts, but you can use between one and four different colors.

Step 2: Tie four t-shirt strands together

This shouldn't take much explaining. Line up four strands of t-shirt at their ends and tie a knot to combine the four together.

Step 3: Start braiding

You may know how to braid and you may not, but even if you do, you know that braiding is normally done with three strands and not four, so I'm gonna explain how to do this. Start by laying out your four strands. (If you choose to do two colors, I recommend alternating the colors.) Take the leftmost strand and take it over the one next to it, under the next strand, and over the final strand. Continue this process of over, under, over with the farthest left strand until the braid is long enough to wrap around your pot once.

Step 4: Continue braiding but a little bit differently

So here you are going to continue the over, under, over braiding technique, but you are going to add something else to it. Before you go over the first strand, you are going to pull the strand you are about to braid through an edge of the already completed braid above it. After pulling the strand through the edge of the braid above it, continue with the over, under, over braiding. Continue to pull the strand you are about to braid through the edge of the braid above it before each braid. Do this until you have wrapped around your pot enough times to cover the pot.

Step 5: Tuck in the ends of the strands

At this point your pot should be covered with braided t-shirts. To end the project, weave the remaining ends of the t-shirt strands through the bottom of the braid above it. Note: if your leftover strand are still quite long, snip them shorter before starting this step.

And DONE!

Review

Difficulty 7/10

Duration 25 min

Appearance 7/10

The main things to look out for when it comes to the difficulty of this project is the fact that t-shirts have stretch to them. It may be hard to keep the tightness consistent due to the stretch your t-shirts have. How tight you pull the strands is up to you and will vary the results of the plant cover, but keeping the tightness consistent is important. Also, more skill and practice may be needed to make this one turn out well. The braiding needed for this DIY is quite time consuming, so the duration is longer than the previous ideas. Finally, the looks of this can be super cute if done well. Your plants will look so cozy bundled up in this cover.

Hopefully at least one of these ideas seems appealing to you to try out with your own pots. If you liked these ideas leave a like and subscribe to our page for more content on succulents. Byeeee✌😘