There’s a lot of great stuff going around lately on reconstructing t-shirts (see: Tease, Generation T, oh my stars, t-shirt surgery forum, etc), but I’ve also been noticing a bunch of cool ideas for decorating existing t-shirt with minimal to no sewing required.

First there’s the freezer paper craze that has spread like wildfire since Amy introduced the idea (image above is from hannah at huffmania). Check out these versions at the small object, two rabbits, soulemama,. Also, there’s a new flickr group started to share freezer paper stencil designs with lots of great ideas.

Simple, but cool quilted circles idea at little birds

Applique shirt at craftlog

vintage crochet shirt idea by sabine brandt

Leaf shirt at weewonderfuls

Or try some fancy embroidery to spruce up t-shirts or hoodies, like this craftster member, using sublime stitching patterns and instructions. Keep in mind that she recommends using tearaway stabilizer when stitching on t-shirts!

I generally write about sewing and quilting but I don’t think I’ll be stepping on anyone’s toes if I include a post about kumihimo will I? Kumihimo is a form of Japanese braiding that my husband and business partner, Bill Kerr, has fallen in love with. Traditionally it required very complicated devices to weave beautiful patterns into cords. That is until Bill discovered the revolutionary kumihimo disc sold by our quilting supply wholesaler Quilters Resource www.quiltersresource.com for US$12.

Despite several requests to Quilters’ Resource for the English instructions that were advertised to come with it, we have been unable to get our hands on them. Although Bill has a wife (me) who is fluent in Japanese and can actually read the instructions that come with it, he insisted on figuring it out without my help and he did. Whatever, honey…So if you’re adventurous or have a Japanese reader in your midst you might want to give it a try.

This thing uses regular embroidery floss and is wonderfully portable for those of us who spend a lot of time in what Dr. Seuss refers to as The Waiting Place—waiting for gymnastics, swimming, Chinese dance or Tae Kwon Do to be over, waiting for the school bell to ring, waiting for doctors. Like knitting, kumihimo is also acceptable busy work for the daughter who wants us to watch, at least occasionally, as she masters the cartwheel or the roundhouse kick.

So what do you do with these braids once their done? Traditionally they were used as ties for jackets worn over kimono, but I plan to use mine as evening bag handles or insanely elegant drawstrings for other types of bags. I may use them for a jacket one day. One 11-year-old boy we have turned on to kumihimo is making friendship bracelets with them. Bill, being less goal-oriented than I (and I mean that as a compliment… I think), insists that you don’t have to do anything with them. It’s just about making something beautiful. Very Zen, don’t you think?