A Guide to Recycling Cut Off T-shirt Sleeves (Reusing as Part of the Wardrobe)

The sleeves cut off from homemade sleeveless T-shirts (instructions) can be recycled by being added to the wardrobe as headbands. This article explores the different uses and ways to wear cut off T-shirt sleeves.

Sleeves that are too small usually won't fit on the head and are only useful for children's headbands and other crafts. Sleeves that are too big can suffice as head protection but often are to loose to serve as a headband. Because the material can stretch if needed, there is room for error.

The T-shirt sleeve can be simply placed seam down on the head as an open ended hat. This looks silly to most people by itself, but is very useful as an inner lining when wearing a baseball cap or worn under a hoodie when painting.

If worn as a headband, this homemade T-shirt sleeve headband article provides detailed instructions to make a nice headband from a T-shirt sleeve. Done right, these can be worn anywhere and people won't guess it was once a sleeve of a T-shirt.

If a headband is desired but there isn't time to fold it, simply scrunch the T-shirt sleeve and wear it as a headband. When doing this, the cut end usually is floppy due to being wider and is tucked under the rest of the headband.

T-shirt sleeves can be used as hair scrunchies but without any elastic, they do tend to fall out. They can also be worn as wrist bracelets or used in other crafts.