So I had a production run of t-shirts rejected by my client. Now I’m trying to see if anyone has a idea for a project I can make with them.
The shirts are mostly blank with a screen print on the left chest area.
Tax write off and donate to charity?
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Build a T-Shirt Cannon and compete how high you can get a shirt with the expectation shirts will be destroyed in the process of reaching the max G of a shirt before it destroys itself.
Won’t do that. I know of a company that did that with rejected orders. They lost their business when the rejects were spotted on the local news as a common item worn by homeless people.
Not saying it isn’t charitable, just that I don’t want to possibly catch backlash from it. I’d like to use them as non-shirts, so thinking more like a raw material.
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Can you go the Tatoo route and “re-print” to change/cover/obfuscate the existing print? Then sell/give away?
Otherwise…
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(seriously) If they are cotton, we can always use some good rags for applying finish and other general stuff around the wood shop. May not be highest/bestest use, though…
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Edit:
I’m idly wondering whether cutting wider strips would yield “yarn” fat enough to do one of those giant stitch/bulky blankets.
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They can be made into a quilt. I’ve seen lots of T-shirt quilts. Most of the time it is to preserve the imagery, but they could also be re-purposed without the logo, etc.
Very valid point, not something I had thought of.
Can you overprint the image on the pocket?
Same color ink, different message. Like a circle over the image. Do not know how well this would work with multi-color images.
Somewhat like hiding the “I love X, forever” tattoo after the breakup.
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This looks like a possible cool use. tutorial link Thanks @jast for the 50 projects link.
I also like the Yarn Idea @jrkriehn, I need to make some beanies for my over sized head. Do you have any tutorial suggestions for that?
@Robert_Davidson, I could add your idea to the April PyroFest in Glen Rose.
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You can make char cloth out of some of them.
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My knitting skills kinda suck (although they suck a little less after taking @classielassie’s knitting class a couple of weeks ago). My crochet skills aren’t much better, but if you manage to match the “yarn” size to one of those giant crochet hooks (I’m thinking of the crocheted fabric rug-making that was all the rage in the 1980’s - before you were born - that inexplicably included the addition of a giant bow made from the same fabric), any mistakes are pretty much obscured by the sheer size of the stitches.
If the t-shirts were the same size, you could also make a giant version of a potholder loom, then cross-cut the t-shirts for the loops to weave with.
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I’d go the overprint and donate route: print a blackout square over the rejected print. This avoids the man on the street issue of seeing the logos while still helping out those who could benefit from the donation.
There is some additional labor involved here, but since this is your core competency you should be efficient at executing, and other crafty projects would either use too little of the stock (e.g. making char cloth) or would not be a great use of the material (e.g. a monochrome knitted rug from 500 identically colored shirts).
Take them apart and make one giant t-shirt
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Eventually when we have the floor loom, post-GreatShuffle, can cut into strips and use as weft for rugs, kitchen/bath mats, etc. If you wanna go for broke, can overdye first. Weaving would eat a lot of shirts 
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@Nick - do you have a contract clause to cover your rights of what you are allowed to do with rejected merchandise? - If not, you might want to throw one together for larger orders to safeguard yourself from such a loss.
Are the shirts of good enough quality that you might embroider something over the print?
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@Axel_Ohmstede,
I did not lose any money on these shirts. They were rejected by the client, because the client approved the incorrect artwork. Thus, the client paid for the production cost, but rejected delivery due to their error. I’m now at the point of throw them away or possibly do something with them.
@HankCowdog,
I explained earlier as to the possible repercussions of donating the shirts. Over printing the logo on 300 shirts is no small job and not only will make the shirts look weird, it will make them less comfortable to wear as there will be a heavy patch of solid double thickness printing on the left chest about 5x5 inches in size. I apologize to those they want this option, it is not an option I’m willing to entertain.
The shirts are of multiple colors, some are yellow, red, black, and pinkish red.
@kyrithia that is another interesting idea.
I’m still leaning towards stocking cap for my over sized melon. But, I doubt that will take many shirts.
Also, I’d be willing to work with someone that wants to teach a class on the rug making with t-shirts. I don’t need one of these rugs for myself, but if you wanted to teach the class I could get the shirts to you and probably help you cut them us to make sure we don’t have any logos going into the projects.
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Something just occurred to me Nick. Some time back I read an article about the Superbowl loser shirts (they print a winner shirt for both teams) got sent to South America to be used by people who can’t afford good clothing otherwise. A sizable number of these shirts were printed and it seemed a shame to just throw them away.
That is until some enterprising person in South America figured out you could sell these shirts on eBay and make a tidy sum.
Just a thought. Obviously it is a shame to destroy them but I get that your client paid for them and doesn’t want them on the street.
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If the customer has paid for them, I’d advise disposing of them in manner that would preclude them from ever getting out to the public. Dumpster and pour some bleach over them probably the easiest and most effective way to do it.
They were rejected for their purposes but they were paid for so ownership resides with them. Ask them how they want them disposed of? If they don’t care, then they can’t come back on you.
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