I've been wanting to do this craft for quite some time. Teen programs can be really expensive after awhile, so during this spring semester, I'm trying to focus on recycled crafts again.
This is probably one of the easiest things you can do with your teens, and cheap too - if you do it right. I went to a local thrift store and picked up a bunch of T-shirts for under $10. At first, I was a little disappointed b/c there didn't seem to be much of a selection of shirts w/cool logos or designs. I then decided to try the kids' section - and cha-ching! Jackpot! Now, these shirts are smaller than the adult (obviously), so you wouldn't be able to use them as a grocery bag like most others I've seen online. However, for a teenage girl, it's the perfect purse-sized bag.
If you want to save money, you can always ask the teens to bring in their own T-shirts. I have found that they tend for forget a lot of things, so you might just save yourself the headache and buy the shirts yourself. The way to make these is super simple - you just cut the sleeves off (leaving the seam intact on the shirt), flip it inside-out, and sew the shirt closed along the hemline. The teens can sew that by hand, and all in all the craft should only take about a 1/2 hour to complete.
My teens really seemed to like this craft. One of my coworkers has a daughter that comes to my program, and she told me the next day that her daughter had taken her bag to school. Success!
Around Halloween, I decided to try these Thai string dolls that I had seen on another website. There are several different ways to make them. Some have wooden bases, other have wire and still others have string, but the end product is fairly similar. Basically you take your base, and just start wrapping layers and layers of string around to make the limbs and head. I provided some felt so the teens could dress their dolls if they liked, but I think the more successful ones were the ones without clothes.
The teens enjoyed this one, but I think they had a bit of a difficult time with it. Sometimes what they just wrapped would unravel a bit, and they got pretty frustrated with it. To the left are the couple that I made. The top one is supposed to be a zombie Charlie Brown, but it doesn't look quite like I hoped it would. The devil came off very well, I think.
