13 Oz or Less - A Recycled Bottle Mailer DIY

You can mail just about anything these days. Receiving snail mail is already fun, but how about we kick it up a notch? Keeping your package under 13 ounces means it's cheaper to ship. A Soul Flower t-shirt in a bottle? Yes, please!



The best thing about this DIY is how clever it is. Did you know that our heathered Soul Flower t-shirts are made from 50% organic cotton and 50% recycled plastic? That's recycled plastic, like plastic bottles: water bottles, soda pop bottles, etc. What an awesome story!



The basic supplies you'll need are:

a clean, dry plastic bottle

a t-shirt

some packaging tape

X-acto blade or something similar to cut with

small piece of paper & pen

I also used a bit of re-used pink tissue paper to pad the inside and add a pop of color. You could use wrapping paper, newspaper, ribbons, or if you're feeling feisty - glitter! I'm sending this shirt to my sister. While I think she'll like the pink, she probably wouldn't appreciate a smattering of glitter ;)



OK, so how do we fit a t-shirt into a bottle? Hint: it doesn't go through the bottle's opening! Draw an outline of a "trap door" onto the bottle where the label used to be.



Cut the flap open so you can slip your rolled-up t-shirt inside. I had to cut mine open a little bit more in order for the shirt to fit through.



Fold your t-shirt nicely, then roll it up tight. I folded up the bottom half first so the printed graphic would show around the entire roll. This t-shirt is a women's size large Three Little Branches Tomboy T-Shirt.



It looks like it will fit! You could secure the roll with ribbons or a rubber band.



Start filling the bottle from the bottom up.



I included a few small goodies for my sister: two stickers (Soul Flower and a HomeStateApparel sticker) and a button pin (vintage). They are light so they won't add too much to the final shipping weight.



I rolled up the stickers in the shirt to help protect them from folds.



Slip the rolled-up shirt into the bottle and pack the top with more tissue paper.



I wrote a little note to my sister (on a 3x5 index card) and wrote her address on another piece of paper (I used the backside of my business card). I folded my notecard in half and slipped it right under the opening of the plastic flap. I covered the flap with a piece of washi tape and wrote instructions "slit open here - carefully!" This way, she'll know where to cut, and the doubled-up notecard will protect the shirt from cuts.



After everything was in place, I covered all the flap door seams with packing tape, and put a piece of tape around the bottle cap. It's not the most elegant package ever, but we want it to survive the jostling of the mail system, so more tape is better! :)



Love how the t-shirt print shows through!



When I took this bottle to the post office to send it off, the postal worker said it was totally fine to send. It ended up weighing 4.8 oz - way below the 13-ounce maximum for First Class mail! I sent it from the east coast all the way to the west coast, and it cost me $2.68. I added tracking for $1.05 for a total of $3.73. Not bad!



Sending a bottle through the mail this holiday season would make a super fun gift, especially for kids. It was a little difficult for me to fit this shirt into the 20 oz. plastic bottle I used, but you could use a slightly larger one. A 2-liter bottle would be ideal for fitting all sorts of goodies into. Just keep it light to keep it under 13 ounces.



What else could you mail? A couple of recycled headbands would look amazing, an organic baby bodysuit, a bottle full of jewelry... What would you send in a plastic bottle?



Happy Holidays!