T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial!

OK, here it is finally! T-shirt yarn has endless possibilities! Well, of course you can do anything you can do with regular yarn, with t-shirt yarn! It is very durable and fun to work with! Here is how you do it: ( I have done this with shirts that have seams on the side, but tube seamless shirts work the best. That way when you pull the yarn it's less likely to separate when there isn't a seam to pull.)

First, if there's a cool design on your shirt you want to cut out, go ahead and do it now if you like!! I am working on a family t-shirt quilt present for Christmas, so I am going to try to cut out as many of these squares as I can with our old t-shirts.

OK now it's cut out.

You want to cut as close to the armpit of the shirt as possible, and strait across to the other armpit.

Now you want to cut off the bottom hem of the shirt.

Here it is all finished. You should have a nice tube rectangle now. Don't even THINK of throwing away the top or bottom you cut off!! You know you can do something super cool with it!!

Now take the bottom part of the rectangle ( as in one of the short sides) and fold it up on top of the rest of the tube but keep it an inch from the top.

Now, once again, fold that same short side up again to where you folded the first one. Keep that one inch at the top clear. Now you start cutting. You can do this as wide or skinny as you want. The skinnier the more yarn you get. I think I did it about um...an inch maybe. I kinda eyeballed it. You can go as far as marking it so it will be close to perfect even at the end. I am NOT that patient! DO NOT I repeat DO NOT cut that top inch through!! That is the cool part later that makes this one long piece of yarn:)

Your half way there!! Don't give up! I know it's tuff but keep cutting up through the folds but NOT all the way through the inch at the top!!

You did it!!! Piece a cake!!

Here is a close up of the top where you cut through the folds but not the VERY top!

Now this part I would do on my arm, but for taking pictures I am using a yard stick. Slip your arm through so that the inch at the top that you DIDN'T cut lies on top of your arm and the strips fall on either side of it.

Now, slip you scissors through the first cut and cut a slice through diagonally to the SECOND strip on the other side. This is VERY important. This makes the continuous yarn. Keep cutting, from the front strip to the next strip over on the other side.



Now when you come to the end, just cut a diagonal slice to the other side.

Then come back and cut from the outside a diagonal strip to that first cut that you skipped in the beginning.


Now you should have one long continuous strip of t-shirt!

Ok, this is the fun part.

Grab one end...

and then grab alittle ways down, like a foot or so , and pull!

This is the result, a tube like yarn!

Now I have someone to demonstrate! Grab the yarn and...

Pull!!!!!

Now you have a MUCH longer pile of T-shirt yarn!

Now what I do, is grab a scrap piece of thick paper or cardboard from junk mail ( or use scraps of juice cartons from your coin purses!!

Start wraping your yarn around it....

And there you have it!! A wonderful ball of T-shirt yarn!!

I made three of these a while back and braided them! Then I took that braid and criss cross stitched it in a circle. My thought here was a to make a cute 4th of July rug or trivit type thingy for the table.... well, I realized quickly that I was pulling as I was sewing and that made the edges curl up.... SOOOoooo, now I have a nice big fruit bowl for the kitchen!!! LOL !!!! Still cool though!!


Well there you have it. You can also weave this well I hear. That will be my next project I think! So, if you have any questions let me know and I will do my best to answer!!