How-To Make Yarn from a T-shirt

How-To Make Yarn from a T-shirt

Making yarn and crocheting items, mainly washcloths and scrubbers, out of it is a great way to reuse/up cycle old t-shits. I always end up with bleach stains and holes in my t-shirts and gym shirts and like reusing them instead of trashing them. Here is my tutorial on how to make yarn out of old shirts.

What you need:
An old T-shirt (Cotton or Cotton blend works best)
Scissors

1. Lay your t-shirt flat and cut off the bottom hem of the shirt.

2. Start at one seam and start cutting a strip. I prefer using 1/2 inch wide strips for thicker fabrics and 3/4 to 1 inch for thinner cotton fabrics. If the fabric is lightweight and the strip is too thin the yarn will break. If the fabric is heavier and the strip is too wide the yarn will be too hard to crochet with.

3. Continue cutting the fabric in even-ish in a circular pattern keeping the strip thickness about the same throughout, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

4. If you are working with a mainly cotton fabric follow this step if not skip to step 5.
Once you have a few feet of yarn gently tug the fabric until it rolls up.

5. Continue cutting the shirt in a circular pattern and rolling newly created yarn into a ball as you go.

6. Now just keep working up the shirt untill you reach the bottom of the arm holes.

 Don't worry you can cut through graphics and screen prints. Just make sure if the graphic is thick you make the strip width a little thinner.

6. Once you reach the bottom of the arm holes end the yarn at the seam of the second arm hole.

Congrats you just made your first skein of t-shirt yarn!