T-Shirt Yarn: A Tutorial

After I finished the Scottie Pillow and the Scottie Jr. Pillow, I had to get a hold on what else I was going to do while I was home for winter break.

One thing that I learned three Thanksgivings ago was to create t-shirt yarn! You might be wondering what t-shirt yarn is...it is exactly what you are thinking: yarn made out of t-shirts! I figured that while I was home for winter break, I could create a tutorial as to how I create my t-shirt yarn! Please just comment on this post if you have any questions!

Paige's T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial
Materials:
One t-shirt (no side-seams)
Scissors

your materials!

Step 1: Take your t-shirt and fold it in half

Step 2: Cut off the sleeves and the hem at the bottom of the t-shirt

Make sure to cut off the seams!

Step 3: Refold the rectangle so that you have a one inch overlap

Sleeves and hems removed

Refold the t-shirt so there is about 1 inch in between both creases

Step 4: Now it is time to cut! To make my strips of yarn even, I cut just the ends (the opposite end of Step 3) about one inch up, one inch apart

This will help guide your more-even cutting

Step 5: Now, you take your guides and cut all the way up to the top of the t-shirt BUT stop when you reach the first crease on top. If you keep cutting all the way until the end, you will not have a continuous strip of t-shirt yarn

This is where I stopped cutting (sorry for the bad manicure!)

Finish cutting all of the strips following the instructions in Step 5. Your t-shirt rectangle should look like this:

And if you unfold it (which you should for Step 6), your shirt should look like this:

Step 6: Unfold the t-shirt at the top, uncut section

To do this, you want to cut diagonally down this part of the shirt. To start the beginning, cut from the top to the first cut on the left. Then, cut from the cut to the right to the cut from the left.

This is how you want to cut the yarn, diagonally

Once you get to the end, you want to cut the last cut from the right diagonally to the end of the shirt at the left. Then you have one continuous strip of cut t-shirt, approximately one inch thick!

Step 7: Pull the strip of t-shirt and let it curl up.

See the curled-in ends?

Step 8: Roll the curled-up t-shirt yarn and TA-DA! You've just finished cutting your t-shirt yarn! Let your creativity roll :)

One ball of t-shirt yarn!

And that's it--my first tutorial! I have used this type of yarn to create many blankets for both my house and gifts for friends. What do YOU make out of t-shirt yarn?

xoxo
Paige

ps. if you have any questions about the tutorial, please feel free to contact me! xo