Recycle your old T-shirts, don’t throw them away!

Hi guys, I know this is a very well known way to recycle your T-shirts, but some of you must have not seen it before, so here’s a tutorial of how to make yarn out of the old T-shirt!

First make sure you’ve washed your T-shirt, clean your working area, get good scissors and lay the shirt out flat.

Lay the T-shirt out flat

Cut the T-shirt right under the sleeves in a straight line. You may keep the part that you cut off for other projects.

cut your shirt in a line right under the sleeves

Next step is to cut off the bottom hem of the shirt.

Turn your work around as seen on the picture

Fold your piece, leaving bottom side about an inch longer then the top

Make sure that the sides are even and the top part comes laying as in the picture, where the bottom part is about an inch longer. Next step is to cut our future yarn up.

cut up your T-shirt piece in long even strips without cutting it all the way through. you should stop right after cutting through the line, where the top part of the piece lays

this is so you can better see the cuts

When you have finished cutting up your piece, it’s time to make it into the yarn. Unfold it and lay the uncut part close to you.

this is what your work should look like before it's being cut into yarn

Now to start your yarn, cut diagonally in the center of the uncut piece, connecting through to the next, and keep cutting from one cut to the other, that way you will get one long thread instead of a number of loops.

start your work on cutting the yarn like this

to end your work make your last cut diagonally as well

now roll your yarn in a ball, pulling the thread as you do so

This is the amount of yarn from one X-large T-shirt

This yarn can be used for various items, but it comes out to be rather stiff and inflexible, so it wouldn’t work for clothing and such. I use it to make different containers, rugs, coasters and so on. Here’s a quick sample I made of a change jar, for you to have an idea of how it’ll look in the finished piece.

Have fun creating!

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Category : crochet, DIY, Uncategorized
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