How to Make T-shirt Yarn

Do you ever look into your closet and find that you have a lot of extra t-shirts in there that you never wear? You could donate them, OR you could make them into a cool craft. In my next post, I'll show you how to make a braided rug with the yarn. Hm, I guess that means I'll need to finish it...

You will need:

A good -sharp- pair of scissors. You’ll be cutting through a lot of layers of fabric, and so you’ll want a good sharp pair.

A few old t-shirts. I raided my closet and came up with a few. Remember, you’ll be seeing the colors of the t-shirts in your project, so make sure you pick colors that you like, and colors that go together. You’ll also want shirts that have little to no design on the front. The one like I have below is okay because I cut most of it off. Also, generally t-shirts that don't have seams in the side work best. 

A ruler

Alright, the first thing you’ll want to do is to spread your t-shirt out on the floor. 

Then cut off the top part and the bottom edge. You can set them aside because you won’t be needing them.

Flip your shirt so that it’s sitting sideways to you. Then fold it almost in half, leaving about an inch at the top. 

Cut the t-shirt across in one inch strips BUT do NOT cut all the way to the top. Try to cut as straight as you possibly can. 

Spread your t-shirt out, so you can see the part at the top that you didn’t cut.

You do NOT want to cut straight across, because that will just leave you with a bunch of t-shirt rings. Cut diagonally across, like this:

 

Phew, now you have one long string of t-shirt yarn. Find the end, and then taking the yarn between your two hands, just stretch it a bit. Don’t pull too hard, just enough to get it stretch like this: 

If your material won’t stretch like that, then your t-shirt probably isn’t the right fabric.

And once you are done stretching, roll your yarn into a ball: 

Happy T-Shirt Yarn Making!