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How To Make T-Shirt Yarn |
Have you even seen those really cool chunky crochet projects made with t-shirt yarn and wondered, "How do they do that?" Wonder no more as I am going to demystify the process for you. Once you get started you will dig through all the closets in your house looking for t-shirts to turn into chunky cotton yarn.
For a printer-friendly version of this tutorial scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post.
Materials
- Old T-Shirt (no seams along the sides)
Tools
- Cutting Wheel
- Cutting Mat
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Masking Tape (optional)
Step One
First start by cutting the top part off of the shirt. We don't need the sleeves or any of that stuff. We just need a cylindrical tube of fabric with no seams. I do this by placing a piece of masking tape from armpit to armpit of the shirt and I cut along the line. Also, cut the bottom seam off of the shirt.
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Cutting your shirt into a tube |
Step Two
Next place the tube of fabric down flat on your cutting surface. The open ends should be on the left and the right, the closed ends should face the top and the bottom.
Step Three
Measure approximately an inch from the top and place a strip of masking tape along the top so that there is a 1-inch margin. This is a guide for when you will cut.
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Use tape to add a 1-inch margin
when you make your t-shirt yarn for straight cuts |
Step Four
Now along the bottom place your ruler. You can also use your cutting mat to assist in this. We want to cut one-inch strips up the fabric to the masking tape. You can use scissors to do this also but make sure they are very sharp and your cuts are as straight as possible.
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Cut the shirt into strips but don't cut past the tape |
Step Five
Next we will open up the tube of fabric with the slits to that we can handle the margin that was left.
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Shown is the part of the shirt you didn't cut |
Step Six
Make diagonal cuts as shown in the diagram on the right. The solid black lines represent the cuts you have made while the dotted lines represent the cuts to finish the yarn. We are trying to make one, long, continuous piece of fabric yarn. I suggest using scissors for this step so that you don't accidentally cut one of the slits in half.
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Diagram of where to cut so your t-shirt yarn is one
continuous piece. |
Step Seven
To finish the yarn give it a little bit of a pull to stretch out the fibers a little
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Stretch the t-shirt so it looks like yarn |
And That's It
Wind up your ball and that is all. You now have your very own t-shirt yarn.
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Finished Project |
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