T-shirt Yarn Rug
First of all my biggest apologies for not having blogged for a couple days. The T-shirt yarn rug I made took a couple of days and then I also celebrated my birthday this week so I didn't craft, but went hiking with the family instead.
In order to make a T-shirt yarn rug you first need a large pile of T-shirts to turn into a rug. Do not use ribbed tank tops, use knit material only. I tried to use some ribbed tank tops and all I succeeded in doing was making a HUGE mess, there were little white fuzzies EVERYWHERE. I asked family for donations of any old t-shirts that they wouldn't wear again due to stains, holes etc. I collected about 13 T-shirts ranging in sizes from small to X-Large. It doesn't really matter what size it is as long as they are a similar color or if you want you could even use multiple colors! Keep in mind that by using T-shirts you will see some parts of the logo if the shirt is white, but they just add nice pops of color, at least in my opinion.
I also used a sewing machine a cutting mat, rotary blade, quilting ruler and a good pair of scissors.The only 100% necessary ones are the scissors.
First thing that I did to get the Maximum amount of yarn out of each shirt was to sew the sleeves off to make a tube out of the body of the t-shirt.
I used black thread so you could see where I sewed at. This step is not necessary and if you don't want the lumps from the seams in your rug you can simply skip this step. And move on to the next part.
If you sewed the sleeves shut you can cut right below the neckline on the shirt. If you didn't sew the sleeves shut then cut at the armpits on your t-shirt.
Next cut off the bottom hem of the t-shirt, it is too thick to do much with, but will make a great scrunchy in a pinch if you get hot while making all this yarn!
Fold the T-shirt almost in half leaving approximately a 2" gap where it is only 1 layer of shirt. Using scissors or a rotary cutter cut through all the layers of t-shirt up to about 1" from the edge of the single layer portion.
slide your arm into the middle of the tube, you will have one section where all of the T-shirt is still attached.
grab one loop that is on the outside of the tube and cut it. This will create the end of one skein of t-shirt yarn
On the upper right you will see where I cut the end of the yarn. Make your next cut from the first slit on the opposite side of the one you cut the end of the yarn from to the new first slit on the opposite side, this will be a diagonal. continue cutting all the way to the end until you have no more loops on one side. Cut the other end by cutting it directly to the outside of the shirt tube.
You will end up with a LONG strip of T-shirt. This is Chloe our new kitten trying to help me with making the yarn. Mostly she made a big mess, but she's too cute to get mad at.
Now the semi-fun part. Grab a section of the T-shirt ribbon and pull on it. It should curl in on itself, changing from the ribbon on the left to the tube on the right. Continue until you have worked through the entire length of the T-shirt.
Repeat this until you have gotten through all of your T-shirts attach them using a simple knot and cutting the ends short like this.
Now roll them into a giant ball of T-shirt yarn.
I ended up with two balls of yarn that were about the size of one of those small personal watermelons. It took me about 6 hours to get through 13 T-shirts.
Then I used this pattern To create my rug. I didn't get all the way through the pattern since I ran out of yarn, but I got to the Stitch 23 increase one and then repeat. It still made a good sized rug.
This is our oldest cat Milo on the rug to give you a size comparison. He is a BIG cat weighing in at about 17lbs. The rug is octagonal, but it looks a little out of shape in this picture from my munchkins dragging it around. Good thing it's durable, they are so hard on everything I make.The bits of color that you see in the rug are from the logos on the t-shirts. If you pay close attention you can also see some variance in the whites from the different T-shirts. I like it because it is unique, up-cycled and VERY squishy to walk on. The boys think it's a landing pad because it kind of has a target pattern to it from the different shades of white and they drag it around to jump onto it from various places, like their climbing blocks, the bottom bunk in their bedroom and their toy chest. I'd originally planned on putting it in the kitchen till I discovered that it slides VERY easily on the wood floor and I don't need to be dumping any food stuffs on myself because of it. Maybe one day I'll stick one of those rug grippy things on the back of it, but after 3days of laboring on this rug I need a break from it.
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