Welcome once again to Earth Month! Actually, today is officially Earth Day! Happy Earth Day! Let’s make something!
Every week in April we have been discussing how to have a more sustainable studio practice for you and for the planet. It’s time to take that sustainable ambition and put it to use.
One great option for a sustainable weft solution is using fabric! You can weave with any fabric you can cut or rip into strips. Most people have some old t-shirts laying around that they probably wouldn’t donate due to holes or stains. Or do you have an old t-shirt that doesn’t fit anymore that you have a sentimental attachment to? T-shirts can make a fun stretchy weft that is great for many different projects.
There are a few different ways to prep a t-shirt to become the weft for your next weaving, but the best option is to find the way that results in the longest strips.
How do you cut a t-shirt into one long strip and turn it into t-shirt yarn?
Glad you’re here.
Let’s take a look.
What You Need
An old t-shirt
Fabric scissors
Ruler
Time To Cut!
The first thing you want to do is lay out your shirt so it’s nice and flat. With your fabric scissors cut along the bottom of the t-shirt to remove the hem.
Add it to your scrap pile.
Next, cut along the sleeves and straight across the chest.
Set those aside. We’ll deal with them in a minute.
Fold your t-shirt in half so that the sides of the t-shirt are almost touching. You want the edge of the top layer to be about an inch from the edge of the bottom layer. The 1 inch that isn’t overlapped by the top will stay uncut for now. That inch is what will help you to make sure you have one continuous strip.
Turn the t-shirt so that the folded edge is facing you.
In 1 inch strips – cut vertically up to the edge of the first layer.
Do this all the way across.
Create One Long Strip
You should now have a t-shirt that sort of looks like a rib cage. The 1 inch that you didn’t cut before is like the sternum.
On one side of the fabric cut into the t-shirt at an angle until it meets up with a cut slit. This will free up the end of your t-shirt yarn.
Lay the t-shirt flat like shown above so that the “sternum” is exposed. Since you freed the beginning of your long strip, you can now cut diagonally from slit to slit which will keep the fabric as one long strip. If you cut the slits directly across from each other they would just make a bunch of individual loops.
Not what we are going for.
Keep checking to make sure you don’t cut individual loops as you make your way all the way across the t-shirt. This will create the majority of your t-shirt yarn.
For The Sleeves
While the sleeves don’t give you the longest yarn to work with, we’re not wasting ANYTHING!
Remember?
In that case, lay the sleeve out so it is flat and the widest part is facing you. Cut up the sleeve in 1 inch strips stopping short about an inch from the top. Since the top of the sleeve will be angled, your slits will be progressively shorter (or longer depending on which end you start with) as you make your way across.
Free the beginning of your strip by cutting down from the slit from the top on the front of the sleeve. Work your way across the sleeve alternating cutting from the top and bottom layers.
Do the same thing for the second sleeve.
For The Chest
First, cut out the collar of the shirt and discard it to your scrap pile. Fold the upper part of the chest in half so that the sides touch. Aim for cutting 1 inch strips starting at the folded edge towards the open edge – stopping about an inch from the top.
When you are almost to the collar you can unfold the t-shirt and lay it flat so that the front and back are separated.
Starting at one side of the fabric, cut the strips – alternating sides to create one continuous strip. Go all the way across and up to the collar freeing one shoulder. Continue cutting strips up the other shoulder stopping short about an inch from the edge each time. When you hit the shoulder seam – cut all the way across.
Do the same thing for the back.
Your left over shoulder that didn’t make it into the long strip can be cut into it’s own little strip of t-shirt yarn by cutting across and stopping short about an inch – alternating sides.
Seeing a pattern?
Almost Done!
That should be the entire t-shirt! Round out any of your yarn that has sharp square edges. This doesn’t have to be perfect because it should mostly be covered up in the next step, but it’s important trim off all the excess.
You should now have a large pile of flat t-shirt yarn!
Congrats!
You’re not done yet though.
Starting at one end of your fabric strips – pull tight on the yarn in increments of about a few inches. (Image after next section.)
Pulling on the strips turns them into the rounded yarn that you might be used to seeing. Do this for all of the strips.
The last step is to make your new yarn a little more manageable.
Let’s have a ball
Or make one.
The best way to store your newly created fabric yarn is to turn it into a ball.
Start with one end of your yarn. Fold over the end about an inch 2 or 3 times or tie it into a loose knot. Next, wrap the fabric around the folds or knot a few times. Then switch directions and wrap the yarn around another few times.
Keep doing this while switching directions after every few wraps.
The larger the ball becomes, the more you can vary the wrap positions. Keep moving around the ball until you are done! You can add all of the separate parts of the t-shirt into the same ball or make multiple smaller balls.
Up to you!
When you are all done, just tuck your end into the ball to keep it in place until you are ready to use it.
Using fabric to create yarn for weaving is just one way you can create art with materials you probably already have on hand!
If you have some jersey fabric just laying around, you can take what you just learned and make the most out of your fabric yardage as well.
Similar to how we started out cutting the chest part of our t-shirt above, fold the fabric in half and cut up from the folded side stopping short about an inch. Unfold the fabric and alternate cutting each side of the fabric to make one long strip!
More yarn for weaving!
No matter how good you are, there will be some “unusable” scraps that result from this process. Don’t throw away those scrap pieces! Remember the post on recycling your yarn? These fabric scraps can be used as a filling for your next three-dimension project.
Looking For More Sustainable Solutions?
I am all about the sustainable studio, but just like recycling – it’s a great place to start, but a bad place to end! Sustainability is important in every aspect of your life. Check out this list of more ways you can celebrate Earth Day everyday without ever leaving your house! The more we do now, the better out planet will be for weaving in the future.
Next week I’ll walk you through how to put your t-shirt yarn to use! We’re going over a few different rag rug weaving project ideas.
Let me know how you’re celebrating Earth Day in the comments!
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T-Shirt Yarn–does this come as strips of yarn?. If so, how wide are the strips? I use this sort of material for weaving and twining. Do you ship to Michigan?
Bob
Hi Bob,
This isn’t a product that I make and ship, just at tutorial for you to make it yourself! You can make the t-shirt yarn as wide or as thin as you want 🙂
I wouldn’t have thought to do this. But it’s a neat idea and doesn’t look overly complicated to do.
It’s really simple and fun! You can use the t-shirt yarn for all kinds of things too 🙂 I know some people have eveb been using it for mask ties recently.
You make it look pretty easy! : ) I love your conversational tone as you explain.
Thank you! It IS easy and a lot of fun 🙂
This is a great tutorial! I have always loved yarn crafts and am a crocheter myself, but I’ve never tried making yarn out of a t-shirt before. That being said, I bet that it would make a great rug for the bathroom! I’m going to have to give it a try. I’m sure there are some t-shirts around here that could be repurposed for a better reason lol
Thank you! And yes! It makes a fun rag rug and I’ll be going over some rag rug ideas next week!
Great idea! We our old t-shirts finally become too old even for workouts, we turn them into cleaning rags!
That’s a great idea too!
Awesome idea! I need to find something to use old t-shirts for, definitely. Thanks for the post!
Thanks Lisa! Happy Earth Day!