T-shirt Yarning

While I was away with the boys last weekend Hubby decided to have a sort out of his wardrobe. He has a large, usually messy, collection of t-shirts, some close to 20 years old. There were about 7 that he decided were past wearing, so he put them with the rags. I rescued them from there for a bit more elaborate repurposing. Here's what I did with them.

Turn the t-shirt inside-out (because it is easier to get it lying flat) and smooth it out on your cutting surface.

Using your rule and rotary cutter cut across the shirt just beneath the sleeves. Of course you can do this with scissors, but a rotary cutter is a lot faster, neater and easier. I just put this piece back with the rags.

Similarly cut off the hem. Put this piece aside.

Now start cutting strips from one side of the shirt ALMOST to the other, but stop about 2cm short.
The first strip should be about 2cm wide, and all the rest 4cm wide.

Then do the same from the other side, cutting the thicker, 4cm, strips in half, so that you get a zig-zag effect as above. But leave the strips touching as in the upper part of the photo.

Next trim off the side seams, just enough to separate the back from the front. Leave the first strip connected, as shown.

Pick up one end of the now continuous strip and start rolling it into a ball - a ball of t-shirt yarn.

I got the idea from this book,….

….which gives instructions for using the t-shirt yarn to make a circular crocheted rag rug. But I don't have a big enough crochet hook (and am not that good at it), so I used the skills and equipment that I do have and…..

….knitted squares instead. I did these last August, but now I can do some more with my new balls of yarn. You could use the squares as cleaning cloths, but I intend to sew them together to form a rug. I need to get a bit more consistent with my sizing though.

Remember those hems? They make great ties for plants in the garden, or  rolls of carpet, or anything that you want to be tied both firmly and gently. I've looped one around all the others to keep them tidy and hung them up in a handy spot.

This got me in the mood for some more repurposing, refashioning, or repairing.

I had a singlet in t-shirt fabric that I was going to treat as above, but when I looked at it,…..

it looked like a great grocery bag!

So I turned it inside-out, did a double row of straight stitch for strength, turned it right-side-out again and was finished. 

The next one was one of my usual repairs to L9's trousers.

Not just a tear, but a great gouge! Too large to patch, even if I could get it under the sewing machine, so cut them just above the damage and make them into long shorts.

Then cut the waste lower leg into 5" wide strips, with the grain. Use these as the binding around the  base of the trimmed legs.

The finished product looks like cuffed shorts. They were worn the very next day.

Lastly a repair (?) I did a few weeks ago. We have three large floor cushions that we keep on the back deck and whose covers were getting very faded, stained and beginning to fall apart. The cushions originally were the seat and backrest of a couch that hubby's brother had picked up from a council hard rubbish collection, maybe 23 years ago. At least 15 years ago I had made new covers for them, but now they needed recovering again. So I made new pillowslip style covers from old curtains that I had made for L9 before he was born, but which didn't fit any of the windows in the house we have moved to since. 

Aside from being a frugal thing to do, and looking great (I think), the job was made easy by the fact that the curtains already had hems top and bottom, and were coated which means the fabric doesn't fray. They were just so quick to make. 

>20yo cushion covered with repurposed 10yo curtain.