T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial

I know that there are several tutorials out there for T-shirt Yarn, but I am writting this one up for my wicked Step-Mother as she is being super awesome and making me some with her used T-shirts! Also I wanted to have this tutorial up for some future patterns/ projects that I will be working on and posting so I wanted to have a quick reference for you guys to have... Plus I didn't want you guys to have to leave my page to find instruction muaahahaha (supposed to be that scary laugh! lol)

Materials:
Used t-shirts
Scissors

List of Materials that make life MUCH easier:
Used t-shirts that do not have side seams
rotary cutter
self healing rotary mat the bigger the better
omnigrid ruler 6"x 24" works great
yarn ball winder

If you don't have the extra materials no biggy you can still make t-shirt yarn. The extra materials just make it faster and more accurate. As the self healing mat hat a measurement grid on it and so does the ruler so you can make all of your strips the exact same size. And it saves your hands I had so much to make that I would have gotten blisters using scissors for all of it. Ok so on to the instructions.

Lay your t-shirt out in front of you. Try to get all the wrinkles out and make it as straight as you can.

 And now cut straight across the top from right under the sleeves so that you are left with a tube (the torso of the t-shirt)

Now Cut the bottom seam off

With the tube you have left cut strips of about 1" but DO NOT cut all the way up leave about 1 " uncut so you end up with something that resemble a hula skirt :) (depending on how thick or thin you want your yarn to be) This is also where a self healing mat, ruler and rotary cutter come in handy.

Continue cutting in one inch strips all the way across. When you are done it should look like this

Here is a close up of the top of the shirt (where you should have left 1" uncut)

Now "open" up the top where it was left uncut so that it looks like this

Now here is another important part with a pair of scissors cut diagonally from the 1st strip on the right to the 2nd strip on the left. Then the 2nd strip on the right to the 3rd strip on the left. And continue in this manner to the end. Leave the 1st strip on the left uncut for now do that at the end to avoid confusion.What this will do is give you a long strip of continuous "yarn".

This photo is the 1st cut

This photo is the second cut

Now when you are done you will have a LONG strip of 1"inch fabric

Now the fun part. Grab your fabric and tug on it. Continue tugging to the end of your strip. What this does is curl your strip. To make it look like a long tube or "yarn". This also makes your already long strip into a LONGER strip of yarn.

Then all you have to to is ball it up! If you have a yarn ball winder it comes in handy here especially if you have a lot of t-shirts to do. (BTW I sell yarn ball winders manual and electronic just visit my website and I'll be happy to send one your way!)

And that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed and understood this tutorial. I'd love to hear your comments. Stay tuned for patterns using t-shirt yarn.

Self Healing Rotary Matt

Good Morning Everyone,

I had one of these compulsive needs to blog about my latest buy. I just purchased a self healing mat. As expensive as they cost I just couldn't justify it to myself as I don't sew or really do anything with fabric in the volume that would call for a mat... Or so I thought!

After moving to our new house we of course did some spring cleaning and went thru our clothes that both my husband and I were hanging on to thinking yeah one day we would be able to wear it again. We both finally realized that if that day ever came we could just buy them again. So I started my mission of accumulating as many t-shirts as I could to make t-shirt yarn out of. 

I had been cutting it by hand with a pair of scissors and eyeballing the width of the strips but me being somewhat OCD couldn't handle that the strips weren't perfectly uniform. A friend of mine had given me a rotary cutter and ruler that she had extras of (thanks to a yard sale find) but me being a hook and needle girl I just didn't see what the big deal was with these items but I did take them I'm also somewhat of a craft supplies hoarder! In my mind though I just couldn't make the connection why not use a cardboard box or the floor. So I grabbed a t-shirt and tried using a cardboard box as my "mat" yeah that didn't work blade just cut thru the box and got stuck t-shirt was ripped and I was frustrated. I blamed my failure on the rotary cutter. Well I had a small 6 x 6 self healing mat with ironing board that I bought on clearance for less than $5. So I tried just cutting the sleeves and I was so surprised a perfect cut! So that lead me on a mission. I still couldn't see myself paying $55 for one but thanks to 50% coupon at Michaels I bought a pretty big mat for under $30!! 

When I got home with my new buy I ran to get a t-shirt to cut and timed myself. From T-shirt to t-shirt yarn it took 4 min 15 sec to complete!!!! It was incredible. So for this month that Mat is totally the best thing I've bought! If you are in the market for one I say go ahead and buy there is nothing like it! Save yourself a ton of money buy finding yourself a coupon for 50% off of one item. Michael's accepts competitors coupons so if Michael's doesn't have one for that week check AC Moore's Jo-ann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby's websites for coupons!

Well I just had to get that off my chest... Husband would never understand my excitement.