We were quite keen to try our hand at working with t-shirt yarn. Although we found a few great tutorials on how to make your own t shirt yarn online, most only used the main torso part of the t-shirt. Below we describe how we cut up and use almost the whole t shirt to make the yarn.
Tips for How to Make T Shirt Yarn
Before starting, here are a few tips for selecting the t-shirt:
- try and use the largest t-shirts you can find as you’ll obviously get the most yarn out of them;
- pick t-shirts that don’t have seams along the sides if possible (but not necessary);
- t-shirts that are made from heavier cotton make a nicer yarn than thinner cotton.
Materials for DIY T-Shirt Yarn
Other than the t-shirt at minimum you’ll need a good pair of scissors* for cutting fabric. It can be surprisingly difficult to cut through the layers of the shirt if you don’t have a good pair of scissors. Alternatively, you could use a utility knife or a rotary fabric cutter* with the help of a metal ruler. Finally, a good quality seam ripper* is helpful in taking apart the seams if you choose to do so.
Steps to make your own t-shirt yarn using the whole shirt:
You can see in the left image below that the yarn made from the main torso part of the shirt (right side) doesn’t have the bumps that the yarn made from the sleeve and upper torso parts does (left side). However, these bumps can be hidden into the piece as you work, and/or trimmed a bit if needed. In the end though, you end up with almost two times the t-shirt yarn to work with!
UPDATE: We’ve recently created a video of how to make the tshirt yarn with the whole shirt! We’d love for you to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more DIY tutorials.
When you’re done, you will have at minimum about 6 pieces of yarn of various sizes. There are several options for joining the ends together including hand-stitching, or cutting slits. Mainly for speed, we prefer a double knot as shown. Just make sure the tails end on opposite, rather than the same sides.
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Do you have any other tips for making your own t-shirt yarn?
MaryAnne
Thank you for this tutorial! I have been meaning to try making t-shirt yarn, and your tutorial is excellent.
Jane and Sonja
Thank you so much MaryAnne!
Stella Lee
You’ve put so much thought into getting the best out of your t-shirt. I’m a lazy t-shirt yarn maker but then again I want the rags. Sometimes though I want that extra bit of specific colour t-shirt and I will be using your method to get that extra yarn!
Jane and Sonja
Thank you so much Stella! We seemed to need so much of it for some of our projects that we couldn’t just let the little bits go! We hope the tutorial is helpful.
craftybroad
Thank you so much! I was able to almost double my t-shirt yarn and finish my rug! This was very helpful. There was hardly any waste! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Jane and Sonja
Yay! So glad this helped you. It’s amazing how much more yarn you can get out of the shirt.
Rebecca
If the shirt has screen printing, can it still be used?
Beverly York
I can’t wait to try this. I have so many tee shirts that are no longer wearable..
I do have another question..I have several pair of flees lined leggings that again are no longer wearable. can I make yarn out of them and if so how would I do it?
Sincerely
Beverly
Jane and Sonja
Hi Beverly,
We’re so happy you like this tutorial. It does open up all new crafting possibilities!
We haven’t tried the fleece lined leggings and my instinct is that they wouldn’t curl up to make the yarn like the knit cotton does. However, maybe give one a try- just don’t cut along the “grain” of the fabric, but rather perpendicular. Does that make sense?
Let us know how it goes!
Jane
Joanne
I tried this with a tie dyed t shirt. But the yarn turned in on itself and all you could see was the inside in stead of the bright tie dyed colors. Any suggestions for showing the right side of the yarn?
Jane and Sonja
That is a good point, Joanne. Because of the nature of jersey knit, the edges will curl inward on the “knit” side vs the “purl” side. For this reason it is best to use yarn dyed t-shirts. Is the tie-dye not visible on the reverse side of the tshirt? …I’ll have to take a look at some of my daughter’s tie-dyed shirts!