Tatty old T shirts

T shirt with horizontal cuts

What do you do with clothes that your children have outgrown? Anything decent I pass on to friends or family and failing that they go to the charity shop. But to be honest, due to the horrific condition that they tend to be in by the time my boys have finished with them, most are only suitable for the compost bin.

Diagonally cutting across the fabric

I have another use. If they are too badly stained to sensibly reuse the fabric for other projects then I prefer to cut them into yarn. This is actually quite simple to do but can take time. The most efficient technique I have found for this is to cut horizontal strips through the shirt leaving 1-2 inches still attached on one side. Then turn the T shirt until the uncut strip is in the middle and cut into it from the bottom to the end of the first horizontal slice. Continue cutting across the ends of the horizontal slices at an angle so that instead of creating lots of loops you get one long piece of yarn (see photo above and diagram below).

Cutting diagonally across the fabric

 

Here I have several balls of yarn. These are great for creating rag rugs. I have a lovely blue hooked rag rug that is still only 1/4 finished that I've been working on for years, I now prefer to crochet them. Much quicker! I don't even bother with a needle, just my fingers. This yarn can also be used to make bags, a free pattern by Craft Passion can be seen here or you could make a feature of the rags with one such as this.

Fabric yarn balls