Recycled T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial (Step-by-Step version)

 Hello.  Earlier this week I shared this post with you from my Great Day St. Louis appearance on making t-shirt yarn.  Just in case it's not clear from the video and/or you don't feel like watching it, I'm posting a step-by-step here so you can get started cutting up all your old t-shirts.  

Step 1: Find an old t-shirt and cut off the bottom hem.  

Step 2.  Cut the bottom panel of the t-shirt off at the arm-pit.  You can use scissors or a rotary cutter.  I prefer a rotary cutter as I'm completely disabled when it comes to using scissors well.

Step 3: Fold the panel in half leaving a 1' space wear the top meets the bottom half.  

Step 4: Cut the panel into strips.  Cut through the top half completely, but DO NOT cut through the bottom half.  Leave the 1' space UNCUT.

Step 5: This is the tricky part in which you will make diagonal cuts along the uncut space. Open up your panel.  Place it on a surface such as your arm, chair base, small table.  Cut diagonally across each strip.  The first strip will look a little strange, but when you're finished you will simply make one diagonal cut in order to separate the two rings and create one continuous strip.  Don't worry you will not see these diagonal cuts at all in the finished product.

Step 6: Turn the strip into rolled yarn simply by pulling on each piece of the strip.  Basically, put a piece of your long strip in each hand and pull.  Do this across the entire strip and you will turn this...

into this in a matter of seconds.

 Finished ball of wonderful t-shirt yarn...

If you want to see some of the necklaces that I make with this yarn, you can watch this video or click on t-shirt necklace tutorial in right sidebar.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and have a wonderful weekend!

I'm linking to Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge.