Making t-shirt yarn, thick home made yarn.

I needed some thick yarn for weaving for a craft but it is really expensive to buy.  So I decided the next best route was to buy my own.

I got a couple of size 20 t-shirts in Primark for £1.80.  One t-shirt made a good balls worth.

You need jersey material t-shirts that aren't stretch and preferably without side seams, but seams aren't the end of the world.

First cut off the top of the t-shirt just under the arms, then cut off the bottom seam.

Because I had a t-shirt with side seams I then pulled it so the seams were no longer on the edges but in the middle, you'll see why later. It just makes cutting easier.

Fold the bottom of the t-shirt over to just an inch below the top.

Here's a photo from the side angle to help you see.

Now cut in nice wide strips up to the top of the fold.  don't be tempted to make the strips too thin, the yarn will break.  About 2cms is as thin as you want to go really.

When you've cut it all fold down the strips.

The next part you will cut is the top but you need to open it out to be able to do it.

I found the easiest way to do this was to slide my arm in.

Open it out, then lay it back down again.

(This is probably unnecessary, you could just pull over the bit you need but stick with me, I'm a Simple Simon!)

To get the continuous length of yarn you need to cross cut your strips.

I've drawn the dotted lines to show the cuts.

Only cut this layer of the material, don't cut through the strips underneath.

As you cut the lines you'll see the long length of material start to appear.

You need to pull this and the t-shirt material will stretch and roll and form a nice yarn.

If you made any of your cuts too thin you'll find this happens.

And this will happen if your t-shirt had side seams.


For me that wasn't the end of the world.  It totally depends on what your craft is.










For the lengths we needed the seams were no issue or just plaited in fine.