How To Make T-Shirt Yarn

Written by Kate Curry

Do you have any t-shirts that you want to repurpose, but you can’t donate them? Making t-shirt yarn is a great option for us eco-friendly crafters to reuse clothing that is either not good enough (or maybe a little too embarrassing) to donate!

Materials

T-shirts of any size, shape, or color

Scissors

Notes

You will get different yardage depending on the size and type of t-shirt that you’re repurposing.

When you first cut your t-shirt, the strands will be flat like our ribbon yarn. To make the strands more round like traditional yarn, stretch your stands and you will see the flat ribbons become nice and round.

Let’s Get Going!

Step One: Lay your t-shirt flat and snip off the bottom hem.

On a dark wooden table, a hand is cutting the hem off a light blue t-shirt.

Step Two: Cut the top of your shirt off, cutting from armpit to armpit.

A hand with black nails is cutting across the chest of a light blue t-shirt, cutting from armpit to armpit

Step Three: Laying the square flat, cut 1 inch strips from one side, but not cutting all the way to the other edge.

A pair of hands with black nails is using a pair of teal scissors to cut strips out of the light blue t-shirt.

A blue square of tshirt fabric, cut into thin one inch strips.

Step Four: Once all the strips are cut, make a diagonal cut on the first strip, continuing to make diagonal cuts as you go along. This creates the continuous strips.

Using the scissors, cut diagonally against the strips of blue strands to create a continuous strand of t-shirt yarn

Step Five: Stretch your yarn (if that’s what you want!) and ball that bad boy for your next project.

The blue strands of t-shirt fabric are thin like ribbon when they're cut. If you stretch the ribbon, the strands will become round.

T-shirt yarn is great for tons of projects, like baskets, rugs, cleaning supplies, and more!

A hand with black nails is holding up a wound up ball of blue t-shirt yarn against a dark wooden table.

Meet the Author

Kate has been on the Darn Good Yarn team since 2018.

They have their degree in Creative Art Therapy & Psychology - and like crafting and animals a little too much.