For a while I've been collecting together a load of old t shirts, old and unwanted, but too pretty to throw away. I had in mind, to make a colourful rug to brighten up my plain white bathroom and to compliment my assortment of brightly coloured towels. I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the result.
First I set about making some t shirt yarn. I cut off the hem section of each t shirt and across the chest under the arm holes. This left me with a wide tube of t shirt. I then made cuts from left to right across the body stopping a few cm from the right side seam. The next bit is the tricky bit. You have to open out the t shirt and carefully cut from one line of cuts diagonally up to the next, so that you end up with a continuous strip of fabric.
You then give the strips a bit of a tug so they roll up. this does depend on the knit of the t shirt, not all mine rolled up but it didn't matter when it came to plaiting.
I was soon rewarded with 14 colourful balls of t shirt yarn. Most of these t shirts belonged to my husband. My man isn't afraid of colour!
Next came the fun bit, the plaiting. I spent a few relaxing evenings plaiting these little beauties on my knee, joining in new colour stands with a couple of stitches as I went.
I soon had a massive squidgy ball of colourful plaited yarn.
At last it was starting to take shape. I coiled the plait around and machine stitched with a large zigzag. I tried using a ball point needle but found that an ordinary one worked best, only skipping stitches occasionally when going over really thick bits, like the seams.
You have to be careful to stitch the coiled plait in the right direction so that as it grows, it extends out to the left of the needle, otherwise it won't fit in the machine. Oh by the way I ended up using about 12 of my t shirt yarn balls!
And here it is, a beautiful, bright, cheerful addition to my boring white bathroom. It's soft under foot and the best thing is, I can just throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty.
A nice and easy little up-cycling project!
