Ms. SpoolTeacher mentioned on her Facebook page that she is making t-shirt yarn. She has discovered many things already.

She just took what she has on hand from t-shirts she has stopped wearing. Seamed tee’s are no good. They can be used, of course, but seamless t-shirts are the best. Seamed ones leave a bump every seam and don’t curl at that point. So you might want to cut the seams and splice as you go, but that means little short strips. Seamless t-shirts allow one continuous strand.

The above picture is of the hems at the bottoms that are cut off first. She’s sure they will find their own usefulness.

Her rotary cutter had no sharp edges left so she just got out her favorite pair of Crafter’s Companion scissors and started cutting away. “Fooey”, she says, on having the latest greatest tools. Don’t let that stop you. It is amazing how skilled one gets at cutting exactly one inch strips, (or whatever size she wants) as she goes along. It’s rather therapeutic to sit and cut around and around the t-shirt and see it all pile up.

1 inch makes a nice size yarn, but she liked 1 1/4″ better as she plans to use it for a rug. Later she saw some very fine ones on Etsy that she may try as well. Fine meaning they were probably 1/2 inch before curling.

T-Shirt Yarn by ArtWildflowers on Etsy (click picture to visit)

After you cut it off, you pull it to stretch it. You need to give it a good pull and be consistent. As you pull, the edges curl in on themselves and you want the raw edges tucked into the turns. She realized that the material curls into the front, the back exposed, so any images printed on the front only show as a “bleed-through” shading. Not necessarily bad.

When stretched, the strip is supposed to curl in on itself. The turquoise one refused to do so. It will have to find a different use, she supposes.

Here’s her pile so far. She also noticed on Etsy that many people selling it have learned to spool it such that it looks very professional. Here’s an example:

EcoTees on Etsy, click picture to visit her shop

So, Ms. SpoolTeacher is trying hard to dig in to her Resource Central and get to making things she might use or sell on Spare Shelf on Etsy. Currently her Etsy shop looks like she prefers to knit or crochet; but it is really a telling sign of what resources she has already made use of. She works with what she has and makes the most of it.

The t-shirt yarn making started with this image of a finished rag rug that Ms. SpoolTeacher thinks is gorgeous.

image courtesy of Good Ideas For You. Click picture to go to website.

Close-up of above rug. Olino Hobby made this rug, but the tutorial is foreign language. The pictures there tell everything without words, however. This picture links to her tutorial.

Ms. SpoolTeacher loves this girls work. Click picture to go to her Etsy shop.

Ms. SpoolTeacher also made a few more Yo Yos and has learned a thing or two there as well. She likes the bigger gathering stitches that tighten closer in the center. She’s still not skilled at knotting them off and getting pleats to look right at the end.

Yo Yo pile increasing

click pic to read, “Hey, Yo” post by Ms. SpoolTeacher

The main thing is to be productive and to utilize resources on hand.

For your viewing enjoyment, here are two more of her inspirations:

image courtesy of: odpaam on Etsy.

And here is one made from fabric other than t-shirt yarn. Image courtesy of: RagsMadeRight on Etsy.

Doesn’t this all make you want to tear something up? Maybe cutting would be neater.

Have fun and here is a great tutorial for using just plain old scissors.