How To: Cut Continuous T-shirt Yarn

As you know I'm always concocting some newfangled way to creatively repurpose t-shirts. This is hands down one of the easiest and most practical ways- making t-shirt yarn!


To make continuous yarn use a t-shirt that does not have side seams. Lay your shirt out on work surface and smooth out an wrinkles.

Fold one closed edge of the t-shirt towards to the other, leaving a 2” space at the top. Smooth the t-shirt out. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but large creases can give your strips jagged, inconsistent edges.

Cut into strips (desired thickness) – do not cut the space at the top. Be sure to cut completely through the

(4)  layers of material stopping just after the fold line. In other words you do not cut the 2” space at the top.

Carefully, unfold the t-shirt so you can see the separate strips. Following the photo, begin cutting the strips diagonally across. Starting at the first strip, cut diagonally to the second strip. Repeat across.

Now that you have a single strip of t-shirt yarn, pull it through your hands to create the tube shape. This enables the edges to curl.

 Keep pulling until it is all tube-shaped and roll into a yarn ball.