T-shirt Yarn!

I love recycling, especially when I can use to add a little punch to my home. Last week I went on a midday rendezvous to Goodwill, where I picked up three men's XL t-shirt, with the sole intention to turn them into some awesome, affordable, bulky yarn for a project I had had in mind for several months, my Kilgore Pillow.

This project was also inspired by the awesome things located on the Pickles site. I can't seem to tear myself away from all their inspiring ideas. And Spring has put a real itch in me to switch up my homes' decor, and I can never justify spending much money to myself - especially when there are so many DIY ideas.

The pattern for my pillow itself is for sale, for $1.50, so if you'd like please visit my Crafty page: Kilgore Pillow Pattern. So you, too can get your hands on the pattern! :)

Now for making that t-shirt yarn. It's very similar to the sheet yarn tutorial I had posted earlier, and I had even more fun making it. Of course, you will need a t-shirt that you're willing to mortally wound, because you're going to basically eviscerate the poor thing - as far as t-shirt go.

1. Cut the hem of the shirt off, and throw that junker away. Then you'll cut straight across at the arms. You can discard the top portion, or keep it for spare rags, whatever your recycling-little-heart desires. 

2. Now you'll turn it sideways, basically, so that you can hang it off your arm through the big ol' hole, hopefully that makes sense. Fold the bottom portion in half twice, leaving a 1 inch "backbone" at the top of the two folds. 

3. Start cuttin'! I wasn't very stringent with the sizes of my strips (1 - 1.5 inches), life is just better when you live on the edge like that, except don't ever listen to me about not gauging your projects. This dirty habit gets me in a lot of trouble. Stop cutting at that one inch backbone you created, don't cut through! 

4. Once you have finished all your strips, you get to unfold and free the crazy mess of t-shirt you now have. Find that backbone, and grab your scissors. You will want to gut diagonally across the backbone, so you're not separating any strips from each other. If you cut straight across you'll wind up with a ton of circles. 

 5. When you have finished cutting diagonally, you get to grab your new yarn, and pull it between your hands, so that the raw edges will effortlessly roll into themselves and create a real purdy piece of yarn!

Yay! T-shirt yarn! As I mentioned earlier, I used my t-shirt yarn to make my Kilgore Pillow, which you can see below, the link will bring you to my craftsy page. 

Kilgore Pillow

The t-shirt yarn made a very good substitute for those pricey superbulky yarns, and it works even better for an item in your home that will get lots of use - like a pillow. I hope that you have fun making yourself up some t-shirt yarn, and if you happen to purchase my pattern I would like to say a huge thank you! And please share your finished projects! 

As always, I'm here to answer your questions! Feel free to ask anything. 

Allonsy!

Of Sandpaper and Spray Paint

I've been getting into the idea of finding not-so-perfect but more than perfectly priced home decor, to then refinish and make beautiful again. Typically I wussed out.

Today, I finally made the steps towards a project like this. I got some not half bad floating shelves from my Airman's Attic, which means they were free. I thought, "I can put those in my bathroom!" My bathroom doesn't have nearly as much counter space as my husband's, but it has a tub... So I win. And because I do find myself in the predicament of being a female, I have about 100 too many products that clutter up my small bathroom. Having some small shelves would be a saving grace.

They weren't too beat up, or shockingly ugly, but I wanted them to be matte black. Queue the spray paint.

I would like to take time to say, that as someone who has very little experience with such things, I did purty darn good. I'm the daughter of a painter who's been in the business for longer than I've been on earth, but I somehow evaded all of his lessons through books and studying, and plain old laziness. 

But after a little love, this is what I ended up with.

So, the total cost for this project comes to: 

Shelves: I picked them up at the thrift store on my Air Force Base, so: $0.00 

Sandpaper: $1.99

Spray Paint: $3.99 (had it from previous project, too.) 

Grand Total: $6.00