Ann Hartley
Here you see a 13″ x 15″ T-shirt area rug made out of TARN. For this size I used a pair of jersey pajamas and a 3x t-shirt, both repurposed from the scrap heap. The project also required warp thread. I used my 40% off coupon at the hobby store to buy Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream which is cotton worsted. It worked well as a warp and is also handy for other purposes.
I have made some utility bags out of strips torn from old sheets before, and a handbag or two, but this is the first time I have ever tried to make a rug. There are quite a few tutorials online already on how to make tarn and how to make rugs out of it. So I won’t give instructions here, but there is something many of the tutorials do not say that I didn’t know either until after this was finished and that I would like for you to know if you decide to make something out of tarn. Instead of cutting the shirt into horizontal strips and then fastening the strips together before plying the tarn, look up “continuous tarn.” This is a method where by cutting at an angle you can make one continuous strip of yarn from each shirt. The same method can be used when cutting a sheet up into strips to weave, crochet, or lucet. However, once you have made something out of tarn you may like it so much that you will not want to repurpose any other kind of fabric. The tarn rug has a heavenly texture and luxurious softness.
I have not washed this one yet because it seems to be somewhat resistant to dirt, but when it becomes necessary, I expect it to clean up beautifully in my washing machine. Just one thought on that, however, and that is the rug will become very heavy when saturated, so unless your rug is very small like this one you might want to think about whether your washer can handle it or not, especially during the spin cycle.
It looks very interesting and nice
Thank you, vidocka, I had a lot of fun making it and like it underfoot.
These are great- you should open a stall at my bazaar!
Sounds like a plan! I will definitely consider it.
Ann’s Loomtastic Stall? It occurs to me that those vendors didn’t name their stalls and it was the patrons who referred to them as Amed’s scrolls and simples…
Thanks for viewing it tasartcraft. I finally threw it in the washing machine to see how it would hold up and since it is fine I can start another one!
Very innovative way to recycle clothes. My grandmother used to make circular rugs by making braids with either old pantyhose or old shirts etc. Then she would curl those braids gradually sewing them together in an oval or circular form until her desired length of rug. She also weaved them on her huge weaving loom. Beautiful rug by the way.
Thank you, Historygal, I made a circular chair pad in that manner once from an old sheet and it took lots of fabric stripping and hours and hours to complete just a little pad, but it is nice and probably will last forever.
I love to hear stories like that, Carol. My cousin gave me the idea when she planted flowers in her late husband’s boots and set them by her door.
Oh my goodness you are so creative and talented. After losing my son, I kept all of his clothes, including t-shirts he wore every day. I finally decided a few years ago to have them made into a quilt. I treasure that quilt and in the winter I am like Linus with his blanket (from Charlie Brown)! It was a great idea.