T-Shirt Blanket Day 10: The end of another ball

Hey there! Seven more t-shirts down! WOW! I can't believe 53 t-shirts are in my blanket already! I am working on rounding up t-shirts for my next ball. I am going to ask my hubby for some of his old t-shirts. I never go through his clothes. If he wants to send something to the trash or thrift store, he has to make that decision. So, I am going to ask him to go through and see if there are any he can donate to my blanket project.

I am also going to check Freecycle and Craigslist for free t-shirts. I may also go back to the thrift stores and buy some more interesting t-shirts.

Currently I have  rows of HDC, 53 t-shirts in my blanket and 0 t-shirts left on my ball.

Till we meet again,
Ms Veee

T-Shirt Blanket Day 7: A trip to the thrift store

The good news is my kids just got a ton of new clothes, so that meant I could go trough their t-shirts again! I took all of the tight and/or stained t-shirts to add to my pile. I managed to get 19 t-shirts for my blanket! But I knew this was not enough.




So, I set out on a mission to find some more t-shirts. My kids had gone camping, so I was finally able to go to the thrift store alone! I looked through the entire store for every size. I bought 10 tshirts total. The sizes varied from baby to Men's XL. It was easy to find new colors and interesting patterns.







 

It took 3 hours to cut, sew and wind this ball. It was well worth it! Now I have 29 t-shirts on my ball!

All I have to do know it connect it to my working project!

Ta-Ta,
Ms Veee

T-Shirt Blanket Day 4: First ball switch

Today I made it 2 3/4 rows more rows before I ran out of my yarn. So this is what my blanket looks like after 9 t-shirts.
 

Time to make a new yarn ball. I rounded up a few more outgrown or worn out t-shirts to cut up for my blanket project. The second ball has 15 t-shirts. This will bring the total to 24. Here are some step-by-step images showing how I cut my t-shirts.

Any ideas on how many t-shirts this blanket will take? It's bitter sweet to cut up my family's old t-shirts. However, it's comforting to know they will all be a part of something much greater. Here is one of my favorite old t-shirts being retired.

After cutting them up, I am sewing them up like the first one. After the ball is made, I sewed the ball to the yarn tail on the blanket.

I finished the row I was on before I picked it up for the day. So now I have 5 rows done using 9.5 shirts and 14.5 shirts left in my ball. I'm done for today.

Till we meet again,
Ms Vee

T-Shirt Blanket Day 1: Big Ballin'

I've been wanting to make something great with all of these old t-shirts the are hanging around my house. I ran across a perfect tutorial for cutting fabric into continuous strips at the Laughing Purple Goldfish.

This is the same method I have been using for cutting plarn (plastic bags into yarn.) it works very well, but I've made a few special notes since I'm dealing with t-shirts not pillowcases. Some say not to use screen printed shirts, however I am using these. I haven't had an issue yet and I rather like the look. There must not be any holes in the t-shirts. Make sure three is no embroidery, buttons or other embellishments on the body of the shirt. Other wise, I have been following their tutorial for cutting my shirts into 1" strips.

I began to roll them into a ball. As I got to the end of a t-shirt, I joined the next one to it using a tight zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. I then cut off the excess and continued winding my ball. After day 1 of cutting I had 9 t-shirts cut and rolled.

Also, a special thanks to Maryse at Just Maryse for the idea for the name of my blog. I know you are mainly a knitter, but I'd truly just rather be hookin'!

Ta Ta For Now,

Ms Vee