Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Crocheted T-Shirt Rug

Here's my first finished project using strips of old t-shirts. I've never crocheted with fabric before.
You also can use strips of old sheets and pillowcases. I wish I would have known about this before I threw out all of my old sheets over the years. The old t-shirts with holes I had no problem cutting up. But the ones that my teenage son out grew, I had a hard time cutting up because I always give them away to charity. I was hoping that this rug would turn out as I was cutting up all the t-shirts that could have been passed down to someone else.
I think it turned out pretty good. My husband even liked the rug. He thought it looked store bought. Bless his heart. ♥ This rug I used eight t-shirts. I wanted it to be bigger but didn't have anymore colors that would match. I didn't want to add a blue to it so I finished it off as is. It measures 2 1/2 ft. in diameter. The size of the hook I used for this was 11.50 mm 'P.' It was a plastic hook and only cost a couple of dollars.
I put this rug in my home office were it wouldn't get much traffic over it. But it's pretty heavy duty and think it would be fine if you set it in a heavy traffic area in your home.
I did use a single stitch on this rug. I started off with a round but for some reason, it turned octagon on me. But a lot of people do crochet these rugs oval as well. There is a lot of info about this type of project over the world wide web.
Peeper, my little Schnauzer likes it. I always see her napping and sitting on it. =) Okay Peeper, I made it just for you.
I was thinking this would be great to crochet up some hot pads for your hot dishes and pans that were coming out of the oven or a hot pan from the stove top. I don't know if that would scorch up the t-shirts though. You'd have to try it first to see.
It was so much fun and so easy. Cutting the strips of t-shirts are a bit messy so I do that on my patio. Then you just run you hand and pull the strips to get the excess fibers to fall. Then you can roll it up like a ball of yarn.
So has anyone ever crocheted with fabric before? If not, maybe I have inspired you to give it a try. If you have, let me know. I would love to stop by your blog and see your finished project.