Saturday, January 23, 2010

From T-shirt to Guitar Strap


In an earlier post, I described the process of making a t-shirt into yarn. I wanted to use tie-dyed t-shirts, but have a hard time finding them in local thrift shops. My theory is that here in Santa Cruz folks just wear their tie-dyes until there is nothing left of them.
Last weekend, I saw this kids shirt on the rack at the Goodwill store and grabbed it.

What I wasn't counting on: When I cut the shirt into strips, it curled so that the inside of the shirt shows. Even though the shirt looks bright, it was not on the inside, so now I have a pastel pink, blue and yellow yarn. I wonder if it was sort of painted rather than dyed. Curious.

I paired it with some blue cotton yarn with a denim look and wove this guitar strap.


The t-shirt yarn is stretchy and the other is not, so it is a little waffly, but I think it will be fine when worn. The stretchy fabric will probably make it nice to wear.

8 comments:

  1. Very interesting to see the bright coloured shirt turn into pastels! I like the random colours in the finished strap.

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  2. I love the colors, and the strap turned out beautifully. Thank you for posting what you did step by step...and nice blog!

    -Chelsea
    http://pixelcouture.net/
    http://www.etsy.com/shop/islapink

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  3. How cool! I've seen knitting with fabric strips, but I love your inkling with T-shirts. I'm new to inkle weaving, so this is something I might try. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Veronica
    www.FiberAnticsbyVeronica.com

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  4. You are welcome! My t-shirt yarn tends to be bulky; I can't get the hang of cutting the strips narrower. Therefore it weaves up fast. It is very stretchy yarn, so mixing it with other yarns is not recommended. Have a ball!
    ~Annie

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  5. Love the results..of all your projects. Spinner and beginning inkler. Want to do a strap for my son. Any particular good place to get the other parts for the straps? Thanks!

    Betty Morrissey

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  6. Thanks, Betty. So glad to have you as a reader. Inkling provides so many opportunities to make wonderful useful things. I make the strap end tabs myself because I am unable to find them for sale anywhere. There are so many steps involved and I have to rent time on a machine to do the cutting. I am considering offering a kit with the hardware because so many people ask, but I would have to get $10 to make it worth my while. If you are interested, please e-mail me.
    ~Annie

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