Recycled Fabric Birdie

I’ve finished a few more little recycled t-shirt birds. This is one of my favorite, she took a little more time to make. I started with the t-shirt ribbons I described on my old post about cutting down a t-shirt. This sweet little pink bird was made of some smaller strips and I thought it would be interesting to straight stitch the ribbons down over the bird form.

I love the little flowers on the side of her. These flowers are made of some frayed scraps and a little embroidery floss. I thought I’d try to start stitching names on them as well. This one is ‘heart’.

I’m really addicted to cutting down t-shirts, and now when my own shirts accidentally (really it was an accident) get bleach on them I am not as disappointed about the whole thing. OK, it does take a little bit before I see that this is a recycling opportunity, but really it doesn’t become the fit of pique where I chuck the ruined stuff into the garbage anymore… does that mean I’m growing as a person? Ha ha ha… we’ll see.

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How to cut down a t-shirt

So, I was talking about the t-shirt ribbons I used to crochet a bathroom rug, and here is a short tutorial on how to go about cutting down a t-shirt. It’s also important to note that the results will make chunky work, so a few extra corners and wavering widths aren’t a big deal at all.

I started at the bottom hem of the shirt and began creating a spiral cut up the torso of the shirt.

I think that a picture of how I cut down the sleeve would help as well, this shirt has a long sleeve so I cut the sleeves off and started at the bottom of the torso.

This is what is left when the shirt has been cut down to a rough square and then I started going around and around. By the time I’d done the third or fourth I was making short sleeve t-shirts into a continuous string. However, as you can see I also had to tie together some strands. Once again, it won’t be a big deal as the work will be so chunky.

The next step once you have a bunch of t-shirt ribbons is to wind it into a ball, which will help to keep your work from tangling.

At the end, this is what I had left…

Hope this technique works out for you. It’s so much smarter than purchasing cheap cotton fabric pre-cut from the nearest craft store.

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