For whatever reason, I've got it in my head to crochet a rug out of old (well, purchased from goodwill mostly) tee shirts. Today I started my adventures in making said teeshirts, and have had mixed results, but I've learned a couple things.
First off- look at your shirt and make sure it's not just a really fine 1x1 rib. You can tell this pretty easily- if the inside fabric looks just like the outside fabric (i.e. it's got Vs and not little purl bumps on the inside), then it's 1x1 rib. It's not TERRIBLE yarn, but it won't curl as well and will look more raggedy than the plain old stockinette knit.
If you can find shirts without side seams- EVEN BETTER. The seams *can* be hidden in the crochet, but the fabric will want to curl with the inner side facing out, so definitely if you find tees without the extra side seams, all the better. The fewer seams the better.
The rotary cutter is your friend. What I do is follow this tutorial, but instead of using scissors, I get out my cutting mat and rotary cutter. I iron the shirt to make sure it's all flat and even (this can take a while) and then use the rotary cutter to cut off the arms of the shirt (At the armpits) and then use my clear quilting ruler to measure the width I want for the yarn (My first batch I used 1 inch, but I may go with 1.5 next time), and use the cutting pad's built in grid to keep the 1 inch bit at the top. EASY PEASY. I mean, seriously. It's quick, easy, and it turns out lovely. My attempt with scissors sucked.
If you want "plain" colored yarn, you don't have to limit yourself to plain tees; anything with a design that stops above the armpits of the shirt will still be useable.
I may experiment later with making short lengths of yarn from the "leftovers" of the shirts. I found a tutorial with a fairly simple joining method, too. We'll see.
I'm still in the learning stages so I will probably end up doing something smaller with these yarns I'm working on, but I'm fairly excited about the whole thing. So fun.
