How To Make Sheet Yarn

Affiliate links may be included for your convenience. View our privacy and affiliates policy for details.

Sure, yarn is available everywhere in all sorts of styles, but it can be fun — and a great way to upcycle — to make fabric yarn out of an old canvas or fabric you don't like or want to use in another manner.

This mail service contains affiliate links for your convenience.

I told y'all long ago about our cat sail, the canvas we go along on top of our regular sheets considering cats are yucky. Information technology was torn and mended and stained and had holes and I finally decided it was worn enough that we should get a new ane.

But I wasn't about to just toss out a perfectly OK canvas.

Instead, I turned it into yarn. (And I messed it upwardly, thus the need for this tutorial to remind me how to do it ameliorate in the hereafter.)

Why Make Fabric Yarn?

Material yarn is pretty fun to brand, though there is a lot of cutting involved. Information technology's a great mode to utilize material that might not exist bang-up for some reason, such as beingness an quondam sheet that's kind of falling apart, or something yous don't love merely however desire to employ in some manner.

A king-sized sail makes a lot of fabric yarn, and I'll show you what I fabricated with it soon. But for today's tutorial I want to show you lot how to make fabric yarn in one continuous strip from a slice of cloth of any size.

For the purposes of this demonstration I used some of the Ewok hood fabric I had left over from the girl's eighth birthday. Since that was more a year ago it's high time I used it.

How to Make Textile Yarn

All you demand to make fabric yarn is the fabric you want to turn into yarn and a skilful pair of material scissors. If y'all want more accurate cuts, or can't stand up the idea of cut a big quantity of fabric by hand, you can use a rotary cutter and a ruler instead.

To begin, fold your textile in one-half. If you lot want to trim the edges so in that location's no selvedge or then they are straight, feel free. I'thousand not super particular.

Beginning on the fold, cutting strips in the fabric, leaving an inch or so (does not have to exist precise) uncut at the top/unfolded edge.

When yous're done you volition take a agglomeration of loops that are joined together past that uncut piece of fabric on each side.

To make the continuous yarn, on just the superlative layer, cut through the niggling uncut office of the strip for every other cut that y'all fabricated. In other words, you're finishing the cut so that you have what looks like pairs of loops joined together. Do this beyond the whole top layer.

On the bottom layer yous want to do the same affair but on the reverse loops. Start past cutting the first loop free then that your yarn has an finish.

Then cut pairs of loops as before, finishing the cut on every other loop. If it helps you to brand sure you're doing it right, yous can pull back the top layer and come across how it's starting to brand a long "thread" and where you need to cut to go along it.

Keep in this way across the material. Fold back the peak layer as you go to make it easier to see what you lot're doing.

When you're done you will accept a large pile of strips.

Selection an cease and star rolling into a brawl. Your fabric yarn is prepare to use!

That part that you left uncut is what holds the loops together into ane long strip. If y'all discover that section to exist actually large because yous didn't cut as securely equally yous should have, you tin can carefully trim it now.

How to Use Cloth Yarn

I like to apply fabric yarn for durable projects similar baskets and rugs. It makes keen coasters. A coating made out of fabric yarn would be unexpected and interesting.

You lot can use textile yarn for knitting, crochet, weaving — basically any yarn arts and crafts yous like. Simply exist aware that unless you were really accurate with your cutting y'all might not get a consistent gauge or actually fifty-fifty-looking stitches. But sometimes that's OK, right?

Have you ever used or made fabric yarn? I'd love to hear your tips and how you used it!