A couple of weeks ago, I had a brilliant idea for a fun series this week. My goal was to take three old t-shirts and see how many projects I could make from them.
There’s just one problem. When it comes to craft projects, my eyes are usually much bigger than my skill, as you’ll see when I show you the supposed-to-be-cute t-shirt bunny I made. So please be kind, and I’ll be sure to link to the original projects whenever I can so you can see how they were supposed to turn out!
Back to the t-shirts. I got these three shirts through a Jasmere deal at the beginning of this year. They’re from Tees for Change. I love the company, I love the feel of the fabric and I love the colors and design. But try as I might, I just didn’t like the cap sleeves when I put the t-shirts on. The two dark shirts also ended up with bleach dots on them somehow, so I figured these were the perfect shirts for this project.
T-Shirt Necklaces
The project that sparked this series was this adorable t-shirt necklace, so we’re going to start with that one. This is an incredibly easy project, and I love the end result!
To start, cut strips from the bottom of your t-shirt between 1/2″ and 1″ thick. You can cut them all the same size or vary the sizes to give your necklace more character. Each strip will actually form a large loop, and we’re going to double the loops up, so you’ll get two strands from each loop.
Then, take each loop and stretch it out as far as you can. This turns the strip into more of a tube and also (obviously…) makes it longer.
Next, twist the loop into a figure 8, aligning the seams at the top. So the picture above is of one strip/loop folded into two. (For some reason I had to read the original instructions a dozen times before I figured that out, so I thought I’d just say it in case there was anyone else who was confused. If so, feel free to tell me in the comments so I can feel better about myself!)
Continue cutting strips, stretching them and folding them on top of each other until you have enough for your necklace. Align your seams in the back (being careful not to twist or tangle the individual strands) and then take an extra loop, cut the seam off and wrap it around all of the strands to cover the seams. I tied the ends to one of the necklace strands and tucked them inside as I wrapped.
In the end, I felt like the first necklace I made was too short and thick for my style. Next time I will definitely use either a bigger t-shirt or cut my strips from shoulder to hem instead of around the bottom because I really love long necklaces. I did, however, make two more using just two strands each, and I really like the way they turned out as well!
So there you have it: easy t-shirt necklaces. This would make a great summer craft for elementary kids. The stretching step is pretty fun.
Add an adorable t-shirt flower hair clip to go with the necklace.
More ideas to repurpose t-shirts.
Have you ever made t-shirt necklaces? Do you have any old t-shirts you could repurpose this week?
