Attempted to make a crocheted tee shirt rug
 

I cut up the tees as suggested and made my yarn. I have several suggestions if you decide to make one of these rugs. Cut off any side seams and restitch on your sewing machine by laying atop the other. If you keep the original tee seams, they are very bulky, making it hard to crochet same and they are just plain ugly. Most of mine were serged in a contrasting color: i.e., green tee with white stitching.

The strips were to be 2". I think 1-1/2" would have been better.

You have to tie two yarns together. Again, very bulky and ugly. The rug will have big lumps at the ties.

Needless to say, I was not happy with the results and have abandoned the project.

My girl friend crochets tee rugs. She stitches the ends then crochets. She cuts her strips 1" wide.

I also cut my strips 1" wide and sew them together end to end over lap about 1/4" and zigzag. Not to bulky, turns out pretty nice.

Do you cut the strips so the length goes with the stretchier way or the less stretchy way?

That's how I do it, too.

If I was sewing strips together, I would use a diagonal join like many people use for their binding strips.

Spend some time on youtube, there is one rag rug, or Tshirt rug video that shows how to cut the Tshirt so you have long strips, but no seams, and how to connect the strips with no lumpy knots. I tried it last night, and got it to work pretty good except I was working with left over binding strips cut in half lengthwise.

What they are showing on u tube as weaving on a frame rugs made with t shirts.IS actually called twinning from the pioneer days and i use to demonstrate it on EARTH DAYS.Very old art . cmaras1234

Where on YouTube....

The side seams on some of the tees are actual seams using a serger, i.e, a straight stitch seam and then the serged edge or approx. 1/4". These are the ugly seams/knots I first mentioned. And when one stretches the "yarn" these seams curl to the outside, thus they show up when crocheting. So when selecting old tees, look for the ones that are made from "tube-like" fabric that have no seams.

To make the "yarn" continuous, one of the demos shows to lay the tee flat with the bottom hems aligned. Cut off the bottom hem and then fold the tee in half lengthwise less 1". When cutting using the rotary cutter, do not cut thru the 1". Cut across all the way up to the underarm. W/scissors cut at an angle between the rows to make a continuous strip.

I have since pulled out the rug I attempted to make, cut off the "uglies" and will try again.

Thank you all for your responses and links. You have been so helpful.