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I recently knitted a bath mat using yarn that I had made from fabric strips. Unfortunately, I didn’t photograph the entire process (because I didn’t know I’d like the end product so much!), so this post is more of a guideline than an actual tutorial… but I hope you’ll get the idea about how to make your own.

Making yarn from fabric is a lot of fun, because you have complete control over the process! You can select the colors of fabric that you’d like, and pick the order that you’re going to put them in. Here are the basic steps:

1. Pick your fabric I would recommend 100% cotton fabric, like the type used for quilting. Not only is cotton fabric machine washable and durable, you’re sure to find it in lots of colors because of the quilting market. You’re going to be using a fair amount of fabric, so take amount into consideration when purchasing… you might not want to select the priciest cottons on the market.
2. Turn your fabric into 1″ strips One benefit of cotton is that you can tear (yes, literally rip) the fabric into perfect strips along the grain of the fabric. Tearing your fabric is MUCH quicker than using a ruler and scissors to cut it, and it also results in fewer ‘loose threads’ as the fabric wears. See this video to see how to tear your fabric.
3. Put your strips together Some sites recommend sewing the strips together… but, if I had to do that, I wouldn’t have gotten enough strips together to make anything! This video (the same one I linked to above) is where I learned to join the strips of fabric together. Just ignore the bits about locker hooking… this is the best way (in my opinion) to join fabric strips together.

That’s it! Join as many strips as you need… and you have fabric yarn!

Here are handy links to all the posts about yarn. . .

• How to Join Yarn with No Knot
• 3 Ways to Join Yarn without Tying a Knot
• What to Do If There’s a Knot in Your Yarn
• How to Work with Eyelash Yarn
• How Much Yarn Do I Need?
• How to Calculate Yarn Weight from Length
• How to Make a Magic Ball
• How to Use a Ball Winder
• Using a Nostepinne Replacement to Make a Center-Pull Yarn Ball
• How to Make Yarn from Fabric Strips
• Dye Yarn with Wilton Icing Dye

Return to the main table of contents for Let’s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the lessons for the basic crochet stitches.

Happy stitching!