Recycling T-Shirts

I adore the works of Alabama Studio (Natalie Chanin). She works with repurposing t-shirts to make new, very lovely items. So, when I recently came across an overabundance of leftover t-shirts that - nicely - have never even been worn, I decided that I best try a few upcycled t-shirt tricks myself.

For starters, I decided to cut two of the t-shirts into strips and knit them. I just finished a nice, narrow scarf with it, but I would also like to dye it.

Knitting in progress (it's not really yellow on the side, it's just bad lighting)

 Knitted scarf up close

I was going to dye with denim dye - but dang, I forgot to pick some up when I was at the store. So after digging through what I already had at home, I came up with black dye and decided to give that a try. Since I wasn't sure how the dye would take, I decided to test with a little "flower" that I made.

I love the black-washed-denim look it gave the t-shirt material.

Dyed flower-ette

I think I'll go ahead with dying the scarf this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I've heard that knitted t-shirt strips also make great dishclothes. I think I might try that next. But I can't get so involved in cotton that I forget about my wool!  I just read an article that I should have some of my winter items posted already on Etsy!  Yikes - I best get busy!