Remember that top-secret crafting project I mentioned?

No?

That’s OK.

The time has come to reveal it!

As part of my goal to make gifts rather than buying them, my housemates and I collaborated on a hand-woven rug to give to Manda, our housemate who was moving out. It is a farewell-we-love-you-don’t-forget-our-good-times gift.

I did say hand-woven, as in, we wove it. (Or, to be technical, crocheted it.) But we didn’t make it out of yarn or thread or whatever else people make rugs out of.

We used… guess… (hint: the title gives it away)… old t-shirts! We already had several of the shirts, and the rest we thrifted at a local yard sale sponsored by friends for charity. (That’s a win-win combo right there!)

Hermione (I’ll let you guess whether or not that’s her stage name) gives a great lesson on how to make a rug out of your old t-shirts in the video below.

Manda loved it, and the rest of us had fun passing it around for everyone to work on!

If, for some reason, you don’t want to watch 6 riveting minutes of a crochet tutorial, I’ll give you the gist below:

Pick out your t-shirt color palette:

Cut t-shirts into long strips:

Stretch the t-shirt strips into yarn and wrap into (precious) balls:

Crochet a rug:

While these images are lovely, trust me, the real magic’s in the video.

Thank you again Hermione!

Do you have a favorite (easy/cheap) craft? Please let me know! I have a few other gift-giving opportunities coming up and I’d love some ideas!