What To Do With T-Shirt Scraps

Ever wonder what to do with t-shirt scraps you have leftover from all your t-shirt refashion projects? Well, I have the exact same problem, so I came up with this list of things to make using them all up.

What To Do With T-Shirt Scraps

There are lots of creative and crafty ways of repurposing t-shirt material. You can use everything, including the smallest scraps, hems, and armpits. Have fraying material? No problem.

Stuffing For A Dog Bed

This idea is as simple as getting an old pillow case, sewing a zipper on the end (it doesn’t even have to be sewn nicely … your doggy doesn’t care!), and throwing in all those bits and pieces into it. This method might take a long time to get the bed nice and full unless you are like me, and have a whole mess of t-shirt scraps.

Making T-Shirt Yarn from Old Shirts

T-shirt yarn is easy to make using almost any part of the t-shirt, but I like it for using up the collar, the sleeves, and the hems. To make your own yarn, cut into strips. Connect the strips using the “loop” method, as I show in my t-shirt rug tutorial.

Make sure to stretch the yarn gently to curl the fabric and turn it into the yarn. You can then crochet or knit using this “yarn” for almost anything that regular yarn calls for, but good projects are anything that need some kind of stability, such as rugs, baskets, bags, and even dog toys.

If you find that you don’t have enough t-shirt material to make yarn, you can buy some t-shirt yarn too. You can also use part of purchased yarn and part of upcycled yarn to create one project.

Stretchy Crafty Projects

Use up smaller pieces for things like headbands, bracelets, scarves, hats, and even gloves. Even try piecing some together. Or, if you are like me and don’t really care what it in your hair, try making a scrunchie out of pieced together fabric.

Use As Templates

I often use up scrap t-shirt material to practice making my sewing patterns. Just use freezer paper to make (or transfer) the pattern, iron onto your t-shirt scrap material, and sew as you normally would.

If you make a mistake, you can undo the stitches and resew them. And so on and so on (sew on and sew on?) until you get your pattern right.

Once you are done, throw the entire thing back into the scrap pile, or reuse (again) to stuff into a doggy bed.

Bits And Pieces Scrappy T-Shirt Fabric

Do you remember those rugs that you take small pieces of fabric and “hook” them into a mat?

Well, you can make your own fabric using this method. Take any piece of longer fabric and attach small t-shirt pieces to it to make a rag effect.

Use As Rags

T-shirt material makes great cleaning cloth! Attach scrap pieces together to quilt a piece of cloth to put on a Swiffer.

Use To Wash Dishes

Knot together t-shirt fabric scraps to make a scrubby for pots and pans. As a bonus, you can also knot in your plastic bag scraps to make it extra tough and durable.

Use Long-Sleeves For Kitchen Bag Holders

This project will help you organize all those annoying plastic bags. Just cut the sleeve off a long sleeve t-shirt (preferably one with a cuff) and hang. You can also use them as boot-holders.

Dog Rope Toy

Use up your longer t-shirt scraps to make a tough chew toy for your dog. Chew toys are not the only thing you can use, but they can be very useful in keeping your dogs teeth and gums clean by encouraging them to chew on something besides their own teeth and gums. The best part is that your dog does not care what the toy looks like.

Cloth Diapers and Baby Burping Cloths

If you can sew the parts of your old t-shirt into squares (or rectangles) then you have a cloth diaper or a baby burping cloth. You can also layer them for a thick diaper/thick burping cloth.

Put Outside For The Birds

Put stringy pieces outside for the birds to make a nest or for animals to use as bedding material.

Cotton Scraps Can Be Composted

Speaking of the outside, you can compost any t-shirt that is made of 100% cotton or recyclable material (such as bamboo).

Quilt

If you collect large enough squares, you can just make a soft quilted blanket with the squares, or whatever size you have on hand. It doesn’t even need to be an even quilt.

Donate

Last but not least, consider just donating your fabric scraps. Go to your local library (yes, really!) or fabric store to ask if there are any clubs or organizations around.

Conclusion

What to do with t-shirt scraps? Reuse and recycle, don’t throw away those t-shirt scraps! You can use every last bit and piece, even the parts that are worn out or frayed. I wrote about all the different ways that I use up scraps (instead of just recycling … hahaha, get it?) the ideas that everyone else blogs about.