How to Make a Crocheted Purse From T-Shirt Strips
Turn old T-shirts into a hip new purse by turning them into yarn and crocheting them. Making T-shirt yarn works best with extra-large shirts, since they yield the longest strips. To make T-shirt yarn, you cut the shirt into a tube by cutting across the chest just below the armpits and cutting off the bottom band. The tube can then be cut into one continuous strip. The skills you need to know to crochet the purse are the chain stitch, slip stitch and single crochet stitch.
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Instructions
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Cut the tube you made from each T-shirt into a 1-inch wide spiral. Make a 1-inch slit in the bottom of the tube and cut almost all the way around. When you are 1 inch from finishing the round, cut upward at a diagonal for 1 inch. Turn your scissors horizontally again and cut the second round. Continue in this fashion until the tube is one long strip.
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Tug on the strip all the way down, holding 6 inches at a time between your hands. Tugging the sections of the strip in opposite directions curls in the edges, making it thinner and easier to pull through stitches.
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3
Wind each T-shirt strip into a ball.
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4
Chain 10 stitches with a size O crochet hook.
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Work in single crochet until you have a piece twice as long as you want your purse to be. For stripes, change yarns every three rows. Always join new yarn at the edges. Weave in the tails as you go by laying them along the top of the last row and wrapping your new stitches around them.
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Bind off the piece by pulling the yarn through the last stitch on your hook. Leave a tail that is at least twice as long as the two sides and bottom of the purse.
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Fold the strip in half. The bottom of the purse will be the folded edge, the top will be the open edge.
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Slip stitch the sides together, starting at the upper left edge. Slip stitch across the bottom of the purse to carry the yarn to the other side. Bind off by pulling the tail all the way through the last slip stitch.
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Weave the tail around the top edge of the purse with the crochet hook.
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Chain as many stitches as you want for the handle of the purse, leaving a 4-inch tail on each end.
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Pull the tails of the chain through the upper edge of the purse on either side.
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Tie each tail to the chain by pulling it through to the sides of the purse and making a knot around the chain.
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Weave the tails of the chain down the side of the purse with the crochet hook.
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