T-shirt Challenge

I came across a challenge this week on the "Spinakids Creations" Facebook Page (an offshoot of Spinakids).

The challenge was to take an old tshirt, and creatively turn it into something different... My efforts are documented here :) the process was time consuming, however involved no knitting, crocheting or machine sewing (as I am shocking at all 3!) - everything I made I made with my own two hands.

So to begin I took an old tshirt:

Then I cut it into one continuous strip about 1cm wide (this part took a loooooong time!)

Then I fingerstitched the entire length (double finger knitted):

Then I sewed the completed double knitted tshirt 'yarn' into a spiral shape...

And then I fingerknitted (twice over again) some white woollen yarn to contrast the red and white dots and sewed that in continuation of the spiral until complete.

Once the spiral was complete, I did a simple basting stitch around the last row of fingerknitted yarn, shaped it to my fist and tugged the thread gently to gather the bottom in a bit, making a nice round 'bowl' shape:

Then I cut some strips and tied them at the centre and attached that by threading two of the strips through the top of the beanie (to make a little bobbly-thing on top of the beanie):

Then I made a simple no-sew nappy from some of the remaining material, and also a bib and some tie-on booties for the doll to complete the 'outfit' ( no pattern for these I just hand-cut them using intuition as a guide!) :

So there we have it - a thick, warm baby or doll's beanie - which I think you'll agree you wouldn't look at it and know instantly it had been made from an old t-shirt!!

Although time-consuming, this challenge has been a LOT of fun and really made me put my thinking cap on, considering my ability to craft is still very very limited!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Thanks :)

Em