Recycled, Hand-Spun Fabric Rag Yarn

Nothing like a fresh bunch of hand spun, recycled fabric yarn to get the creative juices flowing! I spun these late last night and couldn't sleep with all the ideas running through my head of what I could make with them! I have huge piles of fabric strips, so I just chose the strips that stood out and were begging to be spun, and poof! here they are!

I used 1" strips and a ball of leftover acrylic yarn for the core. This is fun and relaxing and it saves the beautiful fabric scraps from ending up in the landfill. What a waste it would be! I recycle and then upcycle cotton and cotton blend fabric that I find at thrift shops and yard sales. Bed sheets are really good for this, but any fabric will work including those old blue jeans you have in the back of your closet. This is a necklace I crocheted using fabric yarn from a recycled dress that I didn't wear anymore. The fabric was a stretch knit in pink and black. I added a silver chain piece, and some beads and baubles that I had in my stash to accent the necklace.

How to make the fabric strips.

First, I machine wash and dry the fabric to help make sure the fabric will not shrink any more, and no dirt etc. in left in the fabric.

Then I use a rotary cutter to cut the fabric into 1/2-1" strips.

Next, I sew the ends together to get one continuous strip, and roll it into a loose ball.

After the strip is ready, I find a leftover acrylic or cotton yarn to use as a core, and start spinning! The core yarn gives the yarn body and also extra strength. When I am done spinning, I remove the yarn onto my niddy noddy, count the yards, tie and twist into a skein.

I use a large drop spindle that my talented brother made for me. All of the materials used were recycled from his workshop. 

Hope you give this a try. Let me know and I would love to see photos of your yarn creations! Just send me the photos with a little info about them and you, and perhaps I will post them on my blog!!!!

Have an awesome, creative day!