A Craft A Week: Week 6 - Tarn (+Pillow)

Ever had Tarn Burn?  It's when you are so excited to finally make Tarn that you burn yourself with it in the process.  Only a true crafter (or idiot) can do it.  I did it.  So it went like this... "Hey Dawn, come make Tarn with me in my cubicle instead of working!"  Dawn came gleefully skipping over "tra-la-la, tra-la-la".  We grabbed the white T-shirt out of the pile and said, "What do we do now?"

That's when we dug back through all our Pins on Pinterest (were you expecting something else?) and found the DIY instructions from www.letbirdsflyblog.com

STEP A) Rummage through your husbands shirt drawer for any T-shirts that have holes or stains or you just don't want to see on his body.  They need to be T-shirts that DO NOT have side seams.  Most men's L or XL+ T-shirts do not have side seams.

 

STEP B) Ask him sweetly, batting your eyelashes might help, if you can savagely cut up all his favorite T-shirts you found.

 

MATERIALS) T-shirts, cutting mat, acrylic cutting ruler thingy to cut straight lines, and a rotary cutter (this will be your best friend with this craft; Dawn and I first tried scissors. Ouch.)

 

 

STEP ONE) Lay one of your T-shirt Treasures down on the cutting mat and smooth it all out.  You are going to cut the shirt from smelly armpit to smelly armpit.  Also cut off the bottom seam.  If you are a craft hoarder like I am you will look at the cut off portions and immediately think you can make something else with them.  If you are sensible, you won't think that.

 

 

STEP TWO) Leaving about an inch margin on one of the uncut sides, fold up the remainder of the shirt one or two times so you won't have to cut as far.  Then cut about 1-inch strips as shown below (Reed wanted a picture with his car in it).

 

The red shirt photos are from www.letbirdsflyblog.com because my pictures weren't as good as hers.

 

STEP THREE) Unfold the "shirt" to open the uncut margin.  Make diagonal cuts from strip to strip.

 



 

STEP FOUR) Starting with one end, stretch the strips tightly, but don't rip it like I did.  This will help the fabric roll in on itself and make your Tarn longer.  This is also where I gave myself Tarn Burn hands, by sliding the Tarn through my palms, going too fast.  Perhaps garden gloves?  Perhaps thicker skin?

 

 

Project complete!  What should I make with all my Tarn?  That's for another week I suppose.

 

+ Pillow:

I won't go in to this too much, but I finished that other finger-knit pillow I had wanted to make.

 



Too many pillows!!  I love it!



Final Thoughts:

I can't think of any way to do this better other than protect your hands and don't pull so hard you rip the fabric (teeheehee).  I can't wait to start using it for something.  Chase and Blake didn't have any input on this project.  Reed just kept finding them and rolling them around until they unraveled.  Hubby let me cut his T-shirts but he didn't see how he gained anything by this: he lost T-shirts and I gained free Tarn.  I see the benefits!

 

My Next Project:

Framing.  I have several frames around the house that don't have pictures in them (wedding presents, etc.), I have several favorite photos not even printed, and also some artwork that is rolled up in tubes not displayed.  Silliness!  I am going to attempt DIY Matting, maybe Fabric or Paper Matting, here are some inspiration photos:

 

 

As always, I would love for you to join me.  I would love to be inspired by your crafts. Send me photos or comments when you can.  Cheers!