Recycling Sheets: Tutorial and Expectations
📷Photos Inside: I crocheted a hat from old bed sheets
The rumors are truth, I recycled an old bed sheet and crocheted it into a summer bucket hat.
Don’t you love the magic of crochet?
I love how crochet can turn garbage into a glamorous and useful piece as a trendy bucket hat perfect to give shade to my precious face.
I love bucket hats, that’s pretty obvious. But to be honest, I didn’t know thi bedsheet would end up into one.
When I started this project: preparing the fabric into stripes to crochet with, I didn’t have in mind any project. In fact, I wasn’t sure of making a wearable.
At the beginning as I made some stitches to test my brand new yarn I thought it was a very heavy and sturdy texture perfect for a shopping, market bag, soon I tossed the idea away.
Grocery shopping is not my favourite thing in the world, and my drawers have no more space for a chunky and heavy maket bag.
I didn’t want this new project ended thrown away in the end of the drawer, just as the old bedsheets were. NO!
I wanted to make a project that meets these criteria:
It better be useful
It better give me joy in the making process and by wearing/using them
And the project must meet the ending.
So it had to be a small project so my attention didn't go somewhere else before I forget about it.
I’m not gonna lie saying that I always dreamed about wearing and styling a bucket hat made with old bed sheets; it just happened.
No, I didn’t follow any pattern, I just trusted the process and pretended I knew what I was doing. I didn’t see any tutorial before or during the process; probably I should have. But I don’t think the result would have been different; although at the end of the day I was just playing as a kid, experimenting, making tries and errors. I am now a master to tell you everything you must know before crocheting with your old bed sheets.
Let’s talk about the process to transform fabric into thread:
It is not a hard task but it definitely takes time. It felt satisfying pulling and ripping off fabric. It kinda felt like throwing and cracking plates without caring a sh!t about the world. I haven’t tried it but I imagine it feels quite similar. hehe
You don’t control the size of the thread, so basically you will crochet with an irregular thread; you must adjust the tension from time to time to assure an even look in your project.
Oh yeah, my articulations were sore after crocheting for a while. I had to make short crochet sesh, as fabric wasn’t an easy material to work with. Mine were cotton sheets; no elasticity, means more hard pulling. .
If you are aiming to make this your FIRST crochet project, abort the mission.
I repeat: abort the mission!
This project is not difficult to complete but definitely not very friendly for absolute beginners. Although, crocheting with this chunky thread, you have stitch definition; you will not lose your stitches, but you will feel it is a looong way to crochet till the end, as your hands will become sore.
Step by step to turn bed sheets into yarn:
SHORT VERSION HERE:
Get rid of the elastic around the sheets, save it to use it in another project.
Make a cut every 1-2 centimeters, doesn’t have to be perfect, and just pull the thread off. BUT don’t pull till the end. Leave about 1 or 2 centimeters before the ending.
Make another cut, and continue pulling.
You will have a continuous long thread instead of a short one, and you’ll crochet for a longer time. When you finish a thread and start a new one, just leave a few centimeters free and continue crocheting, integrate the ending in your stitches as you keep crocheting. No need to make any knot or anything.
Believe me; the stiffness of the thread will not let the thread move or pull off.
HAPPY CROCHET!
Now you know what to do with your old bed sheets, or any forgotten fabric, really. I love the magic of crochet! Show me your final projects! Would' love to see the potential of your sheets!
From my crafty corner to yours;
GLADYS CARMINA🍒