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HOWTO Make a t-shirt rug

Cory Doctorow at 4:24 am Sat, Apr 19, 2008

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Instructables user Randofo created this awesome HOWTO for turning your beloved old tees into a handsome rug. I have so many damned tees (and I give away a bushel's worth every year to charity) -- my only problem with this is that I'd eventually run out of floorspace. Maybe a layered look? Link (via Craft)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • mouser882

    It looks pretty bad until you see a picture of his floor before, just plywood. Definitely needed something to cover it up.

  • joanna

    The book Alterknits has a design for a knitted t-shirt rug. It looks a bit classier, but takes a LOT more t-shirts. I started making it, but got sick of flaying dozens of shirts into strips.

  • Michiel

    t-shirt fabric streches. This will look awfull in a week.

  • forgeweld

    The only thing better than that would be wallpaper made from gluing all your unwanted credit card solicitations on the wall.

  • Takuan

    you can now use real US currency for that

  • Takuan

    come to think of it…..

  • Takuan

    http://www.elitechoice.org/2007/10/28/us-money-pubs-flaunt-worlds-most-expensive-wallpapers/

  • Doctor Pickles

    I have to agree both with the people who hate this and the people who think it’s a neat idea:

    1) In its present incarnation this looks terrible. The room itself is already very visually “busy” with lots of bins and cables and things laying around. Adding a whacky rug to that makes the scene a real strain on the old peepers, and without an appropriate backing this rug IS going to stretch like the dickens and get all misshapen and gross.

    2) If this was limited to a pile of about 4-8 shirts, sewn onto a non-stick backing, and placed on a hardwood floor in an otherwise uncluttered room (industrial or modernist or what have you) it could be a very interesting focal point for a room, and a neat contrast to the space around it. I think people are focusing too much on this specific example instead of considering what a rug like this might look like in other situations.

    CONCLUSION:
    Good idea.
    Solid execution.
    Bad example photo.

  • minamisan

    that looks quite similar to my room right now… and i don’t even have a T-shirt rug. must tidy up more often.

  • Moon

    If you hang them on the wall, they would be good insulation!

    ;)

  • D3

    It looks awful now.

  • Santa’s Knee

    Call me when the add boxers and sock to the collection.

  • mattyd

    This would drive me crazy to see everyday, nevertheless walk around on. Camouflage for lazy people.

  • eustace

    unfortunately, I need rugs about as much as I need more tees.
    What I need is a way to turn old computer parts into delicious meals. In five minutes or less.

  • Jamie Sue

    It would be a terrible rug. But it might be a nice throw blanket. Worn out t’s are awesome comfortable.

  • Moon

    Do like everybody else and use your old t-shirts as rags.

    :D

  • squirrelgirl

    i prefer to make throw pillows out of my old shirts. that is, if i liked the design.

  • napstimpy

    I made (OK, I asked my girlfriend to make) a quilt of a bunch of my concert tees back in 1988. Find me another quilt that rocks Van Halen, Eric Clapton, The Moody Blues, Sting, Styx, Pat Benatar, The Fixx, Huey Lewis & The News and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.

  • Xenu

    #23

    I came here to ask that!

  • Tenn

    I could see a pillow. A blanket. But a rug? That looks like my room on its worst days and it’s especially clean.

  • Takuan

    sssh Xenu! I just got him put down for the night. He’s all colicky.

  • Takuan

    a t-shirt from every person in your life? A diary of memories? A mnemonic for the Unspeakable Rituals of the Eldritch Sisterhood?

  • littlemissinformation

    They’ve answered the “how to.” Now, what about “why?”

  • hikeebahikeeba

    considering the plethora of cheap shirts at thrift stores,it wouldn’t be at all hard to achieve more of a themed effect,which would look neater.in both the literal and slangier senses of the word.

  • EH

    I’m with Eustace. Where’s Rumplestiltron?

  • arkizzle

    What I need is a way to turn old computer parts into delicious meals. In five minutes or less.

    FTW