Upcycled T-Shirt Scarf

Make an upcycled t-shirt scarf with your old college t-shirts, race t-shirts, concert t-shirts you no longer want to wear, but you don’t want to part with.

I cleaned out my closet about a month ago and I found myself with some Iowa Hawkeyes t-shirts that no longer fit. I wasn’t going to wear them, but I wasn’t ready to part with them either. Solution = upcycled t-shirt scarf.

I had seen a concept on Etsy for a Hawkeyes t-shirt scarf, but without a pattern I was a little nervous to start cutting up my tees. I sat on it for a few weeks and of course decided to start a late night project the day before we were headed out of town to go to a game. Luckily I guessed well on my proportions and made my way through what I think turned out to be a great game day accessory for a cold fall day!

I used 4 shirts with Hawkeyes logos and 1 striped shirt that I bought on clearance at Target. I wanted to add some pattern to my scarf and I had a hard time finding patterned jersey knit at the fabric store.

I measured the length of one of my other scarves and decided to try for about an 80″ length and a width of about 8 inches wide. To account for seam allowances, I cut each piece to be 9 inches wide and assumed a 1/4 inch seam allowance for length. First I cut off the sleeves and neck of each t-shirt to see what I had to work with and which direction I should cut to get each logo in. I cut the same size front and back because i planned to sew them together so it was two layers. I used a rotary cutter and cutting mat which made it really easy to get the pieces straight and even.

I cut extra pieces of the solid t-shirt parts, the striped shirt and then also pieced together one of the shirt sleeves that had some stripes sewn on it until I had the desired length. I used the bottom hem of two of the shirts to create the ends of my scarf. I figured it was one less thing I needed to sew, and I liked the look of the hem. Then I pieced together all the cut pieces until I had a sequence that I liked and it was the length I wanted. 

After I was satisfied with my layout, I sewed together all of my pieces using a slight zig-zag stitch. First I did the outside edges of the front and back. Then I sewed each piece top to bottom together, leaving the inside edges for last.

At this point, I had the full length of my scarf done, but I just needed to sew the inside edges together, so I laid it out on the floor inside out and pinned the edges together so I could sew the last seam all along the length.

When the final seam was sewn, all that was left was to turn it right-side out. I was SO happy with how it turned out! Even my husband was impressed. He was a little skeptical when I tried to explain what I was doing.

Here’s a picture of Todd and I at the tailgate last weekend before the Iowa vs. Wisconsin game. Unfortunately we lost the game, but it was a great day catching up with friends and cheering on our team.

From start to finish, this project took me about 5 hours, mostly spent planning, cutting, and pinning. The sewing really didn’t take more than an hour or hour and a half. This is a pretty easy project. I’m still a pretty novice sewer. Up until a month ago when I made Super Hero Masks for Carter’s birthday, I still had to look up how to thread the machine – every single time! A t-shirt scarf would be a great gift using team t-shirts like I did or old concert or race shirts. It’s a good wearable way to upcycle old t-shirts that you just don’t want to part with.

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