Thursday, August 2, 2012

T-Shirt Rug? More like T-Shirt Ugh!

Every now and then we get a Pinstrosity Submission that is quite well written and so we just let them do the talking. Today's is one of those. I give you Deirdre and the T-Shirt Ugh Rug. 

Like many pinners, when inspiration strikes, I must act. Crafting has been a big part of my life since I was a child; I haunt the DIY & Crafts category like most women my age spam pics from the Weddings category. I've made some great things thanks to Pinterest, like coasters out of paint swatches and a vest out of an extra-large T-shirt. But today, I'm going to talk about an abomination. Something that I thought would be super cute, but only ended up being really ugly. 

The craft was a circular rug made out of t-shirts using a hula hoop as a loom. Here's what I expected:


The Original Pin
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/hula-hoop-rug-995304/

And this is what I got:

The Pinstrosity

The Chapstick is there to show the size relative to it. Does that look like a rug to you? More like a too tiny dinner table centerpiece or a too large potholder. The directions called for a 33" hula hoop. Upon inspection, the one that I had was only 22" (and it was the biggest one at Walmart. Go figure). I also used the bottom hems of the shirts which made parts of it look extra bulky. You can see in the picture that one of my central yellow pieces was a hem. The directions also said to use a dozen t-shirts, where I only had to use four (though this may be due to the small size of my hula hoop). So now I have eight old t-shirts, boys large from Goodwill that will probably go towards another craft or gather dust at the bottom of my closet. I'm banking on the latter.

I was hoping for this to be a birthday present for my mom. Her bathroom is all decorated in blues and greens-- but this looks way too shabby and looks like a child's craft from the 70s.

Also, to any pinners who have children (I'm 22 years old, a recent college graduate, and spend little time with children): What's up with hula hoops these days? All the ones at Walmart sounded like they had water in them. What happened to the ones with beans in them?

Hey, yeah! Where are the bean hula hoops? Oh well. Another thing to add to the "My childhood was awesome, these poor kids now are missing out" list. Anyway...let's take a look at what we can do to turn this from and Ugh to a Rug. 

  • This is one project where size does matter. You really do need a large hula hoop. The instructions at the end say to leave at least 8 inches between your rug and the hula hoop, and if you're already using the 33" hoop, that means your rug is only going to be 17" wide (because you're taking 8" off each side, not 8" off total). That's just under a foot and a half. Now I know the rug in the tutorial looks bigger than that, but you have to remember that the girl holding it is not very big, and she is sitting on a chair. I bet her rug is 2' wide. So this project doesn't make a very large rug to begin with, but then if you use a smaller hula hoop it is really going to start being tiny. 
  • Another thing to watch while making this is how tightly you weave the t-shirts. The tutorial says, "As you work, push the weft material toward the center of the hoop and keep it just snug. If you pull the weft tight, the rug will develop lumps or bends." So you want your t-shirt strips snug, but you don't want to pull them tight. The first time I tried anything like this as a kid I pulled them nice and tight and ended up with a lumpy bowl. So get the strips woven in the snugly, but don't pull them tight. 
                        

40 comments:

  1. A for edfort but all is not lost! You could always use it for a trivet for hot pots when you go camping. I would think the thinner you cut the the strips the better this project would turn out. If you cut 1 inch strips and then stretch them you'll get a strip similar to one you would crochet with.

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  2. My stepmom told me about your blog and I just wanted to tell you that I am obsessed! lol I love to see the "Pinstrosity" version of the pins. I love the whole idea of your blog- it's so helpful/informative/funny. :)
    -Amber
    http://beautyguide101.blogspot.com/

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  3. I used the same exact pin on pinterest......let just say I could use mine as a bowl.

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  4. I make hula hoops out of irrigation tubing, and would suggest making a bit sturdier loom that way. I imagine the Wal-Mart hoops just cant handle the tension the fabric needs to lay flat.

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  5. Hey! I made this rug and it does take a 33' hoop... but you can weave all the way to the edge with no real issues. The main thing is to make sure that you cut 1' strips and then pull them aftercutting. Also, using the hems makes any part of it look super weird. Mine ended up looking just like the picture and is 32' across! It is awesome!

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  6. I don't understand why yours is so small, even if you were using a 22" hoop? It looks like your rug, pot holder, whatever it is, lol... is no wider than say 10 or 11"? Did you weave it all the way to the edge of the hoop?

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  7. "weighted" hoops stay up better when you twirl, that's what the hula-hoopers who do all sorts of fun crazy tricks use, wonder if it's just catching on more mainstream

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  8. ah ah ah!! I did almost the same!! :D

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  9. Glad I saw this! We almost tried it for VBS. After thinking long and hard, decided we didn't want to cut all those strips for 90+ kids. Would have been super mad if that's all it made. Keep up the "good" work.

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  10. I tried this, and it actually turned out wonderfully! I found that leaving the strips loose and just pushing the toward the center, rather than tightening them, was the best way to go. I used a 33" hoop and wove it to about 3" from the edge. The way I did it took about 15 shirts of various sizes.

    If anyone is discouraged by this post, don't give up! It *can* be beautiful!

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  11. I tried this hulu hoop rug. Hunted for a hulu hoop. Hunted for cheap t-shirts. Spent forever cutting all the peices. Couldn't keep the cross strips from slipping off while weaving. And had to back track every full circle to correct my little sisters weaving because of the double up you have to do to keep the every other weave going. End result. I have a very soft woven bowl. Doesn't lay flat. At all.

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  12. The hula hoops have water instead of beans because we are living in a sterilized world and the beans are choking hazards of course ;)

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  13. I tried this project too. Mine curved up into a bowl shape. Guess I pulled it too tight. LOL

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    Replies
    1. Mine did the same thing!

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    2. yeah, me 3. it takes time to do that better.

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  14. Mine went bowl shaped as well, my kids wear it for weird hat day. My husband says it looks like something that Bob Marley would have worn :)

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  15. I wish I had read this sooner Haha! I did the same exact thing but mine turned out bowl shaped as well as noted in the other comments. Im afraid I pulled it too tight. Adorable craft, but definitely risky!

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  16. HaHa.. I thought I was the only one! I STARTED on the rug and got about half way thru, stepped back and saw the whole thing had moved about 3 inches to one side. Needless to say, it is STILL sitting unfinished in a closet!

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  17. I made this rug, but it took SEVERAL tries before I got it right. I was going to make several for my daughter for Mother's Day gifts. We ended up making one little rug (which is now being used as a cushion of sorts on a rocking chair) and several pot holders. Here's ours: http://thenerdnest.com/2012/06/may-challenge-results.html

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  18. My goodness! I really laughed out loud!!

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    1. me 3!!! hahahahaha, I loved the one whose kids wore theirs for weird hat day!!

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  19. I did this project with two first grade classes. We used their tshirts. The end result was small, placemat sized rugs. Butvtheybloved doing the weaving. Next time I would ask each student for 2 shirts. You have to do it once to really get a feel for it.

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  20. I made a few small ones before my current one which hopefully will be a full size rug. The smaller ones still looked good, so I backed them with a colour coordinating fabric and stuffed with a cushion :)

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  21. my sister made one, it also came out looking like a bowl. But made a really cute dog bed.

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  22. I just about died when I saw this and your description of how it came out. I've wanted to make one but felt like it would totally stink when I did it.

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  23. I tried this with my daughter who is four. I did most of the work and it came out like a bowl. She uses it as a mountian for her train table, a bed for her doll and a hat for a fashion show. It isn't even close to a rug but we found other uses for our pinstrosity.

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  24. I made this and it was great.... until I tried to wash it in the machine. DON'T DO IT! Now i'm about to make a 2nd one. Keep it loose people, keep it loose. :)

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  25. This really did make me laugh out loud, especially the size in reference to Chapstick. I think ALL things should be sized in reference to Chapstick from now on.

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  26. LOL! It's a hot pad! I agree with Erin. From now on I'm using a chapstick instead of the usual quarter to show relative size!

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  27. I made the smaller version on a large embroidery hoop using cut up onesies. It turned into a cute little basket. My youngest used it as a fez.

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  28. I am now working on my 7th rug using a hulla hoop. I've had a snafu on one of them from pulling the shirt strips tight. The strips should not be pulled. Also, on my hoop I marked the place where the strips should go so there is no guess work on that part. When I have the strips on for the framework I measure where the middle is and tie the middle with a couple of strips to hold it all in place. Once I finish the rug I just cut those ties off. You do have to push the strips down as you go. This takes a while for me to make, but everyone who has received one loves it!! This is one craft project I will continue for a long time. I have yet to be able to make one for me!! I keep getting requests for them.

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  29. It looks like almost every fail on here is from human error not the pin's problem... I still have to laught because I have had a fail or two as well.

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  30. Don't feel so bad! When I made mine it turned into a basket!

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  31. I think the main reason it looks so bad it that the strips aren't cut thin enough. Heck, some of them look like whole tshirts!

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  32. Oh I made this! It's up on Home in High Heels blog & really pretty! You could use that size as a pot holder maybe?

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  33. Mine turned out like a sombrero. Total fail here.

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  34. As in most things, the problem is in human error! We tend not to read carefully, skip parts of directions, and substitute items called for in the original pin so let's not blame the pinner. That said, I am glad I'm not the only one who came out with a bowl instead of a rug. I think my main problem came from not stretching the T shirts tight enough before starting to weave and then thinking it would look better pulled nice and tight. Yup got a bowl of sorts.Hmmmmmaybe that's an idea.....starch it up and call it a bowl instead of a rug. Mine isn't very big either. I'm going to try it again maybe this summer with my granddaughters. If someone could do this with 1st graders, my 3rd and 4th graders should be able to do it and they won't feel bad if it doesn't come out perfect the first time cause grandma's didn't either. If at first you don't succeed....

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  35. well done. it becomes much better! I did it before, but it doesn't look as good as yours. maybe something problem i did.

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