How To Make A Braided T-Shirt Rug
If you’ve been collecting old t-shirts in the back of your closet, wondering what to do with them, this project is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. A braided t-shirt rug is one of the most satisfying DIY crafts you can take on — it’s practical, beautiful, completely customizable, and costs almost nothing to make. Whether you’re a seasoned crafter or picking up a craft project for the first time, this step-by-step guide will walk you through everything you need to know to create a gorgeous, durable rug from fabric you already own.
These rugs have been made by hand for generations, and there’s a reason the tradition has endured. A well-made braided rug adds warmth and texture to any room, holds up to heavy foot traffic, and tells a story through the colors and patterns of the shirts that went into it. Let’s get started.
What You’ll Need Before You Begin
Before you cut a single strip of fabric, it helps to gather all your materials in one place. The beauty of this project is that the main ingredient — old t-shirts — is essentially free. Here’s a full list of what you’ll need:
T-shirts: Plan on using between 10 and 20 adult-sized t-shirts depending on the size of rug you want to make. Larger rugs require more fabric. Heavier cotton shirts work best because they hold their shape during braiding and create a sturdier finished product. Avoid shirts with a lot of stretch in just one direction; a good jersey knit that stretches evenly in all directions will give you the smoothest strips.
Sharp fabric scissors: A dull pair of scissors will make this project frustrating. Invest in a decent pair of fabric shears or make sure your scissors are freshly sharpened. You’ll be cutting a lot of fabric, and clean cuts make for better-looking strips.
A ruler or cutting mat: These help you keep your strips an even width, which matters more than you might think. Uneven strips lead to an uneven braid, which leads to a rug that doesn’t lie flat.
Safety pins or binder clips: You’ll need something to anchor your braid while you work so it doesn’t unravel. Safety pins work well for clipping the braid to a heavy object or a table edge.
A large blunt needle and strong thread or upholstery thread: This is what you’ll use to coil and stitch your braid into a rug. Regular sewing thread will break under the tension, so use something heavy-duty. Upholstery thread, carpet thread, or even strips of t-shirt fabric itself can work.
Optional — a rotary cutter and cutting mat: If you plan to make multiple rugs or simply want cleaner, faster cuts, a rotary cutter is a worthwhile tool to have on hand.
Choosing and Preparing Your T-Shirts
The colors and patterns of the shirts you choose will define the personality of your rug. Spend a little time thinking about what look you’re going for before you start cutting.
For a cohesive, intentional look, choose shirts in a limited color palette — maybe two or three colors that complement each other. A rug made from navy, white, and gray shirts, for instance, will look clean and modern. For something more eclectic and boho, mix in bold colors and even printed shirts. The printed graphics on shirts blend into the braid in an interesting, almost abstract way, so don’t be afraid to include them.
Once you’ve selected your shirts, wash and dry them all if they haven’t been laundered recently. This pre-shrinks the fabric so your rug won’t shrink later, and clean fabric is simply easier and more pleasant to work with.
Remove any buttons, zippers, or thick seam sections that could interfere with your cuts or create lumpy spots in the braid. For most basic t-shirts, you’ll want to cut off the bottom hem and the top shoulder/neck section, leaving you with a clean tube of fabric from the body of the shirt.
How To Cut T-Shirts Into Strips
This is arguably the most important preparation step, so take your time here.
Method 1 — Tube Cutting (the most efficient method):
Lay your t-shirt flat on a table. Cut off the bottom hem in a straight horizontal line, then cut off the top of the shirt just below the armholes, leaving you with a fabric tube. Now cut this tube into horizontal rings, each about 1.5 to 2 inches wide. When you pick up these rings and stretch them, they curl into rounded strips — this curling is exactly what you want. It gives your braid a full, rounded look rather than a flat, ribbon-like appearance.
The standard width is 1.5 inches for a medium-weight strip. If your shirts are very thin, go a little wider — up to 2 inches. If they’re thick, 1 to 1.5 inches is plenty.
Method 2 — Spiral Cutting (for longer continuous strips):
This method is a bit more involved but produces one long, continuous strip from a single shirt rather than multiple separate loops. Lay the tube flat, then cut at a slight diagonal from one edge, continuing around the tube in a spiral until you’ve cut the whole thing into one long strand. This minimizes the number of joins you’ll need to make later in the braiding process.
Whichever method you use, stretch each strip lightly between your hands after cutting. This encourages the edges to curl inward, hiding the raw edges and creating a smooth, rope-like strip.
Joining Your Strips Together
Unless you’re using the spiral cutting method, you’ll need to join your individual loops into longer, continuous strands before or during braiding.
The simplest joining method is the fabric knot, but knots create small bumps in your braid. A cleaner method is the interlocking loop join:
Take the end of one strip and the end of the next strip. Cut a small slit about half an inch from the end of each strip. Thread one strip through the slit of the other, then fold it back through its own slit, pulling it snug. This creates a flat, almost invisible join that won’t bulk up your braid.
As you work, you’ll join new strips as needed. Many crafters prefer to work with strips that are about two to three yards long at a time, joining new ones as they go rather than preparing everything in advance.
How To Braid T-Shirt Strips
Now for the most meditative part of the process — the braiding itself.
Start by taking three long strips of t-shirt fabric. These can be three different colors if you want a striped effect in your braid, two of one color and one of another for a subtler pattern, or all the same color for a solid look.
Tie or pin the three strips together at one end. Clip this end to something secure — a heavy piece of furniture, a door handle, or a table clamped with a binder clip all work well. You want steady tension as you braid.
Braid the three strips together using a standard over-under braid: take the right strip and cross it over the middle, making it the new middle. Then take the left strip and cross it over the new middle, making it the new middle. Repeat, keeping your braid snug but not so tight that the fabric puckers.
As you braid, keep gentle, even tension on all three strips. This is what keeps the braid from twisting on itself or developing lumpy spots. It helps to periodically lay the braid flat and look at it straight on — if it’s twisting, loosen your grip slightly and straighten it before continuing.
When you run out of one strip, join a new one using the interlocking loop method described above. When you’ve made a braid that’s about three feet long, you have enough to begin coiling and stitching your rug.
How To Coil and Stitch Your Rug
This step transforms your braid from a long rope into an actual rug. There are two common shapes for braided rugs: oval and round. Here’s how to make each one.
For a round rug:
Coil the beginning of your braid tightly into a flat spiral, starting from the center. Hold the coil in your lap or on a flat surface and use your large blunt needle threaded with upholstery thread (or a strip of matching t-shirt fabric) to stitch adjacent rows of braid together. Push the needle through the loops of the braid on one row and the loops of the adjacent row, pulling snugly to hold them together without puckering.
Work your way outward, continuing to coil the braid and stitch each new row to the previous one as you go. Check regularly that the rug is lying flat — if it starts to dome upward in the center or curl up at the edges, you may be stitching too tightly or the braid tension may be uneven. Adjust as needed.
For an oval rug:
An oval rug starts with a straight segment rather than a central point. Decide how long you want the center of your oval to be — for a 2-foot by 3-foot rug, your starting segment should be about 1 foot long. Fold the braid back on itself at the end of this segment and begin stitching the two parallel rows together. At each end of the oval, the braid curves around, and you’ll need to ease in a little extra braid to allow for the curve without puckering.
Continue adding rows around the outside, stitching as you go, until your rug reaches the desired size.
Tips For Keeping Your Rug Flat and Even
A rug that won’t lie flat is the most common frustration with this project, but it’s almost always preventable with a few mindful habits.
Work on a flat surface as much as possible so you can see immediately when things are going wrong. If your rug starts to dome, you have too much braid on the outer rows — loosen your stitching slightly and ease in the slack. If the edges curl upward like a bowl, you need a little more braid on the outer rows, so let the braid run a touch looser as you coil.
Keep your braid tension consistent throughout. The most common cause of a warped rug is braiding more tightly in some sections than others, which creates uneven lengths and throws off the whole spiral.
Stitch every few inches rather than waiting until you have a long section of loose braid to attach. The more frequently you stitch, the more control you have over the shape.
Finishing Your Rug
When your rug has reached the size you want, it’s time to finish the end of the braid cleanly so it blends into the edge of the rug rather than sticking out awkwardly.
Gradually taper the end of your braid by trimming each of the three strips a little shorter than the last, so the braid naturally narrows and flattens toward the end. Stitch this tapered end firmly to the outer row of the rug, tucking in any raw edges as you go. If needed, use a few extra hand stitches or a dab of fabric glue to secure the very end.
Flip the rug over and inspect the back. If any stitches are visible and bother you, you can go over them with matching thread to neaten them up, but honestly, the back of a braided rug rarely shows.
Care and Maintenance
Your braided t-shirt rug is surprisingly durable and easy to care for since it’s made from pre-washed cotton. For regular maintenance, shake it out outdoors or vacuum it on a low setting to remove loose dirt and debris.
For a deeper clean, most t-shirt rugs can be machine washed on a gentle cycle in cold water and tumbled dry on low heat. If your rug is quite large, a commercial washing machine at a laundromat will handle it better than a standard home machine. Some crafters prefer to hand wash large rugs in the bathtub and air dry them flat to preserve the shape.
Avoid harsh detergents or bleach, which can break down the cotton fibers over time.
Ideas for Customizing Your Rug
One of the most exciting things about this project is how endlessly customizable it is.
Consider creating a color-block pattern by working entirely in one color for the first several rows, then switching to a new color family. This creates distinct rings of color that radiate outward from the center.
For a striped effect in the braid itself, use three different colors and keep them consistent throughout — this produces a candy-cane-like spiral pattern when the rug is coiled.
You can also experiment with mixing fabric weights. Combining jersey cotton t-shirts with softer cotton pajama fabric or flannel creates interesting texture variation in the finished rug.
If you want a thicker, plusher rug, try folding each strip in half lengthwise before braiding. This doubles the thickness of each strand and creates a noticeably more substantial braid.
Why This Project Is Worth Your Time
There’s something deeply satisfying about turning worn-out clothes into something that will last for years. A braided t-shirt rug is not a throwaway craft project — made well, it will hold up to real daily use in a kitchen, bathroom, entryway, or bedroom. It gets softer and more beautiful with use, the way the best handmade things do.
It’s also a genuinely sustainable choice. Rather than sending old t-shirts to a landfill or contributing to the cycle of fast fashion, you’re giving them a second life that could last another decade or more.
And there’s the meditative pleasure of the braiding itself — the repetitive, rhythmic motion of weaving strips together, the gradual growth of the braid in your hands, the satisfying moment when the coil starts to look unmistakably like a rug. It’s the kind of craft that earns its place in a weekend afternoon.
Gather your old shirts, sharpen your scissors, and give it a try. You might find yourself making rugs for every room in the house.
