This ice cozy was crocheted from a T-shirt cut into strips to create T-yarn or tarn. I often use an icy brick in my lunch bag and wanted a little cozy for it. The ice block gets wet and has condensation after a while in my lunch bag. Now with the tarn ice cozy, it works wonderfully to keep my lunch bag dry and to capture the condensation from the ice brick.
I cut my T-shirt strips very narrow to make this cozy. Here is my T-yarn tutorial showing how I cut and stretch my strips to create what I like to call curled T-yarn. The only change you want to make for this project is to cut your strips only about 1/4 inch wide. I know this is narrow but if you cut slowing and carefully it works out so you have a nice thin strand to crochet with.
I used the following soap saver pattern to crochet my ice brick cozy. This tarn project and free crochet pattern was a Tarn Along over Recycled into Yarn site. The final measurements are 6 inches long by 3-1/2 inches wide. I did make mine a bit bigger at the beginning and crocheted 3 DC’s in the corners so the icy block would fit and its plenty big. I have 28 stitches in the bag around with 8 crowns at the top.
The tarn cozy was made with less than one T-shirt and could be used for an ice cozy as I have done, a soap saver, or even an i-Phone holder as shown here that Teresa did in the original Tarn Along.
Recycled your old tee-shirts into a cute handbag. I crocheted this purse using two t-shirts and a part of another for the striping. I added a flower as an embellishment and here is my final result.
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Here is a photo showing how I cut around the tee-shirt to create “yarn” to crochet with. You just continue cutting in one continuous strip and go around corners as shown. If you do need to join two strips, either overlap and weave under your ends or join splicing strips together by either hand or machine stitching the ends together. Another method that doesn’t require sewing the strips together is to make a small slit hole at the end of the two strips you need to splice together. The slit should be cut lengthwise only about 1/2 inch from the end of the strip and should only be big enough to allow the next strip to pass through it. Hold the two strips with the holes together then take the uncut end and lace it through two holes. Pull the strip completely through the holes and pull tight to make the splice as small as possible.
Have fun with this project by recycling your tee-shirts into a charming eco-friendly handbag. The materials are free and so is the crochet pattern below.
Free Crocheted Recycled Tee-Shirt Bag Pattern
Bag measures 10 inches wide and 9″ long with 8″ handles.
Material: Three different colored tee-shirts cut into 1/2″ to 3/4 inch strips
Hook: Metal N (9 mm) crochet hook
Chain 12
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