Waste Fabric Crochet Pot Plant Cover/Baskets

It was during the Covid lockdowns that we started making these waste fabric baskets as a means of keeping our hands something to as well as a way to become more circular. 

At the beginning of our Asmuss journey we had a bit of bad luck. A roll of our fabric arrived with a fault that meant small fibres were released.

Annoyingly, we didn’t discover this fault until we had already made a small batch of production - what to do with these garments? We couldn’t sell them, and we certainly didn’t want to burn them (sadly an industry standard for most faulty fabrics), so a friend came up with another alternative. 

She showed me how to make a continuous yarn from an old tee-shirt and that was it, a solution was found! Cutting the garments into different widths  I could use it as yarn for weaving, knitting or crochet. 

Since the fabric faults meant I couldn’t make anything wearable I wanted to make something functional and unique instead- hence the plant pot covers or a basket to cheer up my workspace.

So here is everything you need to know how to make your own crochet plant pot cover/basket from your old t-shirts.

Create your yarn from a t-shirt

Step 1:

Find an old jersey t-shirt that is worn out and you don’t ever want to wear again.

Step 2:

Cut the hem off the bottom of the tee-shirt, as this is too thick to use for the yarn.

Step 3:

Cut horizontally across the body of the tee-shirt (you can do any thickness, but I wouldn’t go any skinner than 1.5cm as the yarn becomes too thin).

Make sure you do not cut all the way to the edge. You need to leave about 2-3cm at the edge so that you can turn it into a continuous yarn.

Step 4:

Continue cutting horizontally into the t-shirt until you reach the armholes of the top. This is as far as you can go with the yarn.

Step 5:

Once you have all of the horizontal cuts you need to make it into a continuous length.

You do this by flattening the side seam on the side that has not been cut, so that you can see the cuts on both left and right of the seam.

Then cut diagonally from the lower cut to the one above, which joins the yarn, like a spiral. Continue the full way up the side seam.

Step 6:

Roll yarn into a ball - now it’s ready to use for all sorts of projects.

Now the crochet pattern for the plant pot cover/basket

What you need:

• 8mm hook (or larger depending on the thickness of your yarn).
• Scissors
• 1 or 2 balls of waste jersey yarn 1.5-2cm wide

If you want to learn the stitches, we have provided links to instruction videos on You Tube, they were the best we could find. Fiona has been teaching herself to crochet using them even if it takes  lot of pausing and muting.

Abbreviations: All in UK terms.

ML = magic loop 

Ch = chain 

Dc = double crochet (UK)

Ss = slip stitch

Htr = half treble 

Tr = treble 

St/sts = stitch / stitches 

To start:

ML, Ch2, 10 Dc into ML, Ss to join. Use a safety pin to mark the join so you know where the start of the row is.

Round 2:

Ch3, *2Tr into 1st St, 1Tr into next St.* Repeat from * to* around, Ss to join.

Round 3:

Ch1, *2Dc into 1st St, 1Dc into next 2 Sts* Repeat from * to* around, Ss to join.

*Repeat round 3 until the desired circumference of plant pot cover*

Round 4:

*Ch2, 1 Htr into each St around, Ss to join*.

*Repeat round 4 until you reach your desired height of pot plant holder.

Finish by sewing any loose ends into the pot plant holder.

Happy crocheting!!!!!