Giant Jersey Fabric Octopus Made From Recycled T-shirts, Plus a Mega Yarn Octopus Bonus

When my daughter presented me with 15 of her old t-shirts and ballet pants and announced we needed to find a more environmental friendly way of disposal than simply throwing away or ragging, I immediately had one though – how about a giant octopus! I know the concept seems a ‘stretch’ to go from old jersey clothing to large cephalopod, but let me step you through the idea. Thinking back to your childhood, you may have made a yarn (wool) octopus at school. I also remembered that I had seen people turning old t-shirts into yarn. You see where I am going. But there is no point just making a small sized t-shirt yarn octopus. I had a BIG pile of clothes to dispose of here! So I needed to up-size the whole idea.

This is the end result – a bright lime green octopus measuring 110cm from head to toe, which is a whopping 160cm diametre if spread out!

If you are game for a really unique way to recycle old jersey clothing too far gone for the Op-shop, then this will be the project for you.

As a treat I have also included basic instructions to make a monster yarn octopus as well. I made this monster back in 2019. Check out the photos and basic instructions at the end. You will be surprised just how far you can take the yearn octopus concept!

This project uses as many recycled parts as I could muster. Gather your materials. This may involve cleaning out your clothing drawers first! You will notice my photo of clothing includes the finished product. I didn't bother photographing the shirts before I started - they were not pretty.

The materials:

• At least 15 old T-shirts that you want to recycle, or other t-shirt weight stretch clothing
• 2 metres of two way stretch fabric for the ‘skin’ of the octopus. I used lime green fabric I sourced from the Brisbane-based charity called "The Nest Community" that resells fabrics from deceased estates that would otherwise go to landfill
• Scraps of wadding (I used about 60cm square in total)
• 1 *A4 sheet or some scraps of Pale yellow felt
• 1 * A4 sheet felt in the same colour as the octopus is going to be. I used lime green
• Embroidery thread in colours to match the felt. I used DMC 14 (pale green), and DMC 445 (pale yellow)
• Embroidery needle
• 2 * 30mm plastic safety eyes
• Fabric cutting scissors or rotary cutter and ruler for fabric strip cutting
• Older scissors to cut out felt
• Tape measure
• Overlocker (Serger) for sewing up the skin of the octopus, ideally with matching thread
• Needle and thread for catching down the covering of the legs – colour is not important
• Matching sewing thread to complete the hand stitching of the octopus skin joins. I used lime green
• Polyester filling as needed for filling the head
• Pins
• Tailor’s chalk
• 2B pencil

Because there are so many good Instructables for the creation of T-shirt yarn available, I won’t revisit the technique other than to say the strips I created from the shirts were all 10cm wide. This meant that my strips were far fatter than the usual ones you see. I was also using ballet pants to supply some of the strips, so some of the strips had lots of seams, but this is okay. I am using the clothing for the core and covering it with fabric like a sock over the top.

You will need a lot of strips to form the core of the octopus - a total of 72 strips just for the plaiting.

Each of the legs uses 6 lengths and each starts about 80cm to 1 meter long so the legs need 48 strips

The body core is formed from 24 lengths of 80cm.

You will also need additional strips to pad out the tops of the legs and to tie sections together. I reckon at least 20 additional strips would be needed.

Braiding the legs
Each of the legs is formed by plaiting (braiding) 6 strands together. This means I am plaiting with 3 lengths of two strips. I worked nice firm plaits and started by tying the tops together with a scrap of fabric and ended once I reached 80cm long of plait (there was tails beyond this). After I had plaited all 8 limb lengths, I neatened off one end by running some sewing thread around the end to secure it together and then trimming back the tails nicely. The dangling bits at the other end I used to join the legs to the core, so don’t trim yet. Set the leg plaits aside.

Braiding the body core

The core of the octopus – it’s head and the 8 leg starts is actually a monster plait. You will need two4 lengths of 80cm. That means I was plaiting 3 lengths of 8 strips. Tie them all together at one end and start plaiting in 3 bundles of 8 strands. This big fat plait will be the core of the head. Keep plaiting until you have a section about 50cm long. Now redivide the strands you are working with into 8 groups of 3 strands. Plait each of the eight sections individually until you have fully plaited the lengths and tie off each braid. At the end of this process you will be left with the world’s fattest ugliest jersey yarn octopus!

Each of the 8 thin sections of plaiting in the core section is joined to one giant leg plait. Use the messy end of the leg and lay the thin plait on top of the thicker leg plait. Tie the two sections together using the dangling ends from the plaiting process of each braid. Try and keep it fairly flat but don’t worry too much about some bulges. You will be covering the entire leg length in extra strips of stretch fabric round and round like a mummy and tapering out the joins at the leg tops.

Once you have joined all the legs to the body core, take the extra strips of jersey fabric you prepared earlier and wrap them along each leg tightly to form a fairly smooth surface. Work from the toe to the leg tops. You can taper more strips around the leg tops to bulk them out.

Using the spare sewing thread of any colour and a sewing needle, stitch the strips together all the way along each leg. This takes a while but is worth it to get legs that feel like real octopus tentacles.

Each leg is covered by a really long thin ‘sock’ made out of the two way stretch fabric in your choice of colour. I found some bright lime green stretch for mine. You will need about two metres of fabric.

Download the pattern sheets I have prepared. There are 6 * A4 pages and they join up (hopefully) to give you pattern pieces for the leg socks, and the head back and fronts as well as the eyes. Forgive my lack of neatness and old-school method for drawing up the pattern sheet.

From the pattern sheet cut out the leg template and use it and pins and scissors to cut 16 legs from the stretch fabric. Each template already has a 1cm seam allowance built in. Make sure you check your fabric stretch.

Pin sets of two pieces right sides together until you have eight pairs. I have used an overlocker to stitch each leg and I started from the leg top on one side and sewing all the way to the base, then turned the leg over and repeated stitching from top to bottom on the other side. I didn’t match my thread and you probably should.

Don’t bother turning through the legs. You can turn them as you insert them onto each leg (you know the method I am thinking of...). The sock will roll nicely up the leg and should not be too tight but also not too baggy.

At the top of each leg, put a little bit of polyester fill (not a lot) and then using needle and matching sewing thread to the skin, gather each leg top to the core of plaiting, using a running stitch and pull tight.

The legs are now ready.

In order to make the head smooth, the fabric core of the octopus needs to be padded with wadding to form a smooth surface.

I have used scraps of wadding to complete this process. I won’t give you specific measurements, but rather cut a length of wadding as long as the core of the octopus and wide enough to wrap around and just meet up. The goal is cover the head with a tight fitting layer of wadding that you then hand stitch together to form a smooth core. In this way there will be minimal lumps in your octopus head and you can limit the amount of filling the head needs. I apologise in advance for the slightly suggestive nature of the instruction photo here.

After covering the head with wadding, set your octopus aside while you sew the head ‘skin’.

Using the pattern pieces cut two back panels and one front panel from the stretch fabric. I have included a 1cm seam allowance all around.

Pin the two back panels right sides together and stitch the head back seam join using your overlocker.

Pin the front of the head to the head back panels along the side seams right sides together. Stitch around the outside from neck to neck using your overlocker.

Turn the head through. Slide the head covering over the head of your octopus, working out where you would like the back and front of the head to be.

Fill the gaps in the head with polyester fill through the neck gap until fairly tight and work the fill with your fingers into gaps to keep the head smooth. Completely fill the head to the neck but you don’t need to go below this point.

Spread the octopus out on a table with the legs evenly spaced like spokes on a wheel. Smooth the head covering out and pin the head covering to the legs, turning under a small 1cm seam as you work. The goal here is to pin the head covering to the legs all the way around so you can stitch the tops of each leg to the head covering for half of each leg top’s circumference. You will be hand stitching the leg tops down working in ladder stitch in machine sewing thread and will complete each leg top stitching separately.

After joining all the leg tops, you will need to make a base for the head section of the octopus. The base is going to be a large circle of the same stretch fabric you used for making the octopus covering. Because your dimensions may have turned out differently to mine, I did not provide a pattern for this part. Draw up a pattern for the base on a big piece of scrap paper. The best way to create a template for this piece is to draw a circle that’s big enough to match up with where the top of the head ‘skin’ fabric joins the legs all the way around. I found the perfect size for mine was actually to draw around the outside edge of a 16 inch (41cm) diametre quilters hoop I have.

Cut out the template and pin to the green stretch fabric. Cut out your circle.

With right side of the fabric out pin the circle to the base of your octopus core. I found the best way was to sit the octopus upside down in a small stool (like those IKEA one’s) supported by lots of towels and then spread out the legs evenly. I was able to evenly spread the fabric for the base. Pin the base onto each leg with a small 1cm seam turned under, matching where the head ‘skin’ covering meets the legs. Don’t over tighten the fabric. You will want to be able to do a couple of stitches right in the middle at the end where the octopus mouth is.

In the joins between each set of legs, match the fabric top to fabric bottom with a small hem on each and pin together.

Hand stitch the base to the legs all the way around using ladder stitch and matching sewing thread. It will take a while but will be worth it.

Using your sewing needle and matching thread, stitch a couple of stitches through the base fabric to the centre of the octopus.

The body of the octopus is now complete.

Using the pattern pieces, draw two eye bases and four eyelids on the green felt (or the felt colour to match your octopus skin) in tailors chalk or a 2B pencil. Draw four eye fronts onto the pale yellow felt.

Cut all pieces out using older scissors.

Pin two of the eye front together and fold in half to find the mid point of the eye. Mark this point with a pin. Using two strands of matching embroidery thread and an embroidery needle, blanket stitch from the centre of the eye front seam to the corner.

Insert the first safety eye front at the mid-point of the eye front seam butting up to your blanket stitch. Using two strands of matching embroidery thread and an embroidery needle, blanket stitch from the centre of the eye front seam to the corner on the other edge, so that the safety eye is caught in the middle of the two seams. Open out the eye front and insert the safety eye back into place.

Pin the eye front to the eye back and blanket stitch around edge, leaving a 3cm gap as a filling hole. Using polyester filling, stuff the eye until you are happy with the texture. Finish blank stitching the seam.

Repeat to make the second eye.

Pin the first eye lid into place on the top of the completed eyeball. Fold the eyelid in half and match the half way point to half way along the eyeball. You will find the ends overlap the corners a little. This is intentional to give the illusion of one lid closing over the other.

Using two strands of matching thread, blanket stitch the eye lid to the edge of the eyeball. You will be working over your previous blanket stitched seam for this.

Repeat this process to put the other eyelid on, and repeat both to put together the second eye.

Using my pattern piece as a guide, pin the eyes into position on the octopus head. Ensure the top lids are diagonally facing the side seams.

Stand your octopus up and ensure that the eyes are even.

Once you are happy with eye positioning, catch the eyes down with ladder stitch using two strands of matching embroidery thread close to the edges of the eyes. Repeat the loop of ladder stitches around the eye twice.

And there you have it. One absolutely massive fabric octopus made from clothing recycled in the most unique way possible.

• I think a nice swimsuit fabric like scuba would be wonderful for this project because of the shine of the fabric. I was keen to not by new fabric for the skin, so I was limited to what I could source second-hand.

• You could paint sucker rings onto the underside of each tentacle with fabric paint. I may do this sometime.

• If you did the whole octopus in a plain white fabric and are willing to paint, I think the end result of a painted work would look amazing!

• I think a half scale version would work well. My suggestion would be 5cm wide strips and leg length of 60cm with a head height of 35cm and shrink the pattern pieces to fit. You would need smaller safety eyes.

You may wonder how I knew this project was possible. It’s because all the way back in 2019 I made a massive yarn octopus using the traditional method but just taking it to the extreme. I don’t have the step by step pictures, but if you want to give the mega yarn octopus a go, you can refer to my photos and my brief instructions below.

I was true to the original idea of the yarn octopus, using a styrofoam ball, wool and felt but went VERY big!

I used the biggest styrofoam ball I could buy and then cut 4 donuts of foam out of some scraps to extended the head top and bottom (1 top 3 bottom). I glued it all together and then covered the head with a strip of wadding and hand-stitched in place to create a combined head shape. The head measured 30cm. To scale up the size of everyone, instead of using cardboard, I wrapped the wool around a couple of chair legs turned upside down on a table and spread 3 metres apart (bonus - you get a workout with walking up and down).

I used 7 balls of wool - two off-white for the under-leg strips, and 5 of various yellowy, brown tones for the top layer. I worked the two off white balls first around the chair legs one ball at a time and tied the top of the loop before cutting the loop at the furthest point from the tie. After getting the two giant piles of wool I draped them over the head from top to bottom (one facing one direction and the other at 90 degrees to first). I tied them at the bottom with another bit of off-white wool. I used a hand needle and matching thread to catch the wool onto the head at two points: one just on the top between the shaping of the top caused by the foam donut and sphere, and the second at the bottom where the styrofoam sphere meets the base donuts. I then sectioned and plaited 8 legs and used pegs to hold the end of each plait. These 8 legs will be the white under-strip on each of the legs.

I then wrapped 5 balls of various shades of yellow and brown wool around the chair legs one at a time and collected 5 hanks of wool. After preparing the 5 hanks, I divided the colours in each hank evenly between two piles to create to large mixed colour hanks. I followed the same process to drape and secure the wool over the off-white wool as I did for the under-legs, except I only tied the base temporarily. After I plaited all 8 legs, I paired an off-white leg with a coloured leg. I determined a finished length for the white section slightly shorter then the coloured and using matching thread stitched closed the end of the white leg. I trimmed the white wool off close to the stitched end. I then hand-stitched along the entire length of the white plait on the left and right side to the matching coloured plait using matching thread. I turned under the end of the white leg as a came the end to create a neat end. I then worked out a length for the coloured leg about 10cm longer and hand-stitched the end closed and trimmed off wool neatly near end. I repeated for all legs and then undid the temporary tie at the base of the head. To make the eyes, I purchased two large fake eyes and mounted these in felt (9cm wide by 10cm long). I blanket stitched the felt eyes and filled with polyester fill. I added felt eyelids and then positioned and glued the eyes to the head (wrapping the head to secure the eyes while the PVA glue dried). I used needle and matching thread after the eyes were dry to catch around the eyes for added strength.