T-Shirt Jump Ropes For Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

The current project in our church family is making t-shirt jumprope for this year's Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. 

You'll need a variety of colors of t-shirts. Chances are you have some in the closet already, or you know some moms and kids who have some to spare. This should be an incredibly inexpensive project with such rich rewards.

And there are so few tools required. A friend is letting me use her cutting mats and rotary cutter, so all I had to provide is a pair of heavy-duty scissors.

The strips you'll cut are 1.5 inches wide, so it's super easy to stack mats and move them across the mat to keep from wearing them too much.

For each shirt, fold them in half and cut straight across right under the armpit seam.

Then lay it flat and cut 1.5-inch strips. It will have seams on either end and be a complete loop.

When you pick them up and stretch them, they'll wrap up on themselves and turn into rope.

This is what three shirts cut up will look like. You'll have 8-9 loops per shirt, and you'll need four loops in each of three different colors.

Now it's time to braid! Tie three loops together in a knot.

Then pretend you're doing your best friends hair and tightly braid the three colors together. Don't separate them - use the doubled-over loop in its entirety. That will make sense when you're doing it.

Since the jumprope needs to be long enough to use, you'll add on three more loops to each color.

Tuck the next loop through a short way...

...stick the long portion through the small loop...

...and pull it tight. Continue braiding this length, then add the next one. 

At some point you may want to stand up so the loops don't get tangled, but that's entirely up to you.

But be warned, if you do, tiny dogs may try to help you. Maybe it's a risk you're willing to take. Personal choice.

At the end of the fourth loops, tie another knot and cut the ends off. Then you can go back and cut each end loop so it's all fluffy.

If you need to test the jumprope out before you tie it up with a piece of scrap fabric, by all means, do so. I will neither confirm nor deny if I did so in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by very confused dogs. This is going to be an amazing addition to a child's Christmas shoebox, I promise you that.