How to Make Your Own Wick for a Lamp

Spread out your cotton fabric and cut it into strips about 1 inch wide and up to 12 inches long. Cotton T-shirts work well for this, as do 100-percent cotton tea towels. Towels are harder to twist, so you may want to cut them into 1/2-inch strips instead of the full inch.

Grip one end of one of the strips in your non-dominant hand and the other end in your dominant hand.

Move your dominant wrist in a clockwise motion, twisting the fabric into a long, tight coil. Keep twisting until the fabric develops a kink in the center.

Bring the ends of the fabric together, allowing them to twist around each other in a rope-like configuration.

Quickly slip the folded end into the slit in your oil lamp and turn the key to the left to pull the wick down into the oil. Leave about 1/2 inch of the wick sticking up above the wick slit in the lamp.