Development of functional materials that can remove oil from water by an energy-efficient way is highly desirable yet still challenging. Herein, graphene coated cotton was fabricated by a self-assemble technique. This graphene coated cotton could be used as an oil absorbent material, due to its superhydrophobicity and superoleophilicity. It was found that the oil absorption capacity of the graphene coated cotton differed slightly after ten cycles of oil–water separation. The graphene coated cotton also possessed excellent mechanical properties, resulting from the special texture combined the advantages of graphene and raw cotton. Most interestingly, when applied in conjunction with a vacuum system, the time needs for oil collection was shortened. We believe that this kind of sorbent is a promising candidate for use in large-scale removal of oils from water.