Making A T-Shirt Quilt…The basics
I don’t have a way to record video….and
don’t like the way on a camera anyway…lol!
But some friends asked me to do a tutorial on the way I make t-shirt
quilts…so here we go with something new.
Let’s talk materials first of all.
Must haves include a sewing machine, scissors, rotary cutter, and straight edge
cutting tools. I remember using a
cardboard form for my very first one and it was a quilt…lol….but the tools do
help make the quilt higher quality. Here is a picture of my collection of
cutting tools to date…the latest purchase was the rotary cutting mat you see
propped up in the back of the picture.
Now let’s talk shirts…any
shirt will do…but knit t-shirts are awesome. Turn those unworn ones into a
usable throw or blanket…whatever size you want. A twin size takes about 15-20
shirts…depending on the size you cut the squares. My current project is about a 63 x 77 inch blanket of toddler size shirts.
There are 99 shirts in it…cut to 7.5 inch blocks. Your quilt will be limited
only by what shirts you want to turn into one.
The next step is prepping the
shirts for cutting. They need to be
washed…and smooth. You don’t have to
iron them…but they have to be smooth…all wrinkles smoothed out. Now look at your logos and designs on the
shirts. They will vary in size…even on
the toddler ones I had to decide the best way to display them. Some of the t
shirts logos were bigger than the 7.5 block I chose as the one that would show
the most logo without having to worry with the neck and side seams interfering
in my sewing them together. Here is where a collection of square cutting tools comes in handy. Lay your tool on each shirt to decide which
one is best…
This tool left out too much of the design…not a good choice
for this pink shirt…
This tool worked perfect for this green shirt….
Now you can begin the tedious job of cutting out all the
blocks. I can’t express how wonderful it was to use a rotary mat for the first
time. It cut 6 hours of cutting time in
half. I cut through both sides of the
shirt and use the backs to make the other side. If you want a solid back… which
is really easier to do. You can only cut
one layer…and find a pretty flannel for your back later.
Next you will want to lay them out and plan your
design. Some colors and logos just look
better if they are spread out. You don’t want all the same colors together….especially
if you have a lot of white shirts. I like to plan as I cut... letting a few
shirts pile up in a stack…then taking them to my design area…in my case this is
usually my bed. Here’s a picture of my plan…
The
next step is cutting nd ironing on the stablizer. You can not skip this step..or your quilt
blocks will not retain their shape. Knit
stretches….really bad. The stabilazer is fairly cheap…about a dollar a yard
last time I bought some. It keeps the knit from stetching as you sew. Cut your stabilizer just a tad smaller than
your block…to cut down on the bulkyness of seams…and to keep from having to use
a throw away surface when ironing. The sticky
will ruin your ironing board cover and no one wants to stop and clean an iron
just when you get your rythmn on. It goes on the back of each square yu cut
out. I iron one side at stack them in rows…labled how to sew them when I get
them all ironed.
This is the first part…the prep
part is very important. No sewing till
you have all this done!
