My First Tee Shirt Quilt

 

 

I have had a basket of the middle child's tee shirts sitting in my basement for quite awhile now with the intent of making a quilt.  I got the urge late in December and decided to get started. Honestly it may be easier to make a quilt from scratch but it turned out great. So here is the process I used.

 

 

First you launder them all because you have been procrastinating. The shirts are from childhood and the child is now an adult. But a kid can amass some interesting shirts as he goes through high school and college.  Next you slit them open at sides and cut off sleeves so the shirt can be splayed open. At this point you iron on middleweight Pellon interfacing to any front or back that you will be using. It is imperative that you iron on the interfacing before cutting out your quilt blocks.  If you use interfacing that is too lightweight the blocks will stretch too much when sewing them together.

 

 

As you can see my blocks are not all the same size.  I cut them 12 1/2 inch square, 8 1/2 inch square, 4 1/2 inch square and a few 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. I did not worry about how many of each I had. When I had all I wanted to use I set about designing it. It was like a jigsaw puzzle. I just started at the center and fit them together. It was quite fun laying it out. Then I just sewed it together with 1/4 inch seams. I added a 3 inch border.

 

 

To quilt it I used quilter's flannel on the back and 1/4 inch loft needlepunched poly batting. For the body of the quilt I stitched in the ditch around the blocks. However my favorite part was free motioning his name, Jimmy, around the entire border.

 

 

 

I have also decided to take the time to add a label to my quilts. I have been remiss in the past of doing so.

 

 





So clean out those drawers and make a tee shirt quilt.  It is a great way to use up those shirts you don't have the heart to throw away and make something useful.