T-shirt Quilt

Well again my t-shirt drawer was over flowing with shirts that i wanted to keep around but didn't wear them very often and didn't have the space to keep them around. so i turned them into a quilt. The quit is made up of 12 squares, but not necessarily 12 t-shirts as a baby doll shirt doesn't have enough fabric to form a 12 or 13 inch square. so for those shirts i cut the logo out that i wanted to keep and cut a square from the back of another shirt.

[the overall view]

once i gathered the shirts i measured the largest logo and used that as my base size to cut the rest of the shirts. i then cut all the squares and logos as the case may be and laid them next to each other to get a sense of how it would look. once i was satisfied with the placement i sewed the loose logos on the squares with a zig-zag stitch in a somewhat matching color, though clear tread might have been easier and in some cases better.once i had all the logos attached to the squares i sewed each of the squares into their respective rows and then the rows together to form the face of the quilt. Note: sometimes the fabric gets caught when sewing two loose fabric together so i take a skinny strip of regular cotton fabric and use that when sewing all of the seams.

[close view]

i then took the fabric and cut about a 5 inch boarder to cover each side, 2 x 90 inches and 2 x 60 inches in this case. though it would have been better to add a little more wiggle room so that the corner seams line up evenly. once the sides are sewn take a final measurement of the size of the quilt. likely you will have to sew two pieces of fabric together to have a wide enough panel for the back. find a big open space on the floor where you can stretch the fabric out and place the backing good side up and the top piece good side down making sure that if the patterns are directional they are set up how you would like them. then place a piece of batting on the top, cut it to size and pin the whole thing together.

[backing fabric]

then sew around all the edges you jut pinned up leaving about a 12-13 inch hole on one side to be able to turn the fabric inside out once the sewing is completed. then carefully stitch the hole up and you pretty much have a completed quilt! you will want to make sure you tack down the corners or somewhere in the squares so the batting doesn't ball up when you wash the quilt.

your fabric choices are up to you. i chose fabrics that would make me happy and fabrics that were soft and cozy for sitting watching TV in the cold or taking a nap. I used a standard cotton on a previous t-shirt quilt and sometimes it is a little chilly to use as a a solitary nap blanket.

[My other t-shirt quilt made in 2005, 50 by 70 inches]

[back of my other t-shirt quilt]

[up close on the tacking of the quilt around the moon and square detail]

happy quilting!