# T-shirt quilts



## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

Has anyone made a t-shirt quilt or had one made by one of the companies online? My daughter has requested that I try to make one out of her old t-shirts and I have found directions online, but not sure I have the skill or confidence to tackle it. But also not sure which is the best online quilt maker to employ, so am in research and "thinking on it" mode...any suggestions based on personal experiences or reliable hearsay is very welcome.


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## Kathiediev (Feb 23, 2014)

I just made one for my granddaughter's graduation. It wasn't hard. If you want more info, PM me. I'll send you a pic.


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## YoK2tog (Aug 17, 2011)

I was in the thinking on it mode last year but decided to just jump in its for my grandson he helped and we cut the fronts and a couple of backs from his shirts then we used an iron on backing to stabilize the stretchy shirts I took a bed sheet and cut strips to sew around the shirt parts. we have stopped as he now has bunch more shirts and he wants to decide which ones he wants to add and how to arrange them he is a senior so I believe this will be done sometime this winter.....


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## Kathiediev (Feb 23, 2014)

My granddaughter's quilt. The pink is flannel.


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## YoK2tog (Aug 17, 2011)

Kathie that is about what I think his will look like only using grey cotton to join them and also using a flat double sheet for the backing


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## DarFromRedondo (Jul 31, 2012)

How cute is that!!!


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

Wow! It looks great! Thanks so much for sharing and for the encouraging feedback. Some say they've done one and would never do another. What kind of backing and fiberfill did you use? My sewing machine is older so that is another thing that I hope won't be an issue. Just feeling a bit overwhelmed and intimidated, but also intrigued and challenged.


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## Charlotte80 (Jan 24, 2011)

If you go to search above and type in t-shirt quilts some pictures will come up, among other things made with t-shirts.


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

Thanks, I appreciate all the positive feedback--and so quickly


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## Kathiediev (Feb 23, 2014)

My quilt is backed with the same flannel used to piece it. It has no fiberfill as my GD wanted to use it to cuddle up in. &#9786;&#65039;


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

That certainly works. It seems like it would be more 'user friendly' and less complicated to make. Thanks.


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## Patty Sutter (Apr 17, 2012)

I made one from the Ts and sweats that my DIL had in high school and college. She had already cut out the pertinent areas, wilt No idea of straight lines! It was somewhat of a 'crazy' quilt!
First buy some light weight iron-on interfacing. You. Need to stability
Size the T-shirt jersey. After that, have fun matching/mismatching all your pieces.
We bought a fleecy blanket for the back with a thin batt between.h
I din not try to quilt it. I used a matching acrylic yarn to tie it ta all the corners of the squares with the knots won the back (blanket side).


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## mama879 (Jan 27, 2011)

Oh my you can do it. Very simple sewing and your old machine will do fine..... You can do it....


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

Thanks to you all for the great ideas and the encouragement. I am definitely feeling that it doesn't need to be any more complicated than I want it to be and it will serve very well in whatever manner it is put together.


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## Patty Sutter (Apr 17, 2012)

Mi DIL emailed me the photo of the quilt I made for her.
I forgot that we'd added bits and pieces of the autograph dogs. :-D


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

Very nice and a cool idea.


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## Bstevensdunn (Dec 29, 2012)

I am sewing one from collared knit shirts for the family of deceased minister. I am doing a modified nine patch and attempting to place the religious symbol (from the pocket) in the center of the nine patch. the nine patch forms a cross. I will back the finished quilt with fleece and tie with yarn where the crosses meet to help stabilize the squares.


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## lovey (Nov 11, 2011)

I am actually working on my first now, my first. It was a suggestion to help my husband downsize his t shirts. I am bordering the squares with a white jelly roll. My problem is going to be sewing the different sizes together.


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## Deb Hjelseth (Jan 4, 2014)

I have made these for 2 sons and also my brothers 4 kiddos for HS grad. I have a serger, makes the knits "tame down". Using a bed sheet for the backing so no seam. Tied at all intersections and sometimes if the design was really large on the tee, in the center. A couple - all the blocks were the same size, and others were all different size blocks. Had to move the dining rm table out to lay out everything. Another idea I used for my niece's, there are lots of empty backs of the shirts, I cut circle, donuts, then cut open, reverse and these became a multi-colored ruffle around the edge. It had to be hand sewn unfortunately, but she liked it.


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## jberg (Mar 23, 2011)

Good morning. This is not a hard project and I can assure you that it will much used and loved. I made two of these for my daughters when they graduated from HS over 15 years ago and recently did the one pictured for my sister. My daughters' were their band shirts, front and back. I backed the tee's to stabilize them better and had sashing in between the blocks. I did just a straight stitch around each block to quilt it. Whenever I visit either of them I find the quilts there and being used. My sister recently reminded me that I had said I would make one for her son someday. What??? Anyhow. She gave me many shirts of all different sizes since she had saved ones from toddler up to college age. This was harder since they were all different sizes but I managed to get them all put together. I did not stabilize the backs of these. Where the pieces didn't meet I added plain pieces of tee shirt fabric from the scraps to square them up. This one was not quilted just tied with yarn. She said he was quite pleased with it. Oh, all of them had Warm and Natural batting inside. Hope this helps and encourages you. Good luck.


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## watknanc (Jan 20, 2013)

Here's the one I made for a friend's daughter. I've pm'd you about how I did it.


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## RobbiD (Nov 13, 2012)

lacousin said:


> Wow! It looks great! Thanks so much for sharing and for the encouraging feedback. Some say they've done one and would never do another. What kind of backing and fiberfill did you use? My sewing machine is older so that is another thing that I hope won't be an issue. Just feeling a bit overwhelmed and intimidated, but also intrigued and challenged.


lacousin, what timing! I am now in the process of doing my second one. The first was for my oldest granddaughter's HS graduation 2 years ago--I was drafted "You can make Taylor a quilt, right Mom?". I had never done ANY quilting before. I found it challenging and fun. I am now (drafted again!) making one for my oldest grandson's college graduation. My sewing machine is almost 40 years old, and has some issues, but it worked just fine! I used backing that I bought from JoAnn that is 108" wide. It was about $10 yd., but 3 yards was enough for the 100" sq quilt. A king size flat sheet would have probably worked as well. I bought low-loft batting, also from JoAnn. Don't remember the cost, but believe it was polyester, in king-size so no piecing together. I didn't know enough to use interfacing on the first one, but will definitely do so on the second one, to reduce stretching of the t-shirt blocks.


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## lacousin (Jul 19, 2013)

I am very impressed with the abundance of talent and the outpouring of help and positive comments. Thanks so much. I am definitely going to give this a try.


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## margieknits (Feb 15, 2013)

De Leonardis has a couple of nice books out available on Amazon. She has lots of hints to avoid the frustration of starting something new. I attended one of her work shops. My T-shirt quilts look lovely now and are so much easier to put together!


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## Dorsey (Jan 20, 2012)

I also have made one, turned out really nice. If you would like to hear about how I did it, or like a picture, send me a PM and I will send it.
Dot


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## beav1 (Nov 14, 2012)

I had a quilt made for my husband by Campus Quilt Co. and they did a beautiful job. It is an all woman company and they make sure that everything is perfect.


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## krankymax (Mar 5, 2012)

Kathiediev said:


> My granddaughter's quilt. The pink is flannel.


This is adorable. Love the t-shirts you used and the flannel color makes it more adorable.


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## krankymax (Mar 5, 2012)

Love all the t-shirt quilts. They are awesome for kids.


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## Kansas g-ma (Mar 7, 2014)

lacousin said:


> Has anyone made a t-shirt quilt or had one made by one of the companies online?


I can give you a good site or two with free instructions:

http://www.goosetracks.com/T-Shirt%20Quilt%20Instructions.html

http://www.straw.com/quilting/articles/teequilts_how.html

You may have to copy/paste. They do not tell you to check the iron-on interfacing to see which way there is give and to put that way at right angles to the give of the t-shirt but I found that to be helpful. If you have some with differing size motifs, you may need to "log cabin" around them to get all the same size or have differing sizes of columns or something. This is one I did for DGD#5.


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## Kansas g-ma (Mar 7, 2014)

Forgot to add that if you have differing widths, you can use the log-cabin technique from quilting to get blocks to same width-- see the "beta" block in the quilt I posted. I pieced together the backs with fronts, log-cabined any that weren't wide enough, using the same fabric as sashing. Just takes a bit of thinking, not hard math! Helped a friend do one with wildly differing sizes, used log-cab for that, too, but also used graph paper to arrange pieces. Had a couple skinny columns and one very wide column. Sorry I don't have a pix of that one.


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## storp (Jul 9, 2012)

I bought an acetate square at a glass shop. That way I could see what I was cutting. I used a very lite padding. I also hand stitched in the ditch each square and then tied them with pearl cotton.


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## Kansas g-ma (Mar 7, 2014)

There's also a tech using grey flannel instead of a batt and making the seams on the outside, no iron-on backing, like the raw edge quilts popular a few years back. The one I saw had second t-shirt piece on back of flannel so flannel only showed in "wide fringe" of raw edge seams. Seams were slashed every 1/2 inch or so to stitching line. Blocks were also machine stitched on a big X from corner to corner before assembling the quilt and all blocks were the same size exactly. IMHO this is perhaps the least desirable method because of the size thing (not all emblems are same size, leaves lots of t-shirt showing) and very light weight. I am teaching these 3 tech at our Sr Center later this month, in case you wondered how I know all this.


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## Velsyl (Jan 20, 2013)

Kathiediev said:


> My granddaughter's quilt. The pink is flannel.


It's beautiful! What a wonderful souvenir!


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## Velsyl (Jan 20, 2013)

Patty Sutter said:


> Mi DIL emailed me the photo of the quilt I made for her.
> I forgot that we'd added bits and pieces of the autograph dogs. :-D


beautiful too!


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