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How to Make a T-shirt Quilt {Part 1}

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I’ve made 3 quilts in my life. One is kind of un-usable, I call it a crazy quilt, one was a gift to Andy: the grey scale quilt, and one was a small t-shirt quilt. Both the Andy quilt and the tiny t-shirt quilt, I paid someone else to quilt them for me. I want to learn how to make an entire quilt myself! I’ve enlisted some experts because I’m a big fat quilting mess! I’ve teamed up with Carolina from 30 Minute Crafts and Tami from Enchanted Desert Quilters to teach us how to make an easy t shirt quilt from start to finish. They’re quilting pros! So follow along as we get free t-shirt quilting lessons on google + every Wednesday in March. (I’ll be posting re-caps here with pics and the live lesson!)

How to make a t-shirt quilt

  • The first of the 3-part Google hang out series is about: supplies, cutting the t-shirt blocks and interfacing the blocks
  • The 2nd video is about piecing the t-shirt squares, sewing fabric around the t-shirts, sewing the squares together, and making the back of the quilt
  • The 3rd video is about quilting and binding the quilt

How to make a t-shirt quilt:

Below, is a list of questions and answers from the video above.

What is long arming?

Tami Bradley from the Enchanted Desert Quilter describes long arming as “a sewing machine on steroids”. “I’ve got a big sewing machine head on a gimble and have 360 degrees of movement and it sits on a 12 foot table. I can roll it back and forth and around in circles. I have two machines, a Statler Stitcher which is a computer drive machine Gammill Classic which is the traditional hand guided machine.”

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How to make a t-shirt quilt

 

What do you need to make a T-shirt Quilt?

How do you cut T-shirts for a T-shirt quilt?

Lay the t-shirt flat on your table. Start at the hem and cut up the side of the t-shirt all the way up to the arm pit.

Should you use brand new t-shirts for a quilt?

No! Wash the t-shirts before you cut them. You want the t-shirts to be pre shrunk.

What are color catcher sheets?

When washing a quilt for the first time, use one or two color catchers. Color catchers look like dryer sheets, but a little stiffer. They go in the wash cycle and sponge up the extra color.

Why do you cut 13 inch blocks with the interfacing?

You don’t have to be exact when cutting interfacing. If you are using the 12 1/2 inch cutting block. She cuts 13 inch squares.

What is the difference between pressing and ironing?

When you press, you pick up and you set down. You are not running the iron along

Which side of the interfacing do you stick to the t-shirt?

There is a smooth side and a bumpy side to interfacing. The bumpy side goes on the wrong side of the t-shirt. The bumps are the fusible glue. You want the bumpy side touching the t-shirt.
I hope Part 1 of how to make a t-shirt quilt was helpful. You can find part 2 and part 3 below. It’s fair to note that I am not a normal quilter. If you like rulers and exact measurements, watch the video! Tami and Carolina are wonderful and do things the right way! I’m a maniac, and cut my squares without rulers. But, like Carolina said in the video, “There is more than 1 right way to make a t-shirt quilt!” Here is how I cut my squares:
How to make a tshirt quilt
t-shirt quilt 3
I decided I was going to need a little more orange, no biggie.  I just cut out a few more strips from the orange t-shirt.
tshirt quilt 4
Next, I interfaced. I used Therm-o-Web brand. It’s super simple to use, and I followed the directions on the package. Cut a piece of interfacing that is slightly bigger than the t-shirt square, lay it dotted side down on the back of the t-shirt, spray with a water bottle, and press with an iron. (Pressing works better than actually ironing.) My mama helped me with this part!
tshirt quilt
After all of my t-shirt pieces were interfaced, I laid them out again. I added an orange border in pic monkey. What do you think? I’ll probably end up doing a funky pattern border? Who knows! And I need to switch up those striped pieces… You know space ’em out more. So far, so good! Honestly, just looking at this picture makes me want to move a few shirts around. I’m sure the quilt will not end up like this… but it’s a good start!
t-shirt quilt
Have you ever made a t-shirt quilt? I’d love to hear…
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Comments

  2. A t-shirt quilt? Awesome. I wouldn’t have thought to make something like that. And with a usually massive t-shirt collection is guys’ closets this may be a better use than dropping them off somewhere. Reduce, requilt, recycle?

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  4. I’m so excited you’re doing this! I’ve been saving my tshirts for years to make one but havn’t yet because I didn’t know the best way to make one! Interfacing is the trick! I’m going to get some tonight! Looking forward to the next lessons!

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  7. I recently got back to making these — I have an unfinished one of my own with embroidered T-shirts and have just started one for my daughter with her collection of shirts. One suggestion: Try to get the stretch of the interfacing going the other way from the T-shirt stretch, i.e. the shirt stretches horizontally and putting the interfacing stretch vertically makes the whole square more stabile.

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