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Creating Really Awesome Fun Things

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 me (and us) how to make an easy t shirt quilt from start to finish. They’re pros! We’re pretty lucky to get free 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 Jamie Dorobek

  • The first of the 3-part Google hang out series was last night and we discussed: supplies, cutting the t-shirts and interfacing
  • The 2nd hangout will be about piecing the t-shirt squares, sewing fabric around the t-shirs (if necessary), sewing the squares together, and making the backing
  • The 3rd hangout would be about quilting the top and bottom together and binding the quilt

Here’s the first video. She’s 30 minutes long and oh so informative, if I do say so myself!

 

First step is super easy. Gather your t-shirts. I’ve been collecting for years!
t-shirt quilt 1
For those of you that like picture tutorials better, I’ll be doing a post after every hang out with pics of (hopefully) t-shirt quilt progress. Now, warning: 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 thus how I cut my t-shirt squares. All you need for cutting is:
  • scissors
  • sharpie
  • t-shirts
  • interfacing

Here’s my very un fancy method in action:

How to make a tshirt quilt
After I cut out all 16 squares, I had a little pre party to see what I’m working with…
t-shirt quilt 3
I decided I was going to need a little more orange, no biggie. Just cut out some strips:
tshirt quilt 4
Next, I interfaced. I used Therm-o-Web brand. It’s super simple to use, just follow the directions on the package. Cut a piece the same size as your t-shirt, lay it dotted side down on the back of the t-shirt, spray with a water bottle, press. (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 just 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
So, next Wednesday, March, 20th at 7p CST. We’ll be hanging out again on my google + page. You can RSVP to the event here. We’ll be talking about how to piece this sucker together! I’d love for you to sew along! Have you ever made a t-shirt quilt? I’d love to hear…
t-shirt quilt
PS: Here is Part 2 of how to make a t-shirt quilt! And here is Part 3 all about quilting and binding!
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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!

    Reply

  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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