t-shirt quilt | Mini Mishaps

Introduction/Background

I have FINALLY finished TJ’s t-shirt quilt. I don’t even want to look at it anymore. I did one of the more complicated patterns from this book. Not only that, but I did it on both sides. So this is really two t-shirt quilts. The cutting and ironing and sewing took forever. Not only due to the fabrics, but the fact I used interfacing on every. single. t-shirt. So I had to cut the t-shirts to size, cut the interfacing to size (I buy it by the yard–in this case I bought the bolt), cut all of the other fabrics, piece the blocks, then sew everything together. It took forever. On top of that, I hand-quilted the entire thing. This has been the most tedious and largest quilt I have made so far. I HATE hand quilting T-shirt fabric. You have to be careful to not pull too tight on the thread, etc. I still have 2-3 t-shirt quilts to go based on the amount of t-shirts I have left. There will be one of my t-shirts and at least one of TJ’s boy scout shirts. I’m planning on doing quilt-as-you-go quilts for those. Specifically, I will be doing a rag quilt next.

The Assembly

I highly recommend that T-shirt ruler for perfect squares. If you are making them smaller than 15″ and using the inner guides, make sure to purchase marking pencils/markers in both light and dark as well as long-tipped since the slots are narrow. First I cut the t-shirts down to squares, then the interfacing. Then, ironed them together. This allows for a stiffer fabric and prevents the shirts from stretching (and making a wonky quilt).

After the T-shirt blocks were cut, ironed, and assembled, I had to decide on how to arrange everything on both sides of the quilt and sew the blocks together in rows.

Progress! All the work was coming together, and both sides were put together.

Then, I added the border. Soccer balls were fitting. Most of the shirts were either for cross country or for soccer, and a few for swimming.

Then, I needed to prep the sandwich for quilting. So many safety pins! I used lightweight batting to keep it from being too heavy but still give it substance.

I do not machine quilt (at least not yet), and can’t afford to get quilts done by long arm. So, I hand quilt. It adds a personal touch…and takes a long time. I decided to go with a random zigzag design. I used a variegated, bright rainbow thread. I also hand stitched the binding. I had added a border of the scraps on one side and did a fold-over binding using that.