T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial Part 2

So - I know some of these pictures aren't the best - but I promise some better ones in Part 3!

Step 6 - After the quilt top center is completed - all of the shirt sections are sewn together, and it is "square" (corners square, opposite sides are even), you are ready to add borders. Hannah found this really fun green dotty fabric, which blended beautifully with all of the colors in Katie's shirts. Decide on a width, and cut your borders to size, sewing first on the two sides, then the top and bottom.

Step 7 - Prepare the backing. We found an awesome penguins fabric at Joann's. We had actually given up on finding penguin fabric, after looking at 3 different stores. But then it magically appeared, on the top-most shelf at Joann's - they had to use a ladder to get it - but it is PERFECT! Cut and sew your backing together - it should measure at least 2" larger than your quilt top on all sides.

Step 8 - Now - find a LARGE space (we moved the furniture in the family room), and layer: first the quilt back - face down. We secured it to the carpeting with some blue painters tape. Then smooth out the batting, then the quilt top. Then we safety-pinned all layers together. This turned out to be a mistake. Read on.

Step 9 - Secure the layers together with by tying with embroidery thread. Our mistake (see above) was not thinking ahead. We decided we wanted the tie ends on the BACK of the quilt - so we had to transfer the pins to the back of the quilt! We also repinned in a grid, rather than following the pattern of the piecing on the front. Oh well, live and learn! Do you think I'll remember next time???

Actually, the repinning/typing process didn't take that long - and we got to do it while sitting around a table in my studio - much easier than crawling around on the family room floor - right, Hannah?

This shows how the ties look on the front of the quilt. So glad we did it this way! We didn't want the thread ends to interfere with the piecing design on the front. It turned out great!

Step 10 - Prepare the binding. We chose a bright aqua blue print for the binding, as it would look good with the green dotty print on the front, as well as with the penquins fabric on the back. Cut strips 2-1/2" wide, on the crossgrain, from selvedge to selvedge, joining them at right angles (see picture). Trim, and press. Then press the long strip of binding in half lengthwise, wrong sides together.

Step 11 - Sew the binding to the quilt - use a walking foot for this step. The next part was a first for me. I sewed the binding to the WRONG side of the quilt, using a 3/8" seam, leaving a 12" tail unsewed where you start. Miter the corners as you go, sewing all around the four sides. When you get back to almost where you started, join the two loose ends of the binding in a diagonal seam, just like you did for the rest of the binding. Then sew that remaining length to the quilt. Turn the binding around to the front side of the quilt, and top-stitch into place. Like I said, I have never done it this way before - I usually hand stitch the binding into place - but it worked like a dream, and I know it will wear well. Done!

Finished binding - shows front and back. Those penguins are so cute!

Stay tuned for better pictures of the finished quilt!

T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial Part 1

Hannah and I have been working on a super fun project. Her roommate, Katie, asked Hannah to create a t-shirt quilt for her out of her old, favorite t-shirts. Hannah graciously said "yes", and then said, "Mom, can you help?"

I have never made a t-shirt quilt before, but I have helped a friend make one, and have read lots about it. Add that to my years of quilting and sewing experience, and off we went to the fabric store!

Step 1: Hannah selected a very cute limey green with multicolor dots for the borders (you will see this in a later post), and some iron-on Easy Knit to back/stabilize the shirts. Hannah decided that, after stabilizing, we would then cut out the cute parts of the shirts, not trying to make them all the same size at all, but rather all different sizes.

I figured we would use the green dots for the in-between fabric, to make it all fit, but Hannah had her own idea - and it was an excellent idea!

Step 2: First, we rough cut (with scissors) sections out of each shirt, bigger than the final block sizes. We used the front and back of some shirts, as per Katie's request. Then, we ironed stabilizer onto the back of the cut sections, and finally used rotary cutter and rulers to cut the final blocks out of the shirt pieces.

Step 3: Then, to get a pleasing arrangement, we laid all of our cut shapes on Hannah's bed, which helped in two ways. We could play around with colors and shapes until we liked it, and it would fit, and also we could see if the overall size was right. We originally thought we would be making a two-sided quilt, as Katie gave us lots of shirts! But we ended up with a full/queen size with only the top pieced from shirts. Hannah photographed the finished* arrangement with her phone. We needed fabric to sew between some of the blocks, to make it all fit. Hannah wanted to use all different fabrics from my scraps and stash. We never repeated a fabric, and just sort of designed as we went along.

Step 4: My design wall was so helpful!!! After putting all of the blocks up on the wall, using our photograph as a guide, we started at the center, and built a vertical strip up and down from the penguin (not pictured, sorry you'll see him below). As we worked, section by section, we would pin up hunks of scrap fabric to audition for the sashing pieces. We thought we had a final arrangment (see * above!), but we ended up moving blocks around on the design wall as needed. We would sew blocks and strips together until we liked it, pressing as we went along.

TIP: Use a press cloth! Even with a press cloth, my iron still got pretty gunked up. But that's what iron cleaner is for, right? Also, we did sort of ruin one of Katie's home-made iron-on shirts...but she was ok with that (thankfully!).

Above shows the lower left section, after most of its scrappy fabric had been added.


Step 5: After sewing the center strip together, we started joining the other parts together in sections, thinking through the math and the sewing as we went along. There were only a few times when we both had to stop and say, wait a minute, how is this going to go together?

I LOVE Hannah's design, using odd shaped-cutouts from the shirts. It gives each piece its own identity much better than cutting out squares, all the same size. And I also love the use of scraps, but that's no surprise - scrap quilts are my favorite!

Stay tuned for the next part of our tutorial!