T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial, Part I
Over the last few months, I have been working on a quilt made out of t-shirts of mine and my husband's from our college and high school days. I'm not done yet, but I have been asked for some advice about making a t-shirt quilt. I have been blogging about it a bit over at 43Things, but not in a consistent manner. So, I thought it would be appropriate to describe here the procedure I've used, lessons learned from the process so far, and how I'm planning to finish it off.
The first thing I did was search the internet for instructions. Here's some of what I found:
I basically combined all the information I found and developed my own procedure.
1. Plan the Layout.
This is a step that wasn't covered in much detail in the instructions I found online. Many websites recommend cutting the t-shirts as 12x12 inch squares, and after taking a survey of the shirts I had available, that seemed to be a good size. There were a few shirts that ended up with part of the pattern cut off, but most fit quite nicely. However, I wanted to include some of the logos from the front of the shirts, and 12x12 would have been way too big. For these, a 6x6 inch square seemed about right. In my planning, I put 4 of those together to make one 12x12 block (I call these "composite" blocks.)
I decided on a layout of blocks in a grid with 2-inch sashing in between (to me, this seemed to yield the right proportion between block size and sashing size. Some people might prefer 1.5 inches.) I decided on 4-inch borders (which I later reduced to 3 inches since my quilt top seemed pretty large when I laid it out on the bed.) Now - how big to make the quilt?
I found a list of typical quilt sizes and converted this to blocks based on the assumptions of 12x12 block + 2-inch sashings + 3-inch border. I've also converted this back into inches so you can see how far off it is from the size I was aiming for.
Bed size: target width x length -> block columns x rows -> finished quilt width x length
Twin: 75" x 98" -> 5 x 6 = 30 blocks -> 74" x 88"
Double: 83" x 106" -> 6 x 7 = 42 blocks -> 88" x 102" (consider reducing sash size or using a column of half-width blocks to reduce width)
Queen: 90" x 106" -> 6 x 7 = 42 blocks -> 88" x 102"
King: 107" x 108" -> 7 x 7 = 49 blocks -> 102" x 102"
These target quilt dimensions seem a bit oversized, especially in length, so I tried to undershoot rather than overshoot. I made my queen size 6 x 7 blocks and it is plenty big, even though I undersized each dimension by a few inches. I would have been ok with one less row. But, before you make any decisions, measure your bed for yourself!
I planned out the layout of my quilt before I even bought any material. I fortunately had just about the right number of blocks for my pattern, so I was left mainly with the task of organizing them in a pattern I liked. I tried alternating dark blocks with light ones, like a checkerboard, with the middle row made of my composite blocks. Being the overachiever that I am, I modeled it in the computer before I tried to put them together.
Of course, your plan is up to you. I used sashing and neat rows because I wanted mine to look organized, but maybe you like disorder. Sashing is not a requirement. In fact, blocks don't even have to be square, or lined up in the same orientation. Not enough blocks? Plan to use blank squares from the backs of the t-shirts and consider using iron-on transfers of patterns or photos. You could also use blank blocks of regular quilting fabric (which would not require using iron-on interfacing, like the t-shirt fabric) or even traditional quilt squares. Maybe even put a very large block in the center of the quilt.
Well, I just spent an hour writing about Step 2, but LiveJournal gobbled it when I accidentally went to another website. So, further instructions will have to wait for Part II of the tutorial, wherein I shall describe:
2. Obtain Quilt Top Materials
3. Pre-cut t-shirts
4. Apply interfacing
5. Cut t-shirts
Here's a link to Part II.
The first thing I did was search the internet for instructions. Here's some of what I found:
- High-level instructions from HGTV
- A 5-section article from straw.com
- Instructions from pshquilts.com
- A 3-pager from SCRTC.com
- Instructions from Goose Tracks Quilts
- Goosetracks.com
- Tshirtquilt.com
- Campusquilt.com
- Too Cool T-shirt Quilts
- T-shirt-quilts.com
- T-shirt quilts need not be just squares (not a business - just interesting/different layouts.)
I basically combined all the information I found and developed my own procedure.
1. Plan the Layout.
This is a step that wasn't covered in much detail in the instructions I found online. Many websites recommend cutting the t-shirts as 12x12 inch squares, and after taking a survey of the shirts I had available, that seemed to be a good size. There were a few shirts that ended up with part of the pattern cut off, but most fit quite nicely. However, I wanted to include some of the logos from the front of the shirts, and 12x12 would have been way too big. For these, a 6x6 inch square seemed about right. In my planning, I put 4 of those together to make one 12x12 block (I call these "composite" blocks.)
I decided on a layout of blocks in a grid with 2-inch sashing in between (to me, this seemed to yield the right proportion between block size and sashing size. Some people might prefer 1.5 inches.) I decided on 4-inch borders (which I later reduced to 3 inches since my quilt top seemed pretty large when I laid it out on the bed.) Now - how big to make the quilt?
I found a list of typical quilt sizes and converted this to blocks based on the assumptions of 12x12 block + 2-inch sashings + 3-inch border. I've also converted this back into inches so you can see how far off it is from the size I was aiming for.
Bed size: target width x length -> block columns x rows -> finished quilt width x length
Twin: 75" x 98" -> 5 x 6 = 30 blocks -> 74" x 88"
Double: 83" x 106" -> 6 x 7 = 42 blocks -> 88" x 102" (consider reducing sash size or using a column of half-width blocks to reduce width)
Queen: 90" x 106" -> 6 x 7 = 42 blocks -> 88" x 102"
King: 107" x 108" -> 7 x 7 = 49 blocks -> 102" x 102"
These target quilt dimensions seem a bit oversized, especially in length, so I tried to undershoot rather than overshoot. I made my queen size 6 x 7 blocks and it is plenty big, even though I undersized each dimension by a few inches. I would have been ok with one less row. But, before you make any decisions, measure your bed for yourself!
I planned out the layout of my quilt before I even bought any material. I fortunately had just about the right number of blocks for my pattern, so I was left mainly with the task of organizing them in a pattern I liked. I tried alternating dark blocks with light ones, like a checkerboard, with the middle row made of my composite blocks. Being the overachiever that I am, I modeled it in the computer before I tried to put them together.
Of course, your plan is up to you. I used sashing and neat rows because I wanted mine to look organized, but maybe you like disorder. Sashing is not a requirement. In fact, blocks don't even have to be square, or lined up in the same orientation. Not enough blocks? Plan to use blank squares from the backs of the t-shirts and consider using iron-on transfers of patterns or photos. You could also use blank blocks of regular quilting fabric (which would not require using iron-on interfacing, like the t-shirt fabric) or even traditional quilt squares. Maybe even put a very large block in the center of the quilt.
Well, I just spent an hour writing about Step 2, but LiveJournal gobbled it when I accidentally went to another website. So, further instructions will have to wait for Part II of the tutorial, wherein I shall describe:
2. Obtain Quilt Top Materials
3. Pre-cut t-shirts
4. Apply interfacing
5. Cut t-shirts
Here's a link to Part II.