T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial, Part III
This is the continuation of my tutorial from Part II.
3. Pre-cut t-shirts and interfacing
Before you do anything with the shirts, wash them! For shirts that have never been washed, consider washing them a couple times. Most websites I've seen have warned against using fabric softener because it prevents the fusible interfacing from working properly. (I wouldn't know - I never use fabric softener anyway.)
Pre-cutting t-shirts
Next, cut the t-shirts into squares a couple inches larger than you need for finished square plus seam allowance. For my 12-inch blocks I cut 14-inch squares. For my 6-inch blocks I cut 8-inch squares. This will allow space for the interfacing to be applied, with room for error, and then it can be cut down to the final size very neatly.
This step does not require a lot of precision. If you're bold you could just take a pair of fabric scissors, eyeball it, and cut freestyle. But I did it a little more carefully since I'm paranoid about things not turning out right:
1. Separate the front of the shirt from the back of the shirt by roughly cutting around the edge of the shirt. This allows the front to lay nicely on your self-healing cutting mat, with just a single layer of fabric to cut through.
2. Spread the shirt front on the mat, and smooth out wrinkles. You don't have to worry too much about the wrinkles (and certainly don't need to iron it at this stage!) When you finally iron out the wrinkles you'll just have a slightly bigger piece than you thought you cut. And in this case too big is much better than too small.
3. Lay some sort of template over the shirt, centering it on the logo as much as possible. (Sometimes you can't center exactly because it's too close to the edge of the t-shirt, but it turns out not to be the end of the world.) I made a template out of stiff cardboard, with a big hole in the center so I could see the pattern to center it.
4. Use your rotary cutter to cut around the edge of the template. With a cardboard template, sometimes you'll start cutting into the cardboard, but the shirt will be cut down to the real size later, so little imperfections don't matter.
Precutting interfacing
Use the same template and rotary cutter to cut the interfacing. I've read that you should always try to use a single piece of interfacing on each shirt (rather than putting together several small pieces) because the line between the various pieces of interfacing can be seen through the shirt. I can neither confirm nor deny this.
Since the interfacing I got was not wide enough to cut two 14-inch squares side by side, I had to cut them all in a row down the length of the interfacing. This left me with about a 10-inch strip of leftover interfacing. Luckily I could use this to cut out my 8-inch pieces. Since I had 36 14-inch squares to cut (and I essentially got my 8-inchers for free from the leftover strip) I had to buy 36*14 inches of interfacing, which comes out to 14 yards. Fusible interfacing costs a couple of dollars per yard, so I spent maybe $30-$40 on interfacing total. Yikes! To put it in perspective, it's about the same as the total amount of the fabric I bought, and at about the same price.
4. Apply interfacing
This part of making my quilt is the one that took the most time by far. Once this part was done, sewing the blocks to the sashing was a breeze (since I used a sewing machine.) this part is fairly simple and repetitive, so I did it while watching TV.
1. Iron the shirt square. Be careful not to leave the iron on any one spot so long that you melt the t-shirt's pattern. I didn't have any problem with this.
2. Pick up the shirt square and allow it to regain its natural dimensions. You don't want to leave it stretched out weird on the cutting board, or else the interfacing will keep it in that deformed position for eternity.
3. Place the shirt square (right side down) back on the ironing board, smoothing it out but without stretching the knit.
4. Place the fusible interfacing on top of the shirt square, as centered on the logo as you can. It's hard to see from this side, but the more square you made the pre-cutting, the easier it is. Also, the larger you've oversized the pre-cutting, the less it matters how well you center it. MAKE SURE you put the correct side of the interfacing downward, facing the back of the t-shirt. The "correct side" is the one that feels slightly bumpy. You can think of the bumps as the glue that's going to melt and fuse together the t-shirt and the interfacing.
5. Baste the edges. This involves pressing the tip of the iron at various points along the edge of the square for about 2 seconds each time. If you do this at enough points on the edge, the shirt and the interfacing will stick together well enough that you can move them around without messing up the interfacing placement. I sped up the process by not using just the tip of the iron, but the whole edge of the iron.
5. Place a damp cloth over the interfacing. (Damp - but not too wet.) I used a discarded back-of-a-t-shirt and it worked pretty well. I just ran it under the sink and the wrung it out as well as I could.
6. Iron on the interfacing. You should follow the instructions for the interfacing you've bought, but here's what I did: Leave the iron on any given spot for about 10 seconds, until the damp pressing cloth is dry in that spot. Repeat until you have covered the whole square.
7. Allow the fused square to sit for a little bit and cool off.
The first few times you do this, wait for the square to cool completely and check how well fused it is. You'll get the hang of it.
5. Cut final blocks
I found this process to be really satisfying. In a similar process to the one used above for pre-cutting the shirts, I cut the shirts down to the final size using the rotary cutter, self-healing mat, and a template. Remember, I wanted 12-inch (and 6-inch) finished blocks, so with a 1/4 seam allowance on each side I needed to cut the blocks to 12.5 (and 6.5) inches. I used this handy-dandy template, which allowed me to cut both sizes using one template. Beware: using the outside of the template, it didn't matter if I made a mistake, since I would be cutting too big and could always cut down to size. But cutting on the inside, making a mistake meant I would cut too small a block, which I couldn't repair. So...I was extra careful when cutting those smaller blocks.
And here are all my final blocks, laid out on the ground!
Stay tuned for next time, which will describe:
6. Cut sashing
7. Assemble the quilt top
Here's a link to Part IV.
3. Pre-cut t-shirts and interfacing
Before you do anything with the shirts, wash them! For shirts that have never been washed, consider washing them a couple times. Most websites I've seen have warned against using fabric softener because it prevents the fusible interfacing from working properly. (I wouldn't know - I never use fabric softener anyway.)
Pre-cutting t-shirts
Next, cut the t-shirts into squares a couple inches larger than you need for finished square plus seam allowance. For my 12-inch blocks I cut 14-inch squares. For my 6-inch blocks I cut 8-inch squares. This will allow space for the interfacing to be applied, with room for error, and then it can be cut down to the final size very neatly.
This step does not require a lot of precision. If you're bold you could just take a pair of fabric scissors, eyeball it, and cut freestyle. But I did it a little more carefully since I'm paranoid about things not turning out right:
1. Separate the front of the shirt from the back of the shirt by roughly cutting around the edge of the shirt. This allows the front to lay nicely on your self-healing cutting mat, with just a single layer of fabric to cut through.
2. Spread the shirt front on the mat, and smooth out wrinkles. You don't have to worry too much about the wrinkles (and certainly don't need to iron it at this stage!) When you finally iron out the wrinkles you'll just have a slightly bigger piece than you thought you cut. And in this case too big is much better than too small.
3. Lay some sort of template over the shirt, centering it on the logo as much as possible. (Sometimes you can't center exactly because it's too close to the edge of the t-shirt, but it turns out not to be the end of the world.) I made a template out of stiff cardboard, with a big hole in the center so I could see the pattern to center it.
4. Use your rotary cutter to cut around the edge of the template. With a cardboard template, sometimes you'll start cutting into the cardboard, but the shirt will be cut down to the real size later, so little imperfections don't matter.
Precutting interfacing
Use the same template and rotary cutter to cut the interfacing. I've read that you should always try to use a single piece of interfacing on each shirt (rather than putting together several small pieces) because the line between the various pieces of interfacing can be seen through the shirt. I can neither confirm nor deny this.
Since the interfacing I got was not wide enough to cut two 14-inch squares side by side, I had to cut them all in a row down the length of the interfacing. This left me with about a 10-inch strip of leftover interfacing. Luckily I could use this to cut out my 8-inch pieces. Since I had 36 14-inch squares to cut (and I essentially got my 8-inchers for free from the leftover strip) I had to buy 36*14 inches of interfacing, which comes out to 14 yards. Fusible interfacing costs a couple of dollars per yard, so I spent maybe $30-$40 on interfacing total. Yikes! To put it in perspective, it's about the same as the total amount of the fabric I bought, and at about the same price.
4. Apply interfacing
This part of making my quilt is the one that took the most time by far. Once this part was done, sewing the blocks to the sashing was a breeze (since I used a sewing machine.) this part is fairly simple and repetitive, so I did it while watching TV.
1. Iron the shirt square. Be careful not to leave the iron on any one spot so long that you melt the t-shirt's pattern. I didn't have any problem with this.
2. Pick up the shirt square and allow it to regain its natural dimensions. You don't want to leave it stretched out weird on the cutting board, or else the interfacing will keep it in that deformed position for eternity.
3. Place the shirt square (right side down) back on the ironing board, smoothing it out but without stretching the knit.
4. Place the fusible interfacing on top of the shirt square, as centered on the logo as you can. It's hard to see from this side, but the more square you made the pre-cutting, the easier it is. Also, the larger you've oversized the pre-cutting, the less it matters how well you center it. MAKE SURE you put the correct side of the interfacing downward, facing the back of the t-shirt. The "correct side" is the one that feels slightly bumpy. You can think of the bumps as the glue that's going to melt and fuse together the t-shirt and the interfacing.
5. Baste the edges. This involves pressing the tip of the iron at various points along the edge of the square for about 2 seconds each time. If you do this at enough points on the edge, the shirt and the interfacing will stick together well enough that you can move them around without messing up the interfacing placement. I sped up the process by not using just the tip of the iron, but the whole edge of the iron.
5. Place a damp cloth over the interfacing. (Damp - but not too wet.) I used a discarded back-of-a-t-shirt and it worked pretty well. I just ran it under the sink and the wrung it out as well as I could.
6. Iron on the interfacing. You should follow the instructions for the interfacing you've bought, but here's what I did: Leave the iron on any given spot for about 10 seconds, until the damp pressing cloth is dry in that spot. Repeat until you have covered the whole square.
7. Allow the fused square to sit for a little bit and cool off.
The first few times you do this, wait for the square to cool completely and check how well fused it is. You'll get the hang of it.
5. Cut final blocks
I found this process to be really satisfying. In a similar process to the one used above for pre-cutting the shirts, I cut the shirts down to the final size using the rotary cutter, self-healing mat, and a template. Remember, I wanted 12-inch (and 6-inch) finished blocks, so with a 1/4 seam allowance on each side I needed to cut the blocks to 12.5 (and 6.5) inches. I used this handy-dandy template, which allowed me to cut both sizes using one template. Beware: using the outside of the template, it didn't matter if I made a mistake, since I would be cutting too big and could always cut down to size. But cutting on the inside, making a mistake meant I would cut too small a block, which I couldn't repair. So...I was extra careful when cutting those smaller blocks.
And here are all my final blocks, laid out on the ground!
Stay tuned for next time, which will describe:
6. Cut sashing
7. Assemble the quilt top
Here's a link to Part IV.