T-Shirt Quilt Tutorial, Part V
This is a continuation from Part IV.
7. Assemble the quilt top
The basic order I used to assemble my quilt top was:
0. Assemble incomplete blocks and sashing strips
1. Assemble rows.
2. Connect rows.
3. Add side borders.
4. Add top & bottom borders.
Sewing seams
All of these steps are essentially the same; they're all sewing seams with the same seam allowance. It's just a matter of what two pieces of fabric you're connecting, and how long the seam is. Obviously, if you have a sewing machine, I recommend using it. I set my machine to about 10-12 stitches per inch because it "seemed about right" and moved my needle position to the right in order to achieve my 1/4" seam allowances.
First, pin the two pieces of fabric together, front sides facing each other. I found that I actually only needed to put two pins in, about 4 inches apart at the side on which I intended to start the seam. After the seam was started, I was able to align the fabric as I guided it into the machine, even (especially!) for the very long seams. I actually found that, since the t-shirt fabric was still a little stretchier than the sashing fabric, pinning the fabric would have been a waste of time. After the first 10 inches the fabric was aligned slightly differently than it was before sewing. However, if you are hand-sewing, I imagine pinning the fabric before doing the seam would be essential, since you don't have a machine foot to keep the fabric taut as you sew.
Because of this stretching effect, the end of the sashing will often hang slightly over the edge of the t-shirt block. IMPORTANT: Always start the seam from the same side of the block/row (e.g. run the seam consistently from bottom to top, and left to right of your finished product) so that the blocks will line up properly.
After each "set" of seams (e.g. after finishing a row, after connecting all the rows together) press all the seams open. This results in a crisper, flatter quit top, and makes it slightly easier to sew another seam across it. OK, to be honest, I didn't do every single seam. I think this is most important for the seams which are connecting two fabrics of the same thickness.
Assemble incomplete blocks and sashing strips
By this I mean, if you have any blocks of smaller shirts that need to be put together to reach the full 12" x 12" size (which I have previously called "composite blocks," assemble them first, same goes for sashing strips that had to be cut in pieces and need to be joined to create the full length. Doing these pieces first is a good warmup; they both involve attaching two pieces of identical (or at least similar) fabrics together so there's not a difference in stretchiness.
Assemble rows
Start by sewing a vertical sashing strip onto the right side of each block, except for the blocks intended to be on the rightmost edge of the quilt. Then, match up the blocks in the order you want, and sew appropriate piece of sashing onto the left edge of the each block to create rows of blocks.
Connect rows
By this time, you should have achieved a sense of how to manage the slight variability in stretchiness of the t-shirts. It takes a little finesse to make sure the blocks line up exactly between one row and the next. But, if they don't line up exactly it's not a huge deal. They won't be off by very much.
In a similar process to assembling the rows, start by sewing a long horizontal sashing strip to the bottom of each row (except for the bottom row.) Then, line up the rows in the order you want and sew the appropriate length of sashing to the top of each row to connect the rows. Once you've connected a few rows, the quilt top starts to get pretty big and tough to wrangle as you sew the final seams. I'm not sure whether there's anything to be done about that.
Add side borders
Sew the vertical side borders onto the two sides of the quilt.
Add top & bottom borders
Sew the horizontal top & bottom borders onto, you guessed it, the top and bottom of the quilt.
And then the quilt top is complete! Here's mine (before I added the borders) on my queen-size bed:
Coming up (as I do them!):
8. Buy final quilting materials
9. Assemble backing and batting
10. Assemble the quilt sandwich
11. Hand-tie the quilt
Here's a link to Part VI.
7. Assemble the quilt top
The basic order I used to assemble my quilt top was:
0. Assemble incomplete blocks and sashing strips
1. Assemble rows.
2. Connect rows.
3. Add side borders.
4. Add top & bottom borders.
Sewing seams
All of these steps are essentially the same; they're all sewing seams with the same seam allowance. It's just a matter of what two pieces of fabric you're connecting, and how long the seam is. Obviously, if you have a sewing machine, I recommend using it. I set my machine to about 10-12 stitches per inch because it "seemed about right" and moved my needle position to the right in order to achieve my 1/4" seam allowances.
First, pin the two pieces of fabric together, front sides facing each other. I found that I actually only needed to put two pins in, about 4 inches apart at the side on which I intended to start the seam. After the seam was started, I was able to align the fabric as I guided it into the machine, even (especially!) for the very long seams. I actually found that, since the t-shirt fabric was still a little stretchier than the sashing fabric, pinning the fabric would have been a waste of time. After the first 10 inches the fabric was aligned slightly differently than it was before sewing. However, if you are hand-sewing, I imagine pinning the fabric before doing the seam would be essential, since you don't have a machine foot to keep the fabric taut as you sew.
Because of this stretching effect, the end of the sashing will often hang slightly over the edge of the t-shirt block. IMPORTANT: Always start the seam from the same side of the block/row (e.g. run the seam consistently from bottom to top, and left to right of your finished product) so that the blocks will line up properly.
After each "set" of seams (e.g. after finishing a row, after connecting all the rows together) press all the seams open. This results in a crisper, flatter quit top, and makes it slightly easier to sew another seam across it. OK, to be honest, I didn't do every single seam. I think this is most important for the seams which are connecting two fabrics of the same thickness.
Assemble incomplete blocks and sashing strips
By this I mean, if you have any blocks of smaller shirts that need to be put together to reach the full 12" x 12" size (which I have previously called "composite blocks," assemble them first, same goes for sashing strips that had to be cut in pieces and need to be joined to create the full length. Doing these pieces first is a good warmup; they both involve attaching two pieces of identical (or at least similar) fabrics together so there's not a difference in stretchiness.
Assemble rows
Start by sewing a vertical sashing strip onto the right side of each block, except for the blocks intended to be on the rightmost edge of the quilt. Then, match up the blocks in the order you want, and sew appropriate piece of sashing onto the left edge of the each block to create rows of blocks.
Connect rows
By this time, you should have achieved a sense of how to manage the slight variability in stretchiness of the t-shirts. It takes a little finesse to make sure the blocks line up exactly between one row and the next. But, if they don't line up exactly it's not a huge deal. They won't be off by very much.
In a similar process to assembling the rows, start by sewing a long horizontal sashing strip to the bottom of each row (except for the bottom row.) Then, line up the rows in the order you want and sew the appropriate length of sashing to the top of each row to connect the rows. Once you've connected a few rows, the quilt top starts to get pretty big and tough to wrangle as you sew the final seams. I'm not sure whether there's anything to be done about that.
Add side borders
Sew the vertical side borders onto the two sides of the quilt.
Add top & bottom borders
Sew the horizontal top & bottom borders onto, you guessed it, the top and bottom of the quilt.
And then the quilt top is complete! Here's mine (before I added the borders) on my queen-size bed:
Coming up (as I do them!):
8. Buy final quilting materials
9. Assemble backing and batting
10. Assemble the quilt sandwich
11. Hand-tie the quilt
Here's a link to Part VI.