My T-Shirt Quilt

I'm going to start off by saying that this is NOT a tutorial, but I will make links to all the tutorials I used to help me piece together this project.

After Jordan and I got married we didn't have all the furniture we'd hoped we have, so we had to go out and purchase those plastic drawer sets from Walmart. It turns out that you can't fit a whole lot in those things so I had to truly downsize my "collection" of shirts from high school. I could not bear to get rid of them or throw them out because of their sentimental value so I just put them in a plastic bag and hid them in the closet. There they sat for a year, then we moved down to Texas and again...there they sat.

After Jordan and I took over the business I was working at our drop location, which provided a lot of down time, so I finally made up my mind that I would FINALLY start working on my quilt with all that down time.

The first step was to cut out squares from my T-shirts. Once my squares were cut out I ironed on a fusible interfacing. 

The next step was to lay out my shirts and decide on how I wanted the top of my quilt to look.

It took me a few attempts to get it just right. Once the layout was what I wanted it to be I sewed each square together horizontally, ironed the seams, then sewed each row together, ironed the seams again and my top was complete. The next step was to sew my border, put on batting, and sew on my backing. The tutorial I used suggests cotton fabric for both the border and the backing, but I used flannel for my border and a minky/ furry fabric for my backing.

Once I had my border sewed on to my top I then used a basting spray (it is like a glue spray that holds the batting in place while you sew and then comes out once you wash your project) to temporarily hold my batting in place while I got my backing situated and sewed on. Hooray! My quilt was almost done! Once my quilt was turned right-side-out I sewed the turn hole shut. Next, I needed to make sure my back and my front wouldn't separate in the wash or while in use so I sewed along the border and also along the seam of each square just to secure the fabric and voila! I'm done!

This was my very first quilt I started and finished and I'm really proud of my work. Yes, there are a couple mistakes and a few things I would do a little different next time, but overall I'm so glad I saved my sentimental shirts and made them into something I can snuggle up in and share with my children in the future!!

This site is a REALLY great source of information. I followed this tutorial almost exclusively. If you have any questions on how to do something or want to do things a little different I would search for other tutorials, there are lots. I liked the one I linked because she did a really good job with all the details and pictures. There are so many variations to this quilt, so if you want to do a T-Shirt Quilt do a little brainstorming and figure out what you want your quilt to look like and search for a tutorial from there!

Whew, I can FINALLY check that project off of my list!