My niece Micci is graduating from High School this year and asked me about how to make a t-shirt quilt. I had done the blog about my dad's quilt and I have sense than realized that the directions were not all that intuitive. Since I needed to write up directions for Mic anyway I decided to post them to the site. Since I am not actually making a quilt right now I don't have actual pictures but when I make a new one I will add some pics to this blog. I might even add a pic of her quilt when it is done!
Shopping
List
1. Fusible interface- Just ask the staff at
either JoAnn Fabrics or Hancock Fabrics what is the right one to get for this
project. Get two yards- this will give you extra but that is fine.
2. Flannel quilting Material- we are going
to make 16 squares- so you feel free to pick somewhere between 1-4 materials so
we can design them. Just make sure you coordinate them so they match. Need a
total of 2 yards of material-
***the assumption on this quilt is a 16 square rag quilt with
12”x 12” squares- if you increase the number of squares or the size you will
need to purchase additional materials***
- 1 material- 2 yards
- 2 materials- 1 yard each
- 3 materials- don’t do this it would look dumb
- 4 materials- 24 inches of each material 2/3 yards- we need this because
the normal dimension of bolt of flannel is 40” long and we need each piece to
be 12” x 12”
-please don't do more than 4 or it will be pain to get them right
Just
one thought-
***Make sure that you wash all of the materials before you
start cutting the squares. This is just a good first step for anytime you are
quilting but even more important when you are doing a rag quilt.***
3. Quilt batting- I used ¼” batting for the
quilts I have done.
Supply
List: Here are the items you will need to make the
quilt:
Sewing
Machine
Cutting
Scissors
Mat
for cutting
Rotary
Blade
Snipping
scissors
Pins
Thread
Thick
Needle
Iron
Directions:
1. I am basing the size assumption that we
are able to get 12 x 12 pieces out of the shirts- if you get bigger pieces you
will need to adjust the size- and the measurements. You can pretty much do any size you want that
they t-shirts will accommodate. I did
13.5” x 13.5” for the last quilt I made.
The actual square for this quilt
will end up about 11.5x11.5 when we are done because of the seam allowance of ¼”.
The next step is cut your squares- you will need to cut 12 x 12 pieces of
all of the above.
- 16 T-shirt squares
-16 fusible interface squares- ****Ideally you want the
interface to perfectly match each of the t-shirt squares. I actually ironed it
on before I cut each piece of the interface. Then I cut it so it was
perfect.**** But you can do this however you want.
-16 pieces of flannel for the back
-16 pieces of batting for the inside of the quilt. These should be approx. 1" smaller than your quilt squares- so in this case 11"x 11".
1. ***One hint I did
that worked pretty well for me is that I actually cute template for the
12" x 12" out of a cardboard box and used that to for cutting the
t-shirts. They can be difficult to work with because they are so stretchy.***
2. Once you have the T-shirts and fusible
interface squares completed it is time to Iron. The t-shirt needs to be ironed
to the fusible interface- warning can get sticky. I also ironed it one more time after cutting it because I
wanted to a make sure I had really crisp corners on the squares.
3. Once your pieces are all put together you need to design the actual quilt. Figure out where you want each square and take a picture of it so you remember later and plan out what goes on the back of each piece. You can see on the right that I laid the quilt out on the floor and figured out a color scheme before I put the squared together. 
4. Now that you have all of the components it is time to put the squares together. So for each square you will
need 1 t-shirt piece, 1 piece of batting, and a back. Pin these
together. I normally use about 3 pins per square.
5. Now that you have pinned your square together it is time to start
sewing. For each square sew an X in the middle of it. I normally liked
to start my X about 1/4 from the edge and end in the same place on the
other side. This gives you clearer seems for when you do the rag quilt
cutting. If you have chosen to use multiple fabrics for the back make sure that you select the right fabric to match the
location of the quilt square. ***One thing to mention is that I found that normal sewing machine needle was not strong enough and I had to get a needle that worked denim to successfully get through the materials***
7. Now it is time to do your first row. Start by pinning together two pieces back to back. You will want to use either a 1/4" or 1/3" seem allowance depending on how you want this to look. Once they are pinned sew a seem connecting the two pieces. When you finish the back will be flat and the front will have a raised seam that you will use when making the rag effect.
You can see the raised seem in the baby blanket on the left here.
***It is super easy to sew one of these seems wrong. Make sure you double check before you start sewing every square.***
It will look like this when you are completed.
***It is super easy to sew one of these seems wrong. Make sure you double check before you start sewing every square.***
It will look like this when you are completed.
8. Once you have all of your rows down it is time to connect them together using the same process.
8. The last thing you need to sew is your outside edges of the quilt. Just keep your 1/4" seem allowance and sew straight down the quilt edge.
9. Most of the hard work is done now and there are only a few steps left. Now it is time snip your edges. It it best to use an actual snipping tool like the pictures by Fiskers. It is a lot tougher to try and use an traditional scissors. Figure out what you want it to look like and snip away- I usually make mine about 1/4". ***Make sure you don't snip your seems of you will have to fix them later (been there, done that)*** This will take a while because there are a lot of seems- and don't worry that it doesn't look all fraying and awesome yet it will.10. The last thing you need to do is wash the blanket- ***Do not wash or dry anything else with it***. The fist time you watch it be prepared for the amount of fraying and link that will occur.
Yeah you are done! If you do this following my directions let me know how it worked and what I can improve on.
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