Hello again everyone, this is Katie!
During Christmas break this past December, I was really contemplating what I was going to do with all of my shirts that I had left over from high school. I didn't want to throw them a way, but I also was tired of wearing them as sleeping shirts. So, of course, me being the crafty girl that I like to think I am, I went surfing on Pinterest to see if there was anything I could do with my old shirts so I could still use them in a different way; that's when I found a post about making a T-Shirt quilt!
I loved the pattern of hers, but the directions weren't all that great, sooooo.... I winged it. And I TOTALLY do not recommend doing so; it caused me a lot of unnecessary stress! I love the way that everything turned out, but I probably will never make a quilt again; at least not the way that I did this one.
Here's some supplies that might come in handy to make your own:
- Sewing machine
- Matching sewing thread
- Scissors
- T-Shirts
- Bed Sheet
- Batting
- Straight Pins
- Yarn
- Ruler
- Pen
So first off, you need to decide what shirts you would like to use, and cut them into the desired shapes of your choice. I did 4x4 squares, 4x8 rectangles, and then my main pieces were the designs on my shirts which varied. I laid out the pattern and how I wanted it to look, and then took separate sections and sewed them all together one section at a time.
Next I bought a twin size black sheet, and measured where I should cut it to fit with the front of my quilt. I then cut the batting to fit the front, and left my black sheet a little bit wider than the front so I could wrap the batting inside of it, and sew them together.
Here are pictures of how it looked pinned to the batting while I was sewing it, and after.
Next, I pinned the front of my quilt to the back, with the padding that was showing in the middle. I left a black edge around the front to give it more of a classier, and quilt-like feeling.
I decided to sew the front on with a zig-zag stitch because I felt like it would hold on better to the rest of the fabric. This picture is just to kind of show you that I am NOT the best seamstress, and you don't have to be either. Your project doesn't have to be perfect for you to be happy about what you have accomplished.
Yay! One last step! And this one I guess could also be optional, but I did it for extra reinforcement. I bought a needle that would fit yarn through the end, and tied knots on random corners throughout my quilt.
Voila! I am so happy with the way that it tuned out, and am proud of all the little imperfections that it does have; no one else has the same one as me.(:
