My sister asked me if I would make a quilt with my nephew's sports jersey's. They are unlike the t-shirts.

I know that I will fuse them. Probably to unbleached muslin. I'm not sure.

Has anyone made a quilt using sports jersey's?

Carol, are they the kind with the holes like mesh? if so, I would not fuse them but rather sandwich the individual block with muslin and pre-quilt the 2 pieces together. A can of the spray adhesive would help also, just give the back of the jersey block a few sprays then lay it on the muslin. Then, once all your blocks are done like that and your top is done, use flannel as a batting and a normal backing. the fuseable webbing might come through the holes of the mesh and be kind of messy for you.

Thank you very much for the information. I had not thought about the fusing coming through the mesh holes.

I'll try that.

Thank you!!

Coffee does wonders for the brain:) while mine was making, I thought about the batting and even a low loft poly batting would not make the quilt too heavy and give it a bit of a puff for warmth.

That was a good call. The other problem with sports jerseys and fusing is that they may melt. While I love the stretch of polyester based fabrics in clothing it is a challenging fabric to use in quilting.

have you noticed that people that don't make quilts sometimes have the hardest to comply with requests?

or - in a more positive light -

present challenges and opportunities that wouldn't occur to most of us otherwise

good one, bearisgray.

as mpspeedy mentionend, some of the jerseys may melt....wish i didn't have experience on this part, but unfortunately i agree. be especially careful with names and numbers. i ruined my son's numbers with over-ironing and tried to fuse it using a press cloth....how shall i put this?? uh, he no longer has a number on his jersey...permenantly rippled plastic is a little difficult to work with. :-)
the other jerseys we have on hand are all polyester...good plan to fuse with a cotton and if you can find some flannel in a matching color, I'd use that as the material to fuse with if it is mesh. then you can fuse just the edges if it has plastic numbers/names on it without ruining the jersey.

happy sewing!

Thank you all for all of the suggestions!!!

I didn't realize how difficult this was going to be.

I'm not starting it until after the holidays are done. I may have to pick all of your brains as I'm muddling through this.

maybe you can practice with a sleeve or some part of the garment that won't be used in the quilt top and try some of the suggestions.

OR

just tell whoever that the kind of fabric in those jerseys is not suitable for a bed quilt and maybe you could make a wall hanging or pennant instead and make a quilt in his school colors in easier to handle fabric.

OR

suggest she take a quilting class and make it herself -

After all, something MOM made?????

my hubby had some 70s polyester jerseys that he wanted to give away. i saved his favorite and made it into a pillow....i was a little nervous about cutting it up but he LOVED it. The kids like it too and know that it was dads from basketball. I also used my son's favorite hockey team jersey to make a giant pillow and they've had it a few years...it's a favorite for being propped up while reading/doing homework. Maybe that would be more your friend's speed and you could supervise her first project before you all attempt a quilt of jerseys. The idea behind it is so sweet, i'm just worried for you that it will be a big undertaking....but i'm not able to do much quilting with polys....chalk it up to inexperience on this end :D

interesting information thank you