thp... I don't know what size shirt you are cutting up but I get a lot more than a fat quarter from a shirt.

I have been doing the 'buy used shirts for material' for some time. I love shirting material and never see any like those used in the construction of men's shirts. I am a senior and so I shop oof Senior Tuesday. Have two tubs of shirt fabric and am going to begin using it in the near future. Yes, I do save the buttons.

Hahah...my boss wears solid colored cotton shirts in such great colors....I have told him that if he ever is going to get rid of any, I'll take 'em!

I have yet to buy shirts to make into quilts (although I KNOW I will at some point) - there is a Goodwill outlet near my house where they sell clothes by the pound and I eye those bins sometimes and ponder the possibilities. Usually I am looking just for interesting "stuff" though - I got a decent 15x17 light table there, in perfect condition, for $4! I love thrift stores!

I always save buttons! I'll even buy a shirt just because I like the buttons. The shirts can be a little bit of work, but some of the fabrics are so cute that it is worth it I think.

I went to Bonnies site and found her tutorial on how to take a shirt apart and what to use and not use. So just in case you don't have her site address here it is:

http://quiltville.com/index.html

I had to scroll down quite a ways before I found the tutorial. But it helped me take a shirt apart pretty fast. Man she is good. Good luck and have fun!

I buy men's shirts at Goodwill, but only when they are on clearance for a dollar. I need to start using them. I have SO many!

I have measured the square inches that I get out of a shirt and it is the equivalent of between 1 and 2 yards of fabric, depending on the size of the shirt and the cut of the shirt. Those XXL and larger shirts have a lot of usable fabric to them!

I always save the buttons and the labels.

A hint on to save the buttons and keep the sets together - at a dollar store I found a bag of 120 little zip lock clear plastic bags that are about 2 by 3 inches, just a great size to hold a shirt's worth of buttons. Then you don't have to sort through hundreds of buttons to find a matching set.

When I take the buttons from a shirt, or whatever, I run a string through all of them and tie them up. Even if they are different sizes, I keep them all together. Then I throw them in the button jar to admire them. A couple months ago I bought a blouse that was way too small for me just to get the buttons. I then transferred them to a blouse that did fit. Like getting new clothes!

I will buy a shirt too just for the buttons. Especially if they are fancy! Nice buttons can be as much as $3 and up apiece when buying new. If I can get a not so pretty piece of clothing for $3 but it has pretty buttons it is worth it to me!

our local thrift store has 1/2 every monday so i have gotten into wool applique and go and get what i can find that is 100% wool alot cheeper than buying the already felted wool and felt it myself works great

I was looking at some of the shirt quilts on Google and one lady had done a piano key type border with the labels and a little of the area around them.