t-shirt quilt question
 

I have been asked to make a t-shirt quilt using the t-shirts for both the front, and the back. Has anyone made a quilt using t-shirts for the back also? I will be quilting it on my longarm. I'm concerned about the stability of the back.....will it stretch? What if I use sashing and borders? I use lightweight interfacing on the t-shirts. Would a medium weight interfacing work better for the back?
Any suggestion are appreciated! Thanks for your help.

i would still use light weight on the bottom.

I wouldn't advise it. Two-sided quilts are extremely difficult to match front to back, especially on a long arm. I would find a theme-related fabric for the back. If they want to use all the tee shirts, I'd suggest making two quilts.

I made one that had shirts front and back. I quilted it on my home machine. I used the light weight interfacing and added sashing. I had no problems with stretching.

I'm also hesitant to recommend a 2-sided t-shirt quilt. Getting the top and backing aligned will be difficult, as someone else has pointed out, and being able to see where you are quilting will be difficult. Some tees have thick rubbery printing or pictures on them, and I find it's best just to avoid quilting those areas. If the shirts on the back have this kind of printing, you might find yourself tearing your hair out.

Must admit that I third the hesitation with the 2-sided quilt for the exact reasons listed above. I've made many t-shirt quilts and quilted them myself on my midarm, and wouldn't do a double-sided one for any amount of money. Pick up a stack of 20 or tees, plop another 7-8 yards of fabric on top of that, plus batting, and you'll find you've got one heavy, thick quilt. Don't use a medium-weight interfacing - it will be waaaay too heavy - probably denim-weight heavy when you stack all those layers.

Some people have no problem with the rubbery, thick logos, but I had nothing but bad luck with them, and only sew around the logos now, not through them. When sewing over the logos the thread broke, tension wacked out, and the needle left huge holes in the logos. Plus, I love the way the logos stand out and become a focal point when they're outlined and not sewn over.

Tell them they only see one side of the quilt when they're laying under it, and make two quilts - they can save one for when they wear out the other! Save yourself the headache. And good luck!

I would not use them on the back. You are going to be sewing thru thickness of the t-shirts which is harder to do than cotton and you don't need that additional thickness for your LAQ to have to deal with. These quilts are very heavy even with one side being made of t-shirts.

My friend did one like that for her daughter because she had so many t shirts. It was sooo heavy, she finally took it apart and made 2 quilts out of it. She used a light, fluffy quilt her daughter already had and wanted it that size. She covered that with the t shirts and tied it. Looked good but too heavy.

I have done it twice no problems, but my LA (Innova) is a real work horse and can handle anything I throw at her. Here are links to the two I have done and posted. One was made by someone else and the other I did. Both had regular quilting cotton used as sashing/background. Which I would consider a must. Doing nothing but sewn together T-shirts front and back is probably a recipe for disaster.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ts-t95274.html

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t209647.html

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. Originally I had told my customer that I wouldn't be able to use the t-shirts for the back, but once I started cutting the t-shirts, I started questioning myself (no one else does that, right?). I've made t-shirt quilts with a light weight batting and cotton backing, and an all over pattern, and haven't had a problem stitching over the t-shirt designs, but hadn't thought about stitiching over the designs on the front and back. Not sure how my machine would handle that, and don't think I want to find out! We had talked about making 2 quilts because of the number of t-shirts she brought (2 small laundry baskets full!). She has them marked with masking tape to indicate the areas she wants in the quilt, and requested the areas be sewn together as a collage, with no sashing separating them. This should be interesting! Wish me luck! I'll try to post pictures after I complete it.