T-Shirt Quily Question
 

Howdy y'all 😊

A good friend I used to work with lost his 15 year old daughter due to a very rare disease on Thanksgiving Day last year. He and his wife have asked me to make a quilt for them out of some of her T-Shirts. But I'd like to do it differently than any other I have seen. I know I have to use stabilizer on the backs of the shirts, but what I would like to do is to cut each shirt into girly shapes such as dresses and teddy bears, then appliqué each one onto a block, then sew the blocks together. Is this possible? Do they make stabilizer that is fusible on both sides? Any suggestions on how to do this...if it's possible...would be very much appreciated, as well as suggestions on other girly shapes to use! 😃

Donna

I'm thinking about something called Wonder Under. Haven't used it in years but it will fill the bill for your project, which btw sounds like an adorable idea. As I remember, there is a film of paper attached to the stabilizer. The paperless side is fused to the back of the fabric. Then the paper is removed when you are ready to fuse it to the project. Good luck. This sounds like fun.

I agree with GailG, wonder under will work but it leaves the applique stiff. Additionally, you will have to use a pressing cloth when you fuse as most T-shirt imprints will melt when hit directly with a hot iron. If she has any T-shirts that have a rubbery imprint, you can't use it. The rubber stuff can't take the heat from the iron and it kind of puckers/wrinkles up.

Also you may wish to consider the recipients wishes. While your idea sounds cute, you could lose a lot of the imprints by cutting into odd shapes and they may have special memories of these events and don't want dates/cities/name of event etc lost.

Edited to add, why don't you try the shadow box setting instead. Not many T shirt quilts are done this way and it adds a lot of interest, as does cutting them into different sizes like this quilt:
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Really not sure how to go about it, but I'm kind of thinking something I saw on here not too long ago, maybe window applique? For other shapes, heart, flower, butterfly, bow or ribbon. Hope this helps!

I would search this website using advance search entering T-shirt quilts and maybe you will find an answer. I agree with Tartan. T-shirt even with a light weight fusible might not be the easiest to do a zigzag applique stitch around the edges. I have seen Feline Fanatic T-shirt quilt and I think it is stunning. Good Luck

I think your idea would be great if you were just using various articles of clothing, pajamas, favorite skirt, jeans, etc. but if the parents gave you tshirts with designs, printing, sports insignias, school logos, I would go with the more traditional t-shirt quilt designs that keeps the main theme intact. Feline Fanatic shows an example a more fun setting than some. If you look here, search t-shirt quilts and google, you'll find more. Hopefully, you can discuss ideas with the parents once you have a plan in mind. It is very nice of you to do this for those grieving parents.

I made several memory quilts when we lost my nephew in an accident in 2013. I used his tshirts and jeans...so what I ended up with is very different than other t shirt quilts. His name is Jacob so modified the Jacob's Ladder pattern to fit in his shirts for 2 of the quilts. The smaller pieces of the tshirts and jeans are in the piecing of the Jacob's Ladder. It may not be what you are thinking of, but maybe it will get you thinking about some other things[ATTACH=CONFIG]525420[/ATTACH]

meyert: Your design is great! Love it.

[QUOTE=gramajo;7260500]meyert: Your design is great! Love it.[/QUOTE

Me too!!! Wonder under is what the doctor ordered!