http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RoRYvLbQnE. I found this video useful. I read somewhere to remove the buttons. Is that necessary?

You can have dimension on your quilt tops such as buttons or pockets. When it is quilted it will just be an area you go around.
and be sure if you have a Long Armer do the quilting to tell them to go around pockets or buttons.

Have fun with these quilts. I have made several and totally love it. It is quite a memory quilt.

Thanks bunches!

thanks!

Thanks I have a shirt from my husband that I want to use in a quilt. This was very helpful.

Thanks for sharing!

i made a memory quilt years ago for a friend of mine's mom.. before i really knew how to quilt..

it was all her father's different dress shirts & ties that he wore to work every day.. i cut off the buttons of each shirt, put each set in a ziploc sandwich bag with a scrap of the shirt. we sewed them back onto the shirts in the right spots when it was finished.. that was a really wonky quilt, cause the fabrics were such different weights.. but her mom loved it. and that was the point.

My daughter had one of her Grandpa's shirts and asked me to put some of the fabric in her vintage quilt that I am repairing. He was a large man so there is plenty of material. I made a pillow cover and used the button strip for the way to put the pillow form in. Once the form is in, you just button it back up. I stitched the backing close to the opening.

After I buy them, I wash and dry them, then I rip them apart using my seam ripper. Very fast work while watching TV. Then I press. My goal is to get as much fabric per shirt as I possibly can, even what is in the seam allowance. I rip the yoke leaving the label in tact. Some of the labels are almost works of art and add dimension the quilt. This is a good way to add some interesting plaids to my stash. I have also purchased some lovely Hawaiian prints for my stash. At my local Goodwill shirts are $2.50, however, when I purchase Large, X-Large, 4X, or Tall shirts, I can get between 2 and 3 yards of fabric.

In the past a few of us had been useing recycled jeans to make quilts One lady told me to leave the pockets on them. Imagine the quilt for a child and he or she could keep a toy in a quilt pocket. Its an endless possiabilities. Marvel

The jeans make great bags too -- the tops for the main part of the bag and cut straps from the legs. Pockets are already there!

I want to do one of the Hawaaiian shirt quilts. Saw one here recently and just fell in love with it. Think it will be fun

Here are cutting instructions / tutorial / photos for using 7 shirts in 7 steps.

http://thethriftyquilter.blogspot.co...e-thrifty.html

This is silly, but I wiil bet she is wearing an old man bean top exactly like one I have in that tomato soup color they like...and if that plaid shirt came from there too, it will probably last another hunnert years!

sorry. this was a repeat of someone else's post.

Buttons can be great on quilts or wall hangings. I continue to add to my collection of shirts in hopes of trying one or these great ideas.
Bonnie Hunter has wonderful information (whole books) about this.
One of the nicest ideas was from a blog by Ami Simms ~ http://www.amisimms.com/index.html
Check out her web site for great information and lots of humor. Even her dog helps. I'll try to place the notes I took on this reply. I couldn't find it on the site. (This good idea should be added)
Shirt Quilt for a Memorial service
Ami Simms http://www.amisimms.com/index.html

I found the Shirt Pocket Memorial Quilt on Ami's Blog

http://amisimms.wordpress.com/?s=shi...earchbutton=Go!

Look around at her other ideas. You can sign up to read these too!

Debbie

Thanks for sharing the video, some good ideas.

I learned the hard way that silk and other woven hawaiian shirts stretch- so when I am doing a quilt made from different weight shirts, I interface all fabric to be used so there will be no stretching. I liked the term dljeenings used above in her post "a really wonky quilt" because that is what you get with different fabrics!