toogie

My Brother in law died this week after a long fight with cancer. His wife call last night. She wants me to make a quilt from his shirts. He wore a medium to large size. What I need to know is, how many shirts would it take to make a full size quilt? Also, what would be the best pattern to make my fabrics go further? She said it would be OK to buy a Sashing fabric or background fabric if I didn’t have enough shirts. She usually likes vintage looking blocks but also likes scrappy. I thought about Double Slice, but you don’t sash the blocks and I’m not sure how many shirts she has. I don’t think she realizes that not all will be usuable pieces so it will probably take a lot of shirts his size. Do you have a pattern idea? Most of the fabrics will be plaids or stripes because most are western style. Help please!

Waal

Look on Pinterest for ideas on patterns. Type in quilts made from mens shirts and you should see many different patterns. I've seen where you can make a quilt from 7 shirts, but it depends on the size you make and how many quilts you are making. I made three quilts for my nephews and niece from their dad's shirts a couple years ago, but I don't remember how many shirts my sister gave me. Sometimes just making the quilt from squares looks great.

Iceblossom

It is very kind of you to do this. Many people have come to different projects, some very simple and some more complex but I've seen more than one project made from shirts -- and a lot of those were plaids, some were more work style and some more hunting style.

Fortunately shirt backs are often a nice piece of yardage that is usually in good shape and stain free! Figure you will get at least a fat quarter per shirt, probably two, I'm doubting though that you would get a yard per shirt. So I'd want to start with at least 12 and figure 20 would be a reasonable cut off point for woven/non t-shirts.

Search on "memory quilts from shirts" for ideas. You'll get a lot of the t-shirt links but not all.

Sadly, my father in law passed before I got this quilted down, but here's a top I made of plaids for him. It is a traditional "Delectable Mountains" block arranged around squares of the focus plaid. I would think you could get one set of something like this from a long sleeved shirt in good shape.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/member...14-621635.html

sewingpup

Bonnie Hunter started out making scrap quilts from shirts. She has a lot of free patterns on her website. I don't know what size blocks you want. Her's are made out of smaller pieces...but more of the shirt could be used that way. so sorry for your loss. Bonnies website is quiltville. com

Tartan

I second the suggestion on looking through Bonnie Hunter’s free pattern tab. She also has a instructions on how to debone a shirt to selvage as much as possible.

wesing

This has been on my radar since I first saw it. There is a link to her original post where she tells how many shirts she started with.
Recycled Shirt Pineapple Quilt Done!

thepolyparrot

I'm sorry for your loss. You're very kind to do this for her.

With mostly western shirts, I would use the pearl-snap front placket for some of the sashing and some blocks would be just a square of fabric that has the pearl-button flap pocket on it.

Gay

Can't find how many you will need, it will depend on the size quilt you want, but here is the link for de-boning a shirt by Bonnie. The Double Slice pattern would look great without sashing.

De-boning a shirt

Barb in Louisiana

I think a simple pattern like alternating four patches with solid blocks would look good. That way, you can emphasize some of the prettier shirts with the bigger pieces so that people will recognize them.

A good site for inspiration. https://www.pinterest.com/angelinewa...shirts-quilts/

This page shows some good patterns. http://quiltingdigest.com/quilts-from-mens-shirts/

abc123xyz

I have no idea just how many shirts it would take to make a quilt. it depends a lot on the size and style of the shirt and the quality of the fabric. if the shirts are worn and thin in places it may be much harder to find usable fabric in them. Also the difference between and long and short sleeves makes a big difference. If she has a lot of good usable shirts you may be able to get a large quilt made but with a lesser number you may have material for only a smaller throw. There are also pillows which are made out of shirts which some people find very attractive. When my husband passed away i used some of his shirts to make memory bears for each of my children. Each bear took one long sleeved shirt to make. My children were very pleased to receive the bears and recently I made another bear for a family that had lost their father. I purchased my pattern directly from the Simplicity company and it works very well. Have your sister in law show you the shirts that she wishes you to use. You need to make sure that the material in the shirts is suitable to use in a quilt. I would not attempt to consent to making any particular quilt until I i knew just what materials I had to work with. Explore for ideas but in the meantime be sure to actually see the shirts so that you know what you will be working with.