Question about de-constructing men's shirts for fabric
 

I used men's shirts to make a quilt for one of my sons and I just cut the pieces I needed for it, but the whole shirts left take up so much space. I decided I wanted to cut them apart and discard the pieces that are not suitable for use. Do you just throw away the collars, cuffs, plackets with buttons? Or do some of you use those for something?

I put the scraps in a bag for later use. I save the buttons in a jar. The collars, cuffs and yokes have enough useable fabric for scrappy blocks. I used this to get as much fabric as I could out of a shirt. http://thethriftyquilter.blogspot.co...e-thrifty.html

My sister did a quilt with her husbands shirts she gave me what was left and I made baby bibs with them

Trying to upload picture of bibs hope this works

Those are totally adorable. Do you have a tutorial somewhere?

Carly those bibs are terrific, is there a pattern or website we could go to....or is it your own? Cool thread I love messing around with deconstructing clothes for quilts and other useful things.

Love the bibs. I also would like more how to !

Carly- those bibs are great! Would you share where I can get the pattern? I've been saving the buttons in jars. If they are a nice matched set or have some sort of logo on them I keep them together in a small jewelry bag in case I decide to make "something". Some cuffs have enough fabric to get a small piece of fabric from, but most I pitch. Ditto for the buttonhole placket and collar. The seams are good as firestarters or tying up garden plants. Don't burn anything with poly interfacing. I don't put fabric scraps out for the birds. Threads can easily entangle or choke critters, and cotton takes a long time to dry out after a storm. Unrelated to quilting but PLEASE don't release helium balloons. The strings entangle animals, and the balloons cause the death of whales, turtles, and dolphins hundreds of miles away when mistakenly eaten as jellyfish. I used to scuba and find such debris wrapped around coral or floating around the boat.

I always remove all buttons & save them- cut away the cuffs, plackets, collars- open the sleeves. sometimes I save some of those pieces (if I have something in mind) sometimes I discard them...those bibs are wonderful- I think i'm going to start making those - then use the rest of the shirt to cut up for fabric.