Using Men's dress shirts for quilt fabric
 

What are your favorite patterns?
Should I use a stabilizer? any particular type or brand?
Any other suggestions?

I thought I could alternate 10" block with a four patch 10" block or maybe do something that looks like a brick wall.

My husband is changing jobs and he just bought newer clothes... cleaning out his closet and handing me 28 dress shirts (several of which have holes in the elbows so I guess the rigors of accounting can wreak havoc on your wardrobe). Did I mention he is 6'5" tall? quite a bit of fabric to work with. He was surprised that I wanted to keep the shirts. Little does he understand how much fabric costs now. I appreciate all your suggestions.

You might like this website:
http://thethriftyquilter.blogspot.co...e-thrifty.html

Love the site. Thanks. I guess I could make 4 lap quilts. I may just make 1 huge quilt and maybe a baby quilt. I like her pattern and instructions

I made a tumbling blocks quilt of mens dress shirts and it turned out really well. I made sure they were 100% cotton but im sure a little polyester wouldnt hurt too bad. I didn't use stabilizer but I did piece and quilt tue entire thing by hand. Anyway-its one of my favorites. Maybe I can attach a picture for you tomorrow!

Bonnie Hunter has a great star pattern that you could use plaid shirts.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/...ain-stars.html

I made a log cabin quilt for my husband with shirting plaids and stripes as the lights and civil war repros for the darks. During the time that I was piecing the quilt my FIL passed away. So I used some of his shirts to finish the blocks and for the 10 inch blocks that I used for the backing. It's my favorite quilt.

I didn't back the lights with anything special, but some of the shirts that I've seen in the store over the past year or two look thinner than what I used.

Here's some I did last year. I've done a few more but haven't posted the pictures yet
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t153884.html

I didn't use stablizer, but I would discard any thin worn areas. I cut the shirts into 6 pieces: sleeves, fronts, back and yolk, washed and starched them. I gave away the plackets, collars and cuffs, but you can incorporate them into your design if you wish. The gal that took mine made a really funky prairie point border out of the collar points.

I did use light colored batting and pressed all the seams toward the darker color.

I didn't have any problems mixing heavier weight oxford cloths with lighter weight dress shirts.
Remember that there are no rules, so you can use purchased yardage for sashing or incorporate it into your block to unify your design.
Have fun!

I love all the ideas. I am leaning towards bonnie hunter's floating stars. i forgot about that pattern. I especially love the first picture in the "recycled shirts" and that may be the second one I make. I was envisioning the pattern (without the sashing) when I first received the shirts. I have 28 shirts and they are all rather large.

I have to laugh. I had to look up half the words in the posts including yoke and placket. Learn something new every day. I also need to save the buttons. Didn't even dawn on me. How wasteful if I had thrown them out.

I would also love to see the tumbling blocks quilt. It is on my to do list but I have the book on how to piece it without Y seams...

I love this idea. I plan to start collecting the shirts now. Thanks for sharing the information. Teresa

It's not a quilt, but I've bought men's flannel shirts from thrift stores to make clothesline wrapped baskets. I just like the way they feel.

Tate