Is this what starching would help with?
 

I am working on a memory quilt for my sister. I have started the Jacob's Ladder pattern (that was my nephew's name) with his jeans and pieces of shirts but I modified it a bit to be able to insert the logos from his favorite tee shirts. When I sew them together the big tee shirt section gets "floppy" as you can see in the picture. The diamond shape ones are the ones that bother me.

I have several others to do so I would like to find a way to avoid as much of the floppiness as I can. The shirts have been interfaced - lightweight interfacing.

Should I have used heavier interfacing? Is heavy starching what would help with this?

Any ideas?

Please let me know

Thanks
Teresa

You are going to have a great looking quilt!

I don't think starching will help--that knit fabric will still stretch with it. Since you've already used interfacing, maybe a machine basting straight stitch along the sides of the T-shirt blocks will help reduce the stretch. Did you check the Tshirt blocks before you sewed them to the pieced blocks? Maybe they "grew" by stretching a little bit as well and could be recut to make sure they fit with the corner triangles. From here it looks like it's just those 2 squares which are put on point. Best of luck and show how it goes!

I didn't think about machine basting the tee shirts first... I may try that with the next one to see. I have never done a quilt with tee shirt blocks before so its a learning experience
I didn't measure the tee shirt blocks - I just made them to fit.... which is another issue :)
Thanks for your thoughts

T-shirts need a stabilizer to keep them from stretching. An interfacing ironed on the back. Use a light weight interfacing, if a knit, iron it on in the other direction (so that the knits are perpendicular to each other).

What you can do is cut freezer paper to the finished block size and iron that to the back of your t-shirt pieces. This will stabilize the edges when you sew. Pin and sew your seams right up to the edge of the freezer paper. Peel off freezer paper afterwards.

The blocks on-point have stretched along their bias sides. That is why you are getting the ripples in the point ends.

Edit: I mean adding the freezer paper to your already-interfaced t-shirt pieces.

I did use interfacing.. but it was not woven, so there were no knits (or at least that is what I thought). I ironed it to the backside of the tee shirts. When I cut the pieces smaller it seemed to work like a charm, but these bigger blocks are a different story

It is going to be a great looking quilt! I have no suggestions to help, since you have already interfaced the T-shirt fabric. I would have thought that would be enough. Guess I need to rethink that, huh?

Dina

Prism99 - Freezer paper??? I have never heard of that.... interesting. Does it matter which side of the paper I put towards the fabric?Will the freezer paper mess with the interfacing?

Tartan: Thats a good idea on the quilting... was wondering what the best plan of attack would be

Shiny side of freezer paper to the fabric --- ALWAYS!!!! If you mess that one up, you have a waxy mess on your iron.

Freezer paper is used extensively by quilters for a variety of purposes. I use it mostly for machine applique. Some people use it for paper piecing. It is also used for making compass stars (complex patterns that require accuracy).

Iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the wrong side of your blocks. It peels off easily and should not interfere with your interfacing. I am assuming the interfacing was ironed to the t-shirt material, so the side that you would iron the freezer paper to should not have fusible on it.

Thanks for the tip on freezer paper... I am going to google that for ideas. But I am confused you said to iron the shiny side of the freezer paper to the wrong side of your blocks.... then you also said that the side that you would iron the freezer paper to should not have fusible on it...... my fusible interfacing is on the wrong side of my block (the back side) What am I misunderstanding???

How did you get your fusible interfacing to stick to your block??? I think the normal method is to iron the fusible to the t-shirt fabric, then cut your block. It is the fused interfacing that gives the t-shirt fabric stability. My understanding of interfacing is that it has fusible on one side. That is the side you iron to the fabric. Or did you use a two-sided fusible? I don't think two-sided fusibles are called interfacing, but maybe I am wrong about that.

Edit: I think I'm right about interfacing having fusible on only one side. Here is a Wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interfacing