hhmomma

I am saving my kids T shirts to make a quilt.

How do you cut the shirts?

What size?

Do you do anything to the shirts before you cut?

Help?????

hopetoquilt

I cut off the sleeves/back (leaving as much of the front as possible). Then I iron on a light weight stabilizer that is much bigger than the block I want. Then I cut the block out the size I want. Be very careful about pressing/ironing the front of the t-shirt as some of the shirts have stuff (for lack of a better word) that melts. Iron from the back.

As far as choosing a block size, the options are endless. You could make them all one size or you could make them all a finished size that is a multiple of 3 (like cutting out 3 1/2 squares, 6 1/2 squares, 9 1/2 squares, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 rectangles) etc and fit them together like a puzzle.

I cut my boys' shirts to 9 1/2 blocks and plan to use them as the center in each block i make. I have 50 shirts for each boy's quilt. I also already made a quilt for my older son using his sports jerseys and made those blocks 12 1/2 inch squares. I hope this helps.

Use the search portion of this board to find pictures of completed t-shirt quilts. You will see so many variations and one should inspire you. Don't forget to post pix when you are done so we call all see.

Pam B

I recently did a class at a LQS and I learned several tips. We actually used a pattern that had several different ways to do the blocks. Although the pattern was nice, one would not really need it. First you need to decide what size blocks you are going to want. My finished blocks are all 16 1/2 inches. I am using my daughters sorority tee-shirts. I cut our several different sizes of template plastic...made it easy to lay on the tee shirts and and find just the parts I wanted to use. After you have cut the area of the shirt out, then I fused lightweight fusible interfacing (for knit fabrics) on the back side. Then I added borders around the tee shirt until my block was 16 1/2 inches.