Preparing a T-shirt for a T-shirt Quilt
I have two grandchildren who are going to graduate from High School this spring. Both have been very active in school sports and activities, and so I am going to make each of them a t-shirt quilt using their collection of t-shirts from their events. I collaborated with the parents, who gathered up 16-20 t-shirts for me. (The graduates were informed of this, just in case there was a favorite t-shirt that they wanted to keep for wearing.)
There are many ways to prepare a t-shirt for use in a quilt. You can view this topic in YouTube. I'll tell you about how I did it. It's maybe not the easiest, but it works for me. Use clean t-shirts, preferable with no fabrics softener or dryer sheets.
First, cut off the sleeves, the shoulder seams, and sides of the quilt, keeping the "design area" as large as possible. I am making 12" blocks (12.5" unfinished), so I kept a lot of space around the design area. You may be able to use the front AND the back of the t-shirt, depending on how it's printed, so you might be able to get 2 blocks from one t-shirt.
Lay your t-shirt section out flat on your cutting board, and smooth out the wrinkles. Center a quilting square ruler over the design, centering it as best you can vertically and horizontally.
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| Center a clear ruler over the design. |
Trim around the t-shirt, about an inch or so from the ruler, cutting off the neckline, the sleeve, any excess fabric. I call this the "rough trim," and it doesn't have to be measured. This is the area you will apply fusible web to and you want it a little larger so when you trim it to size, the entire area will be fusible. We need to add fusible to the back of the t-shirt block because it keeps the block from stretching out of shape. T-shirts stretch in all directions--good for comfort, bad for quilt blocks!
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| Rough trim |
Next, put a few pins around the outside of the ruler to define the area. You will want to see where the design is when the t-shirt is upside down on your ironing board.
When you remove the quilt ruler, your design will be outlined with those pins.
Take you t-shirt to the ironing board. Lay it face down. Put a piece of fusible web, glue side down, on the back of the t-shirt, making sure all areas within the pins is covered.
You may remove the all pins now, or remove them as you go. Do not iron the pins! Also, you should PRESS, not iron. (press = up and down with the iron, not side to side or sliding the iron across the fabric.) Follow the instructions for the kind of fusible you are using.
Press the fusible to the back of the t-shirt. Don't over iron. Some t-shirts have heavy waxy printing, or rubbery foam printing. This can melt.
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| Press the fusible to the back of the t-shirt. |
Once the fusible has been applied, check to make sure the edges are all tight and that there are no "bubbles" in the fusible.
Take your block back to your cutting mat. Center your quilt ruler on the fused t-shirt and trim to final size you need.
Voila! A finished fused t-shirt block for your quilt!
A side note-- you can use a couple of smaller pieces of fusible to use up larger scraps. Overlap them slightly. This works well for darker t-shirts, but may be visible on white t-shirts.
