How Do You Make A T Shirt Quilt? Quilt As You Go & No Interfacing

If you have a lot of t shirts and zero drawer space, don’t despair. You can make a T shirt quilt in a fun and easy way to preserve your memories. This is a great way to get more use out of your T shirts instead of wearing them one at a time every now and then. Follow this process of machine quilting each T Shirt square as you go, sewing them into rows and then finishing your quilt with a no binding. sewing on your backing method and then hand sewing the backing to the topper to create a T shirt quilt a fast and simple way.

Round up:

• 12 or more T shirts depending on how big you want to make it.
• Sweatshirt fabric by the yard enough to sew and quilt each T shirt fabric square or rectangle to the fabric.
• Quilt as you go by sewing each T shirt block to your sweatshirt fabric in a pattern you design on your sewing machine.
• Sew Quilt blocks together row by row.
• Sew backing fabric to quilt topper, right sides together leaving the bottom edge open.
• Turn inside out and press with iron.
• Sew opening closed on your sewing machine or by hand.
• Tack the backing fabric to the quilted T shirt quilted quilit blocks by hand sewing choosing one of three options.

My house is full of t shirts galore. My husband played football and coached football at two different colleges. Currently he is the head coach at our local high school. His dresser drawers and our closet runneth over if you know what I mean. I really should break down and make him a t shirt quilt. He has to get in line though haha. I am working on a birthday gift for our youngest daughter. I am sorry to say I’m about two years behind schedule on this one. She has a lot of t shirts because she was a cheerleader, on the golf team, and on the yearbook staff while in high school. Good thing about waiting a while to do this project, I am a lot better quilter now!

T Shirts

Gather your t shirts. Maybe you have t shirts from your travels. Maybe you have t shirts from sports (like me). They come in all shapes and sizes and colors. You will need at least 12 or more to make a quilt big enough to be a quilt. 12 t shirts make a lap size quilt. Decide on how big you want the quilt to be. Start by cutting your t shirts the way you want them to look on your quilt. When you cut out the front of your shirt (or the back depending on where the graphics are), try to keep your t shirts square or rectangle shape. You don’t have to use the whole shirt. Cut out the part you want on your quilt. You can place the shirts different directions to make them fit the size of your quilt. Try placing some of your t shirts that have words on them vertically and some horizontally. This adds a lot of interest. This isn’t your final arrangement yet. This just gives you an idea of how you want your t shirt quilt to look.

Consider how you will style your quilt. Lay your t shirts out on the floor or a table and get a feel for how you will arrange them. Think about colors that look good together. Don’t get overwhelmed. You can make it all come together. It may take some time but no worries. Hopefully you will love it when it is done.

Sweatshirt Backing And Quilt Each Block As You Go

Here is the fun part. I decided to try sewing and quilting at the same time. You’re thinking that is nothing new. Here is the easy and the fun about it. You will need some sweatshirt fabric yardage. (If you have a lot of old sweatshirts you own’t be using, you can use that for your batting. It won’t show because you will still back your fabric with different material.

Take your t shirt square and lay it on top of the wrong side of your sweatshirt fabric. Cut the sweatshirt fabric a little bit bigger than your t shirt. The nice thing about using sweatshirt fabric to machine quilt your t shirts squares is the fabric topper doesn’t slip. It’s amazing! You may want to practice on a small piece of T shirt fabric and some sweatshirt fabric to test it out .When you feel confident, you are ready to quilt your T shirt on your sewing machine. I just used a straight stitch and quilted the T shirt to the sweatshirt fabric making a unique design every time. Some T shirt squares I just outlined the graphic on the T shirt square with a straight stitch. Others I quilted a simple design. Continue sewing and quilting each T shirt square to your sweatshirt fabric until you have a stack of quilted T shirt squares or rectangles.

Here is a helpful tip: smooth your fabric as you go. T shirt fabric likes to bunch up. Get used to smoothing your fabric as you go. Sew slowly and carefully. Once you finish your T shirt squares, put them in a pile. You can start putting the puzzle pieces together again (aka quilted squares) and arranging them.

How To Style Your T Shirt Quilt Squares

This part is like putting a puzzle together. I like to start in the middle. Start with your center piece. Which T shirt do you want to be the focal point of your quilt. Choose a square for the left side. And then the right side of your middle T shirt square. Now arrange the quilt squares above the row you are working on and then below. Keep adding until you have the arrangement you want.

Sew Quilt Blocks Into Rows

I made 4 rows about three T shirts across for a lap quilt. (I am making my daughter’s quilt smaller so she can carry it in her car or just grab it and go.) You could make it bigger for a comforter type blanket if you want. For my daughter, the lap quilt size will be perfect! Heat up your iron. Lay a piece of fabric over each T shirt seam and press gently on the T shirt topper. That protects graphics from your T shirts coming off on the iron and possibly messing up your T shirt. The seams may be a bit bulky because you quilted them on sweatshirt fabric but once they are pressed they lay flatter and look more professional.

Sew the first row of quilted T shirt blocks together. Press. Then the second row and press and the third and “sew” on pun intended haha until you have each row of T shirts sewn and seams pressed. Next we will attach the entire quilt topper together.

Sew Each Row Together

Now you are going to Attach row 1 to row 2. Sew your seam all the way across the width of your squares. Then press the seam. Keep going until all the rows are sewn together and seams gently pressed.

Backing Fabric

Choose your backing fabric so that the colors coordinate with your topper. You can choose fleece, minky, cotton, whatever you think will work best with your quilt topper. You can sew a backing for your quilt with quilt blocks of your choice to make the backing unique or buy enough fabric to fit your topper to back your quilt with. I actually had a thin plush blanket that worked great for the backing. It was just slightly bigger than my quilt so I just cut it to size. Then sewed it to my quilt. Voila! Love the softness. It really compliments the T Shirt front of my quilt.

Join Front To Back

Place your quilt topper right side up on the floor. Lay your backing fabric on top of your quilt topper so that right sides are together. Pin around your quilt to secure the edges so the fabric doesn’t shift while you are sewing. Sew around the edge of your quilt leaving an opening at the bottom so you can easily turn it inside out. After you have sewn around three sides of your quilt, turn it inside out. Smooth all the edges and pull corners out so they look good. Sew the bottom edge together by hand or by machine whichever you choose.

Tack Front To Back

Because I already quilted the front of my quilt, I didn’t want to quilt over my machine stitches. I came up with 3 options (I chose the first option for finishing my quilt). Smooth the back of your fabric before you sew by hand to make sure your fabric lays flat. Keep the backing flat and smooth as you sew so it doesn’t bunch up weird. This sounds scary but it really isn’t if you take your time and check your backing before and after you sew that it looks good on the back. It isn’t a big deal if you have to unpick and try again. It’s worth all the worry and time to make it look just right (not perfect but just right wink wink.)

• Attach the front and back with some running stitches in the shape of hearts sewn by hand. Use Perle Cotton Thread in the color of your choice. Cut out a couple of different sizes of paper heart patterns that you can pin to your quilt and sew running stitches around the heart. Or outline some of the designs on the front of your quilt with a running stitch through all the thicknesses. Or sew small X’s in random places joining front and back. Really the design is the limit because you can do squares, circles, X’s and O’s. You get my drift. It doesn’t cover up your quilting stitches and it adds to the overall look.
• Cut out heart shapes out of leftover T shirt fabric and quilt them on your sewing machine. Add these heart appliques with a running stitch to your quilt topper. Sew them on by hand through all thicknesses of your quilt. Place them in places that won’t cover up your T shirt graphics. Try not to sew them on seam areas of your quilt. Hard to do…believe me I know haha.
• Have you ever tied a quilt? Use yarn or Perle Cotton thread and tie knots or knots with bows through all thicknesses of your quilt.

Once you finish your T shirt quilt, it’s time to sit back and breath a big sigh. You did it. You actually did it! It’s rewarding to finish a project and really if you look at this project overall, I was really surprised how easy and fast each T shirt block came together and how quickly I was able to finish the overall project. It really is a fun project! Mission accomplished and birthday gift created.

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