T-Shirt Quilt

Last week I made a t-shirt quilt for a customer using her husband's shirts.  It turned out quite nicely, if a bit plain.  The black that she chose really makes the colors in the shirt graphics pop.

 
At first I didn't like making t-shirt quilts, but as I have had more practice, they have really grown on me.  I doubt I will be making them for my children because they tend to wear their shirts out.
If you make one of these quilts, remember that the interfacing for the t-shirts is key.  It has to be the stretchy kind.  And when quilting, raise your foot a little to make sure you clear the fabric and seams. 

Finished Recycled Clothing Quilt

Hi, happy quilters!  If you are just joining me, you'll want to peek back at the last post to see the recycled quilt in progress. 
And, ta-da!  It's finished and delivered:

I apologize if the picture seems a little bleary.  I took it at 6:45 this morning when I was still a little bleary.  It finished out at 72" X 90."  There are twenty 18" blocks. 

I left the ruffles on the collars and skirts loose to add dimension.

And I put the bows and buttons back on the bodices.














The hardest thing about the quilt was appliqueing the pieces on, working with the thin/worn knit pajamas, and quilting through the really thick pieces.  All in all though, it was a very worthy project and turned out to be really cute with little planning.  I would recommend this project to anyone with lots of baby items and little room to store them.

Recycled Clothing Quilt

This is the latest quilt-in-progress.  A local lady brought me several of her daughter's dresses and various baby clothes and wanted them incorporated into a quilt.  I forgot to take a picture of the outfits before I started cutting into them.  I usually get excited about a project and forget to take pictures before beginning. 

I purchased the green and white polka dot and the white and green stripe to give some continuity to the quilt and in case I ran out of usable clothing scraps.  Everything else is from an outfit.  Dress skirts, even those for little girls, gives an amazing amount of fabric if you cut carefully.  In some cases I was able to use the lace or ruffle around the hem on the quilt.  I also cut around collars and bodices to applique.  There is no pattern and I really didn't use rhyme or reason when assembling the blocks.  Whatever fit went into a particular block, making sure that there was only one piece from any particular outfit in each block.  Then I laid them out to determine placement.

The little pajamas were appliqued onto bigger squares.  Anything with a ruffle, including skirts and collars, was left free.  I think it adds interest. 

This is a purse that came with the sunflower dress.  It was appliqued in it's entirety.  When I am finished with the quilt, I will attach some of the bows and buttons that were on the clothing, probably in the solid blue areas.

I made twenty 18" square blocks to make the full size quilt.  I chose not to use a border as I wanted the clothing to be the focus.  It has been quilted in a large meander since the last picture was taken and I am in the process of binding it with the green polka dot, which should act as a frame for the quilt.