T-Shirt quilt, Part 1

I do not know how many parts this project will take, but you will be lucky enough to read about all of them. :-) I have done the New England MS Challenge Walk 8 of the 10 years they have organized it. I get a t-shirt for training and a t-shirt on the last day. I do not wear this many t-shirts often enough to keep letting them take up drawer space, and thought a while back that I could make them into a quilt. After talking about it for a while and getting some quilting supplies for Christmas, I finally started the quilt. I figured I should document the step-by-step because I told my Mom I would make one for her if mine ends up looking good! Plus I can fix the mistakes I have made if I do another.

[Just skip to the last picture if you want to see how far I have gotten but do not care so much about the process.]

An initial search on the internet and Pin-terest provided good guidelines of co-opting stretchy t-shirts for quilts. I planned my own layout because the t-shirts have different sized designs, but am an organized person so went with nice columns. The approximate final measurements of my quilt should be about 24" x 51". I think that might be a small lap quilt? I can still play with the measurements by changing the pieces in between the blocks.

ANYHOO, here is the step-by-step to date.

Last weekend I took my sewing machine out of its box and put all my supplies on the table next to it. I have a new cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter. I have been unable to find my good metal sewing scissors, but luckily still have the mediocre orange-handled pair. This is not important to know at all, but I am including the details anyway. I mean, this was step one - unpacking my sewing machine!

Second step was to decide how I wanted the t-shirts organized. I measured all the designs and put little pieces of paper on them so I could figure out how they would fit in two columns. I ended up with chronological order, as if you were reading a book, row by row.

I planned on equal column widths and different heights for each t-shirt.

On to the cutting. When it comes to sewing, cutting is the part I like the LEAST. If you make a mistake, it is possible that it is not fixable. With the t-shirts, you have to remove the sleeves and backs. This is the first t-shirt I did, and figured out the most efficient way to get them cut after this.

The t-shirts did not have any side seams, and the left sleeves have 'ALUMNI' printed on them. So I first removed the left sleeve to use later, then just cut the front off the rest of the shirt, leaving the neck, back, and right sleeve attached - less cutting! I made little white lines on the shirt to help with the cutting.

VERY IMPORTANT: I planned for a 0.5" seam allowance on all sides by adding an inch to each measurement on the little piece of paper you can see in the picture below before cutting so I had the correct numbers in my head. Ironically, this first t-shirt I did that I was super careful about was the only one I cut incorrectly.

After this first shirt, I did the the top cut first, then used the cutting ruler and the lines on the mat to make the process more efficient. That little pile o' fabric under the table grew with each t-shirt. :-)

Because t-shirt material stretches, you need to use fusible backing so that the fabric sews evenly and the final product is sturdier. After cutting all the t-shirts into blocks, I had all the final measurements and cut pieces of fusible backing/interfacing the same sizes.  I did not really want to plan out the entire quilt before buying any fusible backing, and luckily Jo-Anns has these small 10 yard bolts of lightweight fusible interfacing!

This was super easy to cut with the rotary cutter. Next step was ironing all these pieces together. The bolts of interfacing do not come with directions, my 4-H years ended 14 years ago, so thank goodness for the internets. I put the t-shirt pieces face down on the ironing board, the bumpy side of the interfacing down on top of that, then a thing cloth napkin, sprayed that with water, and ironed with a HOT iron pressing down and moving the iron from spot to spot without rubbing. When it comes to applying interfacing, rubbing is bad.

Okay, so the columns were supposed to be 14 inches wide, so the pieces were cut 15 inches wide for the two side-seam allowances. Apparently that first t-shirt with the big 3 on it was cut to be 2 inches short. Then I mis-cut an "ALUMNI" sleeve that I was going to use to fix it, so I had to cut a different sleeve to make up for it (see photo below). :-(

I was going to put the "ALUMNI"s between the designs, but have two fewer now after a couple of mistakes. I think I may just use random pieces of blue t-shirt to fill in all those strips.

At the MS Walk, there are red (or orange) colored shirts for people who have MS and are comfortable disclosing that. The other walkers get blue shirts. I plan to use a red/orange/pink fleece to do the backing and not fill the quilt. Figuring I make one for my Mom, I will probably do the reverse - red and orange top with a blue backing.

This pretty much covers the necessary steps, I think, to prep t-shirt material. I will probably post again when I decide how to fill in the spaces and put the top together.