Q&A for How to Make a Quilt from T‐Shirts

Prices vary, but custom T-shirt quilts tend to cost somewhere between $100 and $200. You may be able to get a lower price for a smaller quilt.

A light-weight iron-on interfacing, either woven or non-woven, will work well for stabilizing your quilt.

If you don’t have interfacing on hand, fine cotton or muslin will work as a substitute. Make sure the fabric is pre-shrunk before you attach it to your quilt squares.

Border the tee with a contrasting solid or a very small print, to make it the same size as the other tees.

It is recommended. It keeps the cotton T from stretching, and sews together beautifully. It also adds a little weight to the quilt.

You can do it several ways. Either two short strips and two longer strips. Sew the short ones on opposite sides of the square from each other, then sew the two longer strips on the remaining sides. Or, use 4 equal size strips and miter the corners over each other by hand.

If a shirt has a hole or a rip on a section you want to display, sew on a fabric patch to repair the material and prevent further fraying.

Cotton works best, but you can use any shirt you wish. The cotton poly blends will sometimes be more stretchy and can discolor or go "shiny" when ironed though.

This article instructs you to use iron on interfacing on the back of the shirts, so that would be considered a material layer. You would also need to make a back to the quilt/blanket and that could also be considered material.

Several patterns have been given above in the article. However, that's the beauty of a t-shirt quilt. You can make it any way you want to make it and no one will complain.

Fleece can be used, but it can make the blanket very heavy. Depending on the weight you want, you may want to go with a lighter material.

As widely as you want. Wider sashing means less blocks, unless you want your blanket to be bigger.

Then use your seam ripper and redo the seams - woo hoo! Next time, pin the seam intersections together well and ease the fullness as you sew.

Use a walking foot. If you don't have a walking foot put the longer piece of fabric down and pin more.

Yes, they can be almost any shape. Just use borders to make all the blocks match.

Use a good polyester/cotton blend thread. Polyester/cotton blend threads have a little elasticity, and are sturdy yet easy to work with.

You can use a very light coat of clear spray paint or matte fixative. When you wash the quilt, use black Woolite or Orvus quilt soap.

I would not advise using wool; it will shrink when washed. Cotton is better.

Perhaps you could appliqué them onto to quilt squares. To cut down on bulk, separate the front from the back and appliqué that to the quilt.

Actually, yes - that's what makes it a quilt, which is a 'sandwich' of 2 layers of material with a layer of batting in-between. If you do not quilt, the material and batting may shift and become lumpy and malformed. You can either machine or hand-quilt. Another option is to tie the quilt. To do that, you would use yarn and stitch from the top of the quilt to through all the layers, then back up again to the top. Tie a knot and cut the ends fairly short. The instructions that come with your batting will tell you how close together you need to put the yarn. If you aren't confident in your sewing or want to finish it quickly, tying can work, if you like that look.

The rough side goes face down. It is better to iron the interfacing onto the shirt before cutting the block so the shirt will not stretch.

Either way would work okay. Sweatshirts tend to be heavier material, so you could probably skip the interfacing step with them.

Yes, you should launder ALL of the fabric you're using before cutting it. "New" fabric often has starch and/or "sizing" in it to stiffen it and prevent wrinkles while on display for sale. That stuff needs to be washed out before you start sewing it.

Yes, you can use 100% cotton for the backing. The batting comes in many different thicknesses. The thicker the batting, the warmer the quilt.

Anything you want, depending on how heavy you want the finished quilt to be. An old bed sheet works well.

Batting comes in various forms, but typically it either comes in yardage or as a pre-packaged, pre-cut section of batting that is similar in size to the finished quilt size. Batting often comes in cotton, wool, or acrylic, and there are blends of the materials. There are also various finishes (needle-punched, etc.) that may help with the density of the finished piece. There is also an option to use fleece outright for the batting/backing due to its density. Fleece comes in many colors and patterns, whereas traditional quilt batting is either white/ivory or black and needs a backing fabric. Quilts may also not contain batting at all such as a double-sided denim quilt.

If you want a "fluffy and soft" quilt, you can use polyester batting. There are also blends available. I use 80/20, which is 80 % cotton and 20% polyester.

Make sure you are using the fusible interfacing. You should iron it to the back of the shirt, and it will not come off easily or shred!

Open down the middle and then flatten it with an iron.

I have used V-neck tee shirts in my quilts before. I just use a solid portion from an unused part of the tee shirt and sew it to the "v" portion, making it look layered.