The Tee-Shirt Quilt Part One!

Today I started Bryn's tee-shirt quilt.  She brought a garbage bag full of tee-shirts she wants me to turn into a quilt for her graduation gift.  So the Quilt Fairy (me) began to do her magic!  

Step one is dumping out all the tee-shirts on the floor.  Guapo, the dog, loves to lie on piles of clothing on the floor.  It's probably why he liked hanging out in Colleen's room so much!

Guapo on a pile of tee-shirts.

To prepare a shirt you have to look at the shirt to see where the image is and how big it is.  This one also has a full sized image on the back so I need to be careful when I cut up the shirt.  That said, remember this is rough cutting.  The first cut is the most difficult.  It gets easier the more shirts into it you get.

The picture of me cutting off the sleeves didn't come out.  It was too hard to put them back on to re-enact the cutting off.  Use your imagination.  

Next I cut up each side.

Next I spread it out

Then cut across the top of the front and the back.

This shirt only had a small image on the upper chest.  

Be sure to leave plenty of room around the image for "floating" space and seam allowance.

To get the cut images ready to be put into a quilt you need to stabilize the tee-shirt pieces with fusible interfacing.  If you don't stabilize them the quilt will stretch out of shape.  I use lightweight or featherweight fusible interfacing.  The first few tee-shirt quilts I made I used a regular iron.  It' took 6-7 hours just to fuse all the interfacing on!  I invested in a steam press and now it's a snap!

Hot Mama!

I put a piece of muslin over the lower plate to protect it.  I don't want goop all over it.  It's easier to wash or replace the muslin than to replace the plate!

Hot Mama with protection.

I lay out the tee-shirt in need of stabilizing and measure out how much stabilizer I need.

Once it's cut to size I makes sure to put it on the back.  I REPEAT!!!! MAKE SURE YOU PUT THE STABILIZER ON THE BACK!!!  You only have to do it once and, trust me, tears do not get all the gunk off!  Even if it's bigger than needed, you will use the excess.  

Ready for the press.

Double checking it's on the back!

On the press.  Make sure there are not wrinkles.  Ready to go!

And we press....for about 10 seconds.

Usually it takes 3 presses per full sized image.  Just have to be careful not to touch the upper plate when rearranging the tee-shirt. 

Next you have to center the image and decide how much excess you want around the image.  It's usually determined by how much room is at the top.

Centering the image.

Taking the upper corner as high as it would go.  2" from the top of the image.

I would leave 2-3" below the bottom of the image.  I didn't get a picture of the sides but it was just over 2" on each side.

Stabilized excess.

I save the excess to use to fill in the blanks as we go on.  You'll understand better as we go on.

Tee-shirt remnants to be used later.

More tomorrow!

Happy Stitching!