T-Shirt Quilt for Oldest Daughter Part 2

Once the squares are cut, lay them out into a pattern you like. She made the reds into a cross and tried to even out the blacks and other colors with blues on the corners. Half the fun is letting the kids have some say in where the squares go and which shirts to use.

We still have a pile of shirts that were not her first choices and so she asked me to make the "A" quilt showing her how to do it and she wants to learn on the "B" quilt and do the whole thing herself. That way if she made a mistake, she wasn't ruining her favorite shirts but she really wants to do the whole second quilt by herself. I think it will be cute having matching quilts but each is individual and tells a story about her.


Once you have the shirt design, sew them into rows making sure you get the front and back shirts in the seam. Surge or zig-zag the edges so they don't come undone. Then, once the rows are done, sew the rows together finishing the quilt top.

For the batting, I used a thinner one because the quilt is a king size, I didn't want it to be heavy. For the back, I used a king size flat sheet I bought new in the bag at a second hand store. It has no seams and was much cheaper than fabric and was a 350 count fabric which will hold up well. She chose black. I have also over the years bought bolts of fabric or larger pieces of fabric to use for these type quilts as I have made several as gifts. It is nice to have larger pieces of fabric on hand but my favorite is still the sheets as they are large with no seam. Make sure to wash the backing with an old piece of white t-shirt to make sure it won't bleed onto the quilt front. It would be sad to get it made only to find that the fabric die is bad and ruined the front of the quilt. I washed the black sheet twice to make sure it wouldn't bleed.


Lay the sheet out. Put the batting on it making sure it is smooth. Place the quilt top on top. Pin the three together before quilting so that it doesn't wrinkle or shift as it is quilted. I recommend placing the pins on the seam line between shirts. I forgot to tell my daughter this and if the pins are large, they can sometimes cause a hole in the shirt.


Cut the sheet to be about 3 inches bigger than the quilt and if you want a padded edge, cut the batting to 1 1/2 inches longer than the quilt. fold the sheet to the batting edge and the fold the whole thing over at the quilt edge making a binding. Pin and sew.

The other way you can do it and is how I did the Pooh quilt, is to put the right side of the backing and the quilt top together and lay the batting on top of them all. Sew all the edges together leaving a foot sized opening at the bottom center to turn it right-side out after. Once it is turned, stitch the opening in the bottom center closed and tie the quilt at the corner of each block to hold it into place, we tied a stitch in the center of each shirt block also. Make sure you get enough fabric from the bottom fabric while tying it that the yarn or string won't pull its way through with a wash.

The shirt at the top as you can see was not as big as the squares needed for other shirts so you can actually cut it up the center back and lay it flat making the square use the side seams and the arms. It may have a few tucks in it when you sew it but it still looks cute. I also used the "hot potato" from the back and zig-zagged it onto the front. This was one of her favorite shirts in high school.

I have the two black pillow cases from the sheet set I used for the backing. I think it will be cute to sew on the pillow cases we made for her birthday party one year where everyone signed them, and the other we made tie-dying one year for her party. That way she will have matching pillow cases to go with her quilts. Fun heirlooms for sure!

Happy Quilting!