Learning how to make a T-shirt Quilt

I've challenged myself to use up my fabric and crafting stash - not just some of it, but ALL of it! Yep, probably a crazy challenge, but I've reached boil over point with having too much stuff and an extreme solution seems to be the way to go!

I've done a couple of smaller projects already - and this is my first bigger one - to use up a box of t-shirts I've been saving when my daughters discard them as being too small or just not 'cool' anymore. 
I did have the idea that in the future I would make some kind of quilt for them out of the t-shirts. So with my new challenge I thought, 'why wait?'. It's winter here now in Cairns and a blanket or quilt would at least be used instead of a box of t-shirts just sitting in the cupboard!

T-shirt Upcycling

So, here's what I started with:

All kinds of shapes and sizes of designs, logos and pictures. Should make for an interesting quilt/rug if I can get it right! Hopefully not just a messed up mish-mash.

First I have cut and ironed all the designs from the t-shirts. I cut them roughly at first, then neatened the edges of each one to square them off.

The pieces are all kinds of sizes, and I also have one piece with a rounded top - it was a singlet PJ top and I cut as far out from the design as I could! I don't want to cut any of the design off to make it square, but I'm not sure what to do about the rounded top...any suggestions welcome!

A quilt, a rug or maybe a blanket?

I randomly laid out the pieces, then rearranged them to get this.

The four 'columns' of t-shirts are roughly the same width, and I think I can trim all the pieces to make them fit reasonably evenly together.

I tried to spread the colours out, but other that that, there is no reason for this ordering of the t-shirt pieces other than sizes.




How to put them together?

So there you have where I'm at now. The next step is to put the pieces together into a quilt/blanket.  

I've been checking out some posts online to see how other people have made their t-shirt quilts. Here are some bits and pieces of advice I found:

One suggestion is to cut your t-shirt pictures out and then use fusible webbing to attach them to a backing fabric and applique around them.

Sashing is another way to work around different sized pictures. This simply means adding extra fabric around the pictures to make them into the right sized blocks for your nice even sized quilt.

Some tutorials say to use iron-on interfacing on the back of each t-shirt picture as the fabric is stretchy. This should then make the blocks easier to sew evenly.

Then there is finishing the quilt around the edges. Do you stitch it all wrong sides together, quilting as you go, then add a binding around the edges?  Or stitch the front and back right sides together and then top-stitch around the outside and quilt afterwards?

Or a third option is to stitch the front and back together block by block, folding the seams over and top stitching as you go around each block.

Please Help!

Have you every made a t-shirt quilt? Do you have any advice, suggestions or opinions as to how I should continue with this project?

I have some soft knit fabric from my stash that I'm going to use for the backing, basically because it's a piece big enough to use and a nice soft fabric for a blanket/quilt.

Please leave me a comment below.
 I'm ready to get stuck into putting this 't-shirt' quilt together!

UPDATE!
I've now finished my t-shirt quilt. You can see the finished quilt, plus a photo and written tutorial - and my first ever video tutorial, showing how you can make one of your own here!

T-shirt sleeves to pouches - an upcycle tutorial

I'm currently working on upcycling the old-style uniforms from my daughter's swim club.

First I made a few tote bags using the main backs of the t-shirts which had our club name on. You can see some pictures of those here.

Now I've made some small zipped pouches with the sleeves, lined with waterproof rip-stop nylon so they are ideal for carrying swim caps and goggles for our star swimmers. You could line these pouches with any kind of material you choose and use them as anything from a pencil case to a money pouch!

Here's how to make a small zipped pouch from a t-shirt sleeve:

First cut the sleeve from your t-shirt and trim off the seams and hem.

Then cut 2 rectangles from the fabric you have. I cut mine as large as I could from each size, so the pouches were varied sizes depending on the shirt size!

You also need to cut 2 more rectangles of fabric the same size for the lining. I used my scrap fabric stash for this - but you could always use the other sleeve from the t-shirt!. Then you need a zip which is approximately the size of the longer side of your fabric rectangle and a few scraps of each fabric you're using:

Adjust the zip length

First you need to make the zip the same length as the long side of your fabric rectangle.  To do this you need to use fabric scraps that are a little wider than the zip.

Place the scraps on either end of the zip with the right sides of the fabric facing in towards the zip. The outer fabric facing the outside of the zip, the inner fabric facing the inside of the zip. 

Pin these in place where you want the finished ends of the zip to be:

Before you stitch, pull back the fabric scraps to check you've got them pinned the right way - the fabric should form the new zip ends like this:

Stitch the scraps into place at either end of the zip. Be careful if you're stitching over the teeth of the zip. Go slowly and lift the foot a little if you need to to avoid snapping your needle!

Trim the fabric scraps so that they are in line with the zip edges:

Then you can pull the fabric back on both sides of the zip and it's ready to attach to the main pouch parts!

Attach the zip to the main pouch parts

Lay down one of your outer fabric rectangles with the right side of the fabric facing upwards.  Lay your zip on top of this with the right side facing downwards.  Then place one of the inner fabric pieces, face down on top of the zip:

Pin then stitch in place using the zipper foot attachment on your machine.

Then flip both fabrics back and top stitch close to the zip. This should prevent the fabric from catching in the zip when you open and close it.

Now repeat all of this with the other 2 fabric rectangles. So again place the outer fabric face up; then next the zip face down (so now both pieces of outer fabric should be right-sides together); then finally your last inner fabric piece face down on top:

Pin, then stitch, and once again flip the fabrics back and top-stitch close to the zip on the top of the fabric:

Here's what it looks like on the underneath:

Joining the outer and inner pieces together

First MAKE SURE YOUR ZIP IS OPEN!!

Then put both outer fabric pieces on one side of the zip, and both inner pieces on the other side - with right sides of the fabric together in both cases!

Pin around all four edges, leaving a gap of a few inches to allow you to turn the pouch right sides out at the end.

Stitch where you have pinned, then trim the corners.

Now turn the pouch right sides out through the gap:

Pin and slip-stitch the opening closed. This seam will be on the inside of the pouch so you could just machine stitch it as it won't be seen!

That's it! You're done!

Fill it up and start to use your new upcycled zipped pouch!

For the free downloadable PDF version of this tutorial, click here.

For more ideas on ways to upcycle old t-shirts you can go here or follow my Upcycling T-shirts Pinterest Board.

Or for over 600 ideas for upcycling all kinds of old clothes, check out the long term linky here!

Have you upcycled any clothes lately?

T-shirt upcycle. Weaving - a bowl?

A while ago, I found a tutorial for weaving a rug from strips of t-shirt yarn.  

As I was sorting through my large pile of clothes to be upcycled, I found a lot of t-shirts and thought I'd give the weaving a go!.

So here's the pile of t-shirts, and one of my daughter's hula hoops:

I cut strips from a white t-shirt to loop around the hoop for starters.

Then I cut some continuous strips from other t-shirts, by cutting around the main part of the t-shirt in a spiral. 

And off I went..

To join strips of yarn together end to end, I tried one method first, but came up with a problem when I wanted to attach the beginning of a whole ball of yard and couldn't fit the ball through the hole!

So I took to just tying it with a reef knot - nice and simple. The weaving wasn't perfect fabric and perfectly smooth (at all) so I wasn't worried about a few small knots here and there.

My youngest daughter wanted to have a go when she came home from school. And she wove as fast as I could cut and roll balls of yarn!

As we wove on, we found that we'd probably pulled the yarn a bit too tight initially and the rug we had intended to make wasn't very flat!

So we decided to stop, cut and tie the ends (again just using reef knots) and then trim the ends.

And here is what we ended up with..

It's quite a sturdy bowl, perfect for holding more t-shirt yarn balls!

Or even a fruit bowl!

We are going to try this again, and try to keep the tension a bit looser to see if we can make a rug with the remaining yarn!

Have you ever tried making things with t-shirt yarn?

I'll make sure and post photos of our next attempt at a woven t-shirt rug. Hopefully the next one will turn out flat!