As I said in my last post, I had not used a sewing machine since I had taken a class when I was about 11. Class was on Tuesday night, I immediately gathered t-shirts I wanted to use. As I had read in other DIY's, I needed to chop up my shirts and fuse a backing on them. In my attempt to make this double as a blog post and serve as a DIY, I'll stop here and include the materials I used to make this quilt:
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T-shirts (I used 30 t-shirts on the quilt, but I had about 5 back-up shirts just in case anything went wrong, and BOY did it)
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Fusible Interfacing (This ensure the shirts won't stretch when running through the sewing machine. I used Pellon 931TD...I think. It is a medium weight and provided great stabilization for the shirts. I pretty much bought out 2 JoAnn stores; I think in total, I used about 7 yards. My suggestion: look out for an unopened bolt; JoAnn will sell you the entire bolt, and you can use 50% off coupons, which calculates to about $35. That may seem expensive, but trust me, it would have been better to have that than run out to JoAnn the three times I had to)
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Iron (For fusing the shirts to the interfacing)
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Woven Fabric (This is optional, depending on what you want your quilt to look like. I wanted my squares to be framed by a universal pattern. I bought 4 yards of a clearance fabric I found that I loved. I wanted it to kind of match all of my shirts so it wouldn't look
too crazy.)
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Batting (I used one of the rolls available from JoAnn's that was larger than my final quilt; again, use a coupon! I wanna say my batting was a roll of 76"x93"...I could be wrong though.)
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Backing (I used a fleece backing...DO NOT DO THIS. Trust me, you'll thank me. I wish I had used a fabric with not as much stretch because there are definitely imperfections on the back of this quilt. I knew I'd have to make a few patches to make a big enough piece of fabric to use as the backing, so I purchased 4 yards)
-Common sewing materials;
sewing maching (duh!),
bobbins, pins, thread (I used almost 2 spools...definitely buy 2 so you won't have to worry about matching it up if you run out midway),
scissors, rotary mat/cutter (Look out for these too! I was all ready to purchase the blah yellow ones they have, and then I found a pink cutter and mat, for breast cancer awareness. The proceeds went to research, so I loved that, and THEY WERE ON SALE! About $7 for the mat and $4 for the cutter, which is such a steal!) and lastly, a
cutting grid. (12.5" x 12.5")
So here's how it started:
1) I gathered all my t-shirts I wanted to use and cut them shorter, then cut the sleeves and collar. I only used 1 shirt with its front and back, so I didn't have to be too careful for the most part. These don't have to be perfect yet, also, make sure they're bigger than what you want the squares to be. Then the interfacing. This is common sense, but the soft side DOWN. The 'dotted' side is the one that has the 'glue'. When ironing, use a pillowcase over the t-shirt; YOU MUST DO THIS! The heat from the iron will melt the ink on the shirt. (This happened a little bit on one of my shirts.) Once this is done, you can use the grid to cut out the size shirts you want; my suggestion here: USE FABRIC WEIGHTS on the grid so the shirt doesn't move all around. This ensures all shirts are exactly the same size. I wish I had done this; I mean the imperfections are not too bad, but I wish they were all exact. At this point, you can piece the shirts together and get an idea of the quilt layout. This is when you can get excited! Your quilt is taking shape!! (I would say this part took about 3 nights to cut everything out and fuse them together.) Wish my pictures were better, but they're from my phone and I am short haha
2) This is the optional step if you do not want the shirts to have borders around them. I used my woven fabric to cut out 2" x 14" strips to sew the rows across together. I took the first shirt and pinned the strip of fabric (right sides together) and allowed for about 1/8" seam allowance and then sewed them together. I pinned the fabric so that the strips would be longer on both top and bottom of the shirts; these will be cut down later on. I then took the next shirt and pinned the strip and shirt together and sewed them together. I did this until I had all the rows stitched out. Here's what my first row looked like:
3) Even though the woman at JoAnn's looked at me weird when I bought 4 yards of the fabric (the polka dots), I am glad I did; this made the next part much easier! I was able to measure a row of shirts and had enough of this fabric to make one LONG, continuous strip for the bottom/top borders on the rows. I pinned this all up and stitched the rows together. This was NOT easy!!! I even had to roll up the quilt a bit for it to be able to run smoothly through the machine. I did not border the top and bottom rows of the quilt. I was just thinking about why I did not do it, but I like the way mine turned out. Here is a picture of the whole front of the quilt put together. Thanks to my dad who held it up for the picture! (Side note: he's 6'3" and stretching his arms all the way up...and it's still touching the ground. This thing is HUGE!)
4) Next, it is time to put the backing/batting on. This is when I messed up; for some reason, I just could not get my math right to put the pieces together of the fleece so I had enough plus extra. It NEEDS to be larger around all sides than the quilt. I finally got my math right and had a piece big enough for the quilt. Also, make sure you can either tape/clip this to the ground or a large table. Because my fabric was so stretchy, this part was really hard for me! Lay this out on the ground and place the batting on top of this. trim them to be of equal size. Then (this is definitely a two person job!!!) have someone hold the quilt rolled up and unroll it onto these two layers, making sure everything is really stretched out during this while process. once it is in a good location, pin the crap out of this thing. Seriously; the more, the better! I then proceeded to 'stitch in the ditch' to make sure everything stayed in place. To make it more clear for beginners, this means I stitched along the sides where the borders and shirts meet. Try to get as close to a straight line as you can; mine came out onto the shirts a few times, but it is minor. This step gets REALLY tough because the quilt has become bulky because these two layers have been added on.
5) Almost done, yay! Next I binded the quilt (is that proper terminology?) I cut the polka dot fabric into 2.5" wide strips. I then sewed a bunch of strips together in attempt to make one continuous strip of fabric. Then, I pressed the strips in half with an iron and pinned them to the outside borders of the quilt, frayed ends facing outward. I then sewed the strips with about a 1/4" seam allowance. I almost wish I had made these strips thicker then my borders would have been more defined. Once this was all sewed on (and corners...'mitered'. I mean, my version of mitering?) I trimmed the sides of the quilt, batting, and backing to almost the edge of the sewn rows so that this strip of fabric could be folded over to the back of the quilt. Next part: the DREADED hand-sewing...OMG talk about tedious! I folded the strip over and did a 'slip stitch' allllllllll the way around the quilt. I had to stop midway because I had lost my spool of thread...note to self: don't leave spools around when there is a playful cat in the house! Once it was finished, I could not wait to show this thing off; not sure if it was that, or the thank God this thing is done sigh of relief.
I know you can barely see the border around the edges; this is the reason I kind of wish I had made the strips around the outside a bit larger. (Credit to my dad for holding it up again for me!)
This quilt was made out of blood, sweat, and tears; literally ALL three of those. There are definite imperfections in this thing, but I am so happy with it. Besides the fact that it is super cozy, it is all mine. All my memories and I made it. I can't believe this was my first sewing project and thankful that my sewing teacher was willing to take a risk on helping me complete this project. I am also happy to say that I have inspired her to make one for her daughter! My next quilt will be a baby blanket. And I definitely mean baby. This thing is massive! SO as much work as this was, I am 110% happy with the results.
Hope this has inspired you to make one! If you have any questions, please ask! Also since this is my first DIY post, any suggestions for improvement are greatly appreciated!
Signing off,
Monica
