Category: Textiles

My favorite time of the year (except summer) is the time leading up to Christmas. I love how friendly people are, the beautiful Christmas decoration, Christmas music and I love giving gifts. The process of looking for the perfect gift or even better making the perfect gift for somebody you love. The anticipation of them opening the gift and the happiness and surprise on their face. I often make many of my Christmas gifts for my family and friends and this year was no different. I made Christmas ornaments for my friends (watch for DIY part 2 for instructions), I framed one of my screen prints for K. and the pièce de résistance this year is the quilt I made for him. He is a huge Star Wars fan and has been holding on to his old Star Wars T-Shirts. They have been sitting in a bag in our basement for years and he has refused to get rid of them. Years ago I had seen a quilt made from old T-Shirts and I thought that it would be a perfect way to recycle his shirts into something he can continue to use. He absolutely loved it and we have been enjoying naps on our sofa over the holidays covered with our warm and eco-friendly Star Wars quilt.

It was easy to make, so if you have a collection of band T-Shirts or souvenir shirts from your travels, this is a great way to make something that you can continue to cherish for many years to come. Here are step by step instructions with some pictures.

1. Wash all your T-Shirts.
2. Layout your shirts on the floor and decide on the size for each square (I made them all the same size but you could have different sizes. I decided on the size based on the shirt with the largest graphic).
3. Create a template from a piece of cardboard.
4. Place the template on each shirt and outline using a fabric marker or you can also use a Sharpie and then cut them out using scissors.
5. Once you have all shirts cut place them on the floor and decide on the layout (I didn’t have enough shirts so I used the back of some of the shirts to add blank squares).

   

6. Start sewing each horizontal row by placing the first squares together (with image area facing each other) and sew using a straight stitch. Then add the next square etc. until you have each horizontal line sewn together.
7. Before you sew all the individual rows together, press the seams apart on the back and pin in place.
8. Place the first two of the horizontal rows together (image area facing each other), make sure to line up the seams and pin in place.
9. Sew using straight stitch and repeat with all rows.

   

10. Decide on the size of your quilt (the size of your sewn together T-Shirts or do you want to have a border around).
11. Choose a fabric for the back (I decided to use a nice warm fleece), and buy quilt batting (make sure to get some extra batting).
12. Place fleece on the floor add quilt batting and place T-Shirt front on top.
13. Use large safety pins to connect all 3 fabrics together (I used one safety-pin per square).
14. If you are making a border with the fleece like I did, fold over the fleece and pin together.
15. Pin corners.
16. Sew along the border of the quilt.
17. Sew the corners (I sewed them by hand with a blind stitch).

    

18. Connect all 3 layers together throughout the quilt by placing a couple of stitches wherever the panels meet. This will ensure that the fabrics don’t move around. Remove the safety-pins.

    

19. Snuggle up on the sofa with your warm quilt and have a hot tea or a hot chocolate.

If you have any questions just let me know. Enjoy!

Love

Anja