T-Shirt Blanket Tutorial PART I

If you're like us, you might have the trash bag, drawer or closet full of old t-shirts you don't want to part with. Some of them are sentimental, some of them are funny...whatever your reason for not wanting to part with them, the fact of the matter is you probably aren't wearing these shirts anymore. So what to do with the pile of unworn t-shirts? 

T-Shirt Blanket!!!

What You'll Need:

30 (or more*) T-Shirts

1 Set of Queen-Sized bed sheets

1 piece of cardboard/foam board/card stock (at least 11x11)

1 dark colored sharpie

Dress maker's shears
Sewing pins

A ruler

A sewing machine OR serger

*Do not make your quilt larger than 6 squares wide, or 7 squares long. Anything larger than this will require King or California King sized bed sheets!

STEP ONE:

Make your quilt square pattern!
Using your cardboard, foam board or card stock, trace out a perfect 11x11 square using the sharpie. I've found that 11x11 inches is the perfect size for this job, but if you would like to give yourself more wiggle room you can make it bigger. You may want to measure the width and height of your SMALLEST t-shirt to make sure there is enough fabric, and also measure the width and height of the largest t-shirt GRAPHIC to make sure you won't be cutting off anything (if that sort of thing bothers you).

STEP TWO:

Trace your pattern onto all of your shirts! 

Use a sharpie, and there is really no need to be perfect. Just trace that square onto every shirt you want to use! Make sure to center everything, making sure you aren't cutting off pieces of the graphic....

Sometimes you might have to get creative with your pattern placement...the 11x11 rule works MOST of the time! 

For those dark-colored shirts you want to use, never fear... BLACK sharpie tends to show up just enough for your to be able to see the line and cut it! If you are having trouble seeing the line on dark fabrics, try using white chalk.

STEP THREE:

Cut those squares out! 

Using the dress maker's shears, cut out all of your blanket squares. Dress maker's shears make this process much faster and much neater. Most t-shirts are made our of a material called jersey, also known as the words most annoying fabric to cut. You can try to use regular scissors for this job, but be warned that scissors that are often used on paper may be too dull to cut this material!

Cut right along the sharpie line you made...

And ta-da!! You have a jersey square ready to become part of a beautiful new blanket!

STEP FOUR:

Organize your squares

Once you have all 30 of your shirts cut into squares, lay them all out on the floor to see what you've got. Maybe you want to put all of those concert t-shirts in chronological order, or maybe you want to make a rainbow! Whatever the method, now is the time to lay our your squares in their ultimate configuration. Lay them out 5 t-shirts wide, and 6 t-shirts long.

As you can see, when I was starting out I was short a few t-shirts...However, this helped me to form a good idea for a "theme" for this blanket! Geeze, we got a lot of t-shirts from our school days...

Once I scrounged up enough t-shirts it was time for.......

STEP FIVE:

Sew six rows of five

Something to remember about ANY sewing project is that when you are sewing two pieces together, you ALWAYS want the "right sides" facing each other. The "right side" is simply the side of the fabric you want to have showing. 

With these blankets, I like to sew the rows together first, from left to right. 

Here, I sewed the first two squares together already. I want to add the third, and of course, all subsequent squares! Hmmmm.... 

Take the next square in line and flip it upside down. The place it directly on top of the square you want to sew it to. 

Next, stitch along the right side of the squares.

Open this up and...TA-DA!!

REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT until you have six rows of five! 

STEP SIX:

Sew your six rows together!

At this point, if you are using a regular sewing machine, you will need to cut off the excess fabric. Follow the link and trim according to cut #1.

REMEMBER: Right sides together! I like to sew the rows together from bottom to top. Flip the row above the bottom row down onto the bottom row. This time, you may need to pin the side you want to sew together (the top edge shown here). When pinning, be sure that the pointy end of the pins AREN'T pointing OUT. This will ensure that you won't stick yourself and also will be easier to pull the pins out while you are sewing!

Once you have these two rows sewn together, when you open it up it should look like this!

Once you get ALL the squares sewn together it should look like one big block of t-shirts, like SO:

Once again, trim off the excess fabric from the back of your quilt front if you are using a regular sewing machine.

*If you are finished with all of these steps, please proceed to T-Shirt Blanket Tutorial PART II!!*

Part II is on its way! In the mean time, go gather all the t-shirts you can find and GET SEWING! 

Happy Sewing!

a.A