Too Cool T-shirt Quilt Tips and Tricks

Last month I made two t-shirt quilts in one week for customers to give as Christmas presents and was reminded of just how much I love this method of constructing t-shirt quilts!  

In fact, if someone asks me to make one with sashing or simple squares, I try to get out of it....  :)

This method is fun and doesn't feel tedious or boring.   Plus, customers and recipients are impressed with your expertise and can't figure out how you were able to pull it off - definitely the sweet spot all sewists dream of!

First of all, you'll need a copy of the book by Andrea Funk and Millie Funk.  Previous editions are perfectly fine to use too.  It can be a little hard to source, so you may need to ask your local quilt shop to order it for you.

I follow the method outlined in the book, except I do like to stabilize my shirts with a fusible interfacing.  I use the cheapest, lightest weight interfacing I can find.  Even though it's a little more time consuming, I find it makes the process so much easier in the long run.

Also, instead of having plexiglass templates made, I simply use the following rulers:

16-1/2 x 16-1/2"

12-1/2 x 12-1/2"

8-1/2" x 8-1/2"

4-1/2" x 4-1/2"

Additionally, I find a 2" ruler (not 2-1/2") used along with the 16-1/2" square ruler is helpful in case I need to cut a block 20-1/2".  When cutting, you simply add the 2" ruler to both sides of the 16-1/2" square ruler to yield 20-1/2".

Since I make so many of these quilts, I had my templates laminated.

And, I made up an Excel spreadsheet so that all I have to do is plug in the numbers for each size of block and it does the math for me!

I always do the machine quilting on my domestic machine.  

I like to do a large meandering free motion quilting stitch for my customers.  I find if I can use a fine thread, it blends nicely and the meandering stitch doesn't compete with the designs of the shirts.  But, t-shirt quilts can be a little tricky to quilt through without thread breakage.  I have always used Aurifil thread and a topstitching needle in the past, but on these two quilts I tried So Fine thread by Superior Threads in place of the Aurifil and was super pleased!  

Since So Fine is a polyester thread, it is strong enough to resist breakage.  And, because it is a 50-weight thread, it is nice and fine and blends beautifully.  I would highly recommend giving it a try!  I like to use a light gray shade if there are a lot of lighter colored shirts in the quilt, and a darker shade of gray if there are lots of darker colors.  It's always helpful to audition the thread across as many colors in the quilt as possible.  You want to go with a thread that looks good on the lightest and darkest shirts; I usually go lighter vs darker because I don't like the look of a dark thread on a light fabric.

I always, always, always hand stitch the binding on my quilts, but when it comes to customer quilts, I try to keep my time to a minimum in order to keep their cost as low as possible, so I usually machine stitch the binding down.  T-shirt quilts are probably the only quilt that I think a machine-stitched binding looks appropriate.  (Keep in mind that's just my personal opinion!)

Wanna know the secret to a perfectly-stitched machine binding?  Glue basting - it works like a charm!

Since I always hand stitch the binding down on my quilts, I cut my bindings 2-1/4".  But, if I am machine stitching the binding, I like to cut it at 2-1/2" to give me a little extra allowance to glue the binding down and have it cover the stitching line.  I simply machine stitch the binding to the front, wrap it to the back, glue baste it with Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It making sure the edge of the binding covers the machine stitching line, and heat set it with a dry iron.

Then, I topstitch from the front, and the back turns out perfect - every time!  If you are careful with your glue basting, your stitching lines will be perfection.

I often encourage customers to include a label to document the quilt.

If I'm stitching a quilt for myself or for a gift, a hand-written label is a nice touch.

But if it's for a customer, I usually type up the label, then run it through my ink jet printer and print it onto Kona cotton.  You simply need to iron some freezer paper onto a piece of fabric and trim it to an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet so that it will feed through your printer.  Then, peel off the freezer paper and heat set it with a dry iron.

That's it for my T-shirt quilt tips and tricks!