T-Shirt Quilt Instructions–How to Create a Better Looking Design

May 6, 2010
Christine Mann

1. T-Shirt Quilt with Simple Square Grid - Flickr.com user normanack, CC Attrib. License

Some t-shirt quilts look boring or even downright ugly. Make yours beautiful with a little planning and by adding elements from traditional quilts.

One of the challenges in designing a good-looking t-shirt memory quilt is that the images on a typical collection of t-shirts come in all different, sizes, shapes and colors. Quilters need to organize the shirts into a pattern that looks good as a quilt and is easy to sew.

Steps in Making T-Shirt Quilts

Making a t-shirt quilt involves five basic steps:

Choose a t-shirt quilt design that looks good and fits your level of quilting skills.
Cut and stabilize the t-shirts for piecing.
(Optional) Sew the t-shirts into quilt blocks.
Sew the t-shirt blocks together into a quilt top.
After the t-shirt quilt top is assembled, the quilt is ready to be embellished, quilted, and bound, just like any other quilt.

Organize T-Shirts into Collections for Quilting

The first step in creating a good-looking quilt design is to decide which shirts to include. Take all the t-shirts you might want to use and lay them flat so you can see them all together. Look for unifying themes or design features that will help you arrange the shirts into a coherent pattern. Here are some possibilities to think about:

Organization or event. Combine a series of t-shirts from the same college, the same club, the same rock band, or from several different years of an annual event like the Boston Marathon or the San Francisco Bay to Breakers race.
Hobby or interest. Make a collection of t-shirts that all relate to the recipient’s hobby or personal interest, such as motorcycles or horses.
Color and design. T-shirts from unrelated groups or events can still look good together if they come from the same color family or have a design style in common.

Weed out any shirts that just don’t fit the colors or theme you want for this quilt. A t-shirt that doesn’t match the quilt’s theme or style can still be used to make a throw pillow cover, or you could sew it onto a new t-shirt or sweatshirt to give it a couple more years of useful life. (If you want to do this, you’ll need to stabilize the t-shirt for sewing. Click the link above for detailed instructions.)

Typical Layout Options for T-Shirt Quilts

Most t-shirt quilts are designed in a simple grid pattern that makes for easy cutting and sewing. The most common t-shirt quilt grid designs are either:

A square grid, where all the t-shirts are cut into identical squares, often joined together with strips of sashing fabric. The t-shirt squares are typically from 12” to 14” ( 30cm to 36 cm). See Photo 1 below for an example.
A vertical grid, where all the blocks are stacked into columns something like a Chinese Coins quilt. All the blocks in one column are the same width, but may be different heights. Not all the columns need to be the same width. This layout makes it easier to combine t-shirts that have small design elements with shirts that have large designs. It also makes it easier to add photographs or other smaller items to the quilt.

While both of these layouts are simple and versatile, there are ways to make a t-shirt quilt look more like a “real” quilt – a quilt the maker can show off with pride.

Use Quilt Blocks to Add More Interest to T-Shirt Quilts

Let’s face it – a t-shirt quilt that has nothing but recycled t-shirts in it can look pretty drab. Luckily, there are some easy ways to make the quilt more interesting to work on, and more interesting to look at once it’s done. Here are three suggestions:

Alternate t-shirt blocks with quilt blocks. This option works especially well if the theme of the quilt block relates to the theme of the t-shirts in the quilt. For instance, a quilt made with shirts from the Chicago Bears could include bear claw quilt blocks in the Bears’ team colors of orange and brown. Even if the alternating quilt block is something as simple as a quarter-square triangle block or even a solid square of a coordinating fabric, it helps bring the quilt design to life.
Frame the t-shirts in squares of quilt fabric. This is a variation on the traditional Courthouse Steps log cabin quilt block. A framed square with a t-shirt as the center square builds in a unifying element that has more flexibility than sashing and can be strip pieced for speed. The frames for the t-shirt can be made from several different coordinating fabrics.
Use half-square triangle blocks instead of sashing strips. This works especially well for a quilt with a vertical grid. Separating the sections with half-square triangles instead of plain fabric strips can transform the quilt from something plain into a quilt that’s quite dramatic.

Simply thinking the design through before you start and using “real” quilt blocks to add visual interest can transform a t-shirt quilt from boring to beautiful.

For inspiration on making t-shirt quilts any quilter can be proud of, see Roberta Luz's Terrific Tees: I Can't Believe it's a T-Shirt Quilt (C&T Publishing, 200, ISBN 978-1571204608).