Have you been looking for a fabulous gift idea that your kids or loved ones would truly appreciate?
Then we may suggest you opt for a t-shirt quilt!
This article will show you how to make a t-shirt quilt with a sashing step by step.
It includes:
- Selecting the t-shirts
- Making the T-shirt template
- Cutting the front piece of the t-shirt
- Cutting the sashing strips out of the fabric
- Cutting the interfacing and adding to the t-shirt
- Sewing the t-shirts together with sashing
- Sewing the back of the quilt
Your loved ones will surely appreciate a t-shirt quilt made with sashing, and the gifting experience will be one they’ll never forget!
So, why not start making your own t-shirt quilt today?
Stay with us, and you will discover how!
What Do You Need For T-Shirt Quilting With Sashing?
The equipment and materials that you would require throughout the process are:
Equipment
- Sewing machine
- Rotary cutting tool
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Iron
- Ironing board
- Pins
- Self-healing cutting mat
- Quilting ruler
Materials
- T-shirts
- Fabric for sashing
- Fusible interfacing material
- Matching color thread
- Backing fabric
- Batting material
Also, you should not forget to consider one of the most critical aspects of the quilt-making process: planning!
- Make sure that you have enough t-shirts to make the quilt of the size you want. If not, you might need to add more. Given the size, you could make an approximate estimate of the number of t-shirts you would need. For instance:
12 t-shirt quilts will be 48″ × 64″ in size
20 t-shirt quilts will be 64″ × 82″ in size
30 t-shirt quilts will be 82″ × 96″ in size
36 t-shirt quilts will be 96″ × 96″ in size
42 t-shirt quilts will be 110″ × 96″ in size
- Check the size of all the t-shirts you have, whether they are similar or require some adjustments (e.g., resizing, cutting).
- Once you’ve finished, you can rearrange them until you get the desired outlook, as they would appear at the end of the quilting process.
8 Tips Before Starting T-Shirt Quilting
Before starting with the quilt making process, make sure to consider these 8 tips:
- Ensure that the t-shirts are fresh and clean and with no stains
- Iron them to avoid wrinkling – it will ensure freshness and smoothness to the t-shirts.
- As size does matter, keep the t-shirts of almost the same size. If you use smaller t-shirts, consider adding panels around the borders to make them appear larger.
- Stabilizing the fabric is necessary throughout the quilting process. Hence, you can use glue and wire or even embroidery threads to keep the t-shirt together.
- Also, you can use non-woven fusible interfacing, lightweight, and glued only on one side.
- Get a good quality fabric that doesn’t bleed color and is easy to cut and sew for the sashing.
- Use cotton or wool for the batting layer to render some warmth to your quilt. You could even use polyester batting, but it’s a bit slippery compared to the natural fiber.
- For the backing, choose a fabric that gives your quilt both charm and functionality. Ensure that it doesn’t shrink or drain the color.
How To T-Shirt Quilting With Sashing (Step-By-Step)
Here we go with the step-by-step tutorial! Screen and images are taken from Lisa Capen’s Youtube video.
Step 1. Cut the T-Shirts
Consider color and design when choosing which t-shirts to pair together. Using a cutting machine or a scissor, separate the sleeves and cut along the image, preserving the design’s area you will use.
The front block should be at least 12” or 15” or 17” square. To ease out the whole process of panel cutting, you need to prepare a template that can measure t-shirts of the same dimensions (cardboard material or plastic, wherever).
Step 2. Fusing the T-Shirt Panel
Next comes the fusing! As the t-shirt material is highly stretchable, you need to give it some sturdiness to simplify the quilting and sewing process.
This is where interfacing helps.
Cut 17” squares of material, one for each t-shirt, and lay it on the table. With the t-shirt on top, move a hot iron on it. Heat lets the interfacing stick to the back of your t-shirt. Prepare your t-shirt blocks in this way.
Step 3. Preparing the Sashing
Sashing gives a decorative aesthetic to the quilt and stabilizes it too. Since the sashing goes around each t-shirt square, it keeps it stable and avoids stretching. In case, at the intersections of the sashing, you can also use cornerstones. Preparing the sashing requires cutting enough strips, preferably 2 ½” broad each (cut as many as you need).
If you used cornerstones previously, cut them and be ready to sew them to the sashing strips.
Here we take 2 ½” strips for sashing and cut 49 pieces of sashing as we need this amount for our quilt. We cut the sashing 2½” by the length of the t-shirts’ blocks so that they measure the same dimensions. These blocks are usually 15” long and 15” wide so we cut the sashing strip 15” long. Next, we cut the cornerstone fabric similarly: since our sashing is 2 ½” wide, we shall cut our cornerstones accordingly. (i.e. 2 ½” ×2 ½”)
Step 4. Blend Sashing and Cornerstones
This part of the quilt-making process is a little time-consuming as we need to blend the sashing and the cornerstones and finally sew them onto the t-shirt panels.
First, we add a corner to each piece of sashing at both ends. Next, we add another sashing and yet another cornerstone.
In this way, we create six sewed sashing strips alternating a sashing and cornerstone for the entire width of our quilt.
Then, we spread the sashing strips and press the seams for a perfect finish. When it’s put on the board, it looks like this:
Now we will sew the sashing strips to the t-shirt panels, as shown in the image below:
We finish off with all the t-shirt panels while keeping the seam allowance straight.
After the first row is completed, the quilt looks like this:
Adding sashing to each of our t-shirt panels and forming rows, the quilt top looks like this:
We keep adding the sashing on the t-shirt panels and finish off with the entire quilt top. Our finished quilt top now looks like this:
Step 5. Adding Batting & Backing to the Quilt
Once we finish preparing the quilt top with the t-shirt panels, we flip our quilt over. We add some batting for the insulation purpose and the backing. Finally, we pin it down to keep it together.
Step 6. Quilt the Top
We can adorn our quilt, adding some embroidery floss to it through a special quilting machine (a regular sewing one may not fitting). We can also use a machine quilter with a long-armed feature specially made for this purpose.
At this point, we have finally achieved our goal! All those t-shirts that were lying idle in the closet have come in handy.
How better else could they be used?!
Conclusion
With t-shirt quilts being a remarkable gifting idea, you can explore your creative artistry to its full potential. Quilt-making with sashing is an elegant way to repurpose old t-shirts and create outstanding gifts for your loved ones.
In this article, we have given you valuable instructions that help you in this purpose.
Although there is a creative planning process to deal with, this solution will reward you and the person who will receive this unique piece of apparel.
So be creative and make your own decision.
T-shirts quilt with sashing is the next frontier of gift ideas!
