Graduation season tends to sneak up before we are ready, and a week or two before the ceremony people find themselves scrambling for a gift. A t-shirt quilt is one of the better answers – though not a last-minute one.
Why they work as gifts
A drawer of old t-shirts that cannot be worn and cannot be thrown away is a common problem. Team shirts, event shirts, university shirts, concert shirts – each one is a memory attached to a garment nobody wears.
A quilt turns them into something used daily rather than something stored. That is why t-shirt quilts are among the most treasured handmade objects people own.
The practical difficulty
T-shirts are jersey, which stretches in every direction. Quilting cotton does not.
Cut a jersey square and it will distort as you handle it, and it will not sit flat when seamed to another. This is the reason t-shirt quilts sometimes come out wavy and refuse to lie down.
The solution
Interfacing. Fuse lightweight woven interfacing to the back of each t-shirt before cutting.
This is not optional and it is the single thing that separates a good t-shirt quilt from a disappointing one. The interfacing stabilises the jersey so it behaves like a woven fabric – it can then be cut accurately and seamed without stretching.
Apply it to the whole shirt front, then cut your squares.
Planning
Decide the block size first, based on the smallest design you need to fit. All blocks the same size is far simpler than a mixed layout.
Centre each design within its square. Designs sit at different heights on different shirts, and cutting to the shirt rather than to the design is a common mistake.
Use sashing between blocks. Strips of plain fabric between the squares give the eye somewhere to rest, and they make the assembly considerably more forgiving of small size differences.
Lay it all out and photograph it before sewing. Distribute the busiest designs rather than clustering them.
Backing and quilting
Use a soft cotton backing, or fleece for something cosier.
Keep the quilting simple – straight lines in the sashing, or stitching in the ditch. Elaborate quilting across a printed design is lost and adds work.
Time
This is not a week’s project. Interfacing, cutting, laying out and assembling a t-shirt quilt takes real time.
If a graduation is two weeks away, collect the shirts now and give the quilt later. It will be better, and it will still be a surprise.
