I have made many quilts out of clothing in my quilting “career” and throughout that I have learned a thing or two about quilting with clothing. Here are a few thoughts and photos for all to see.
Last year my dad retired from teaching religion for 20 years. Throughout his teaching career he wore a suit, white shirt, and tie 6 days each week. These were often cheesy cartoon and holiday ties. I’m pretty sure his students loved the ties. They really go with his humor in the classroom. When he retired we (Mostly me) decided that it was time for him to also retire some of his ties. Suits wear out pretty easily when you wear them so often, so we had to get rid of those too. He has always worked so hard to support our family of nine and I decided as a retirement gift I would make him a quilt. I had made t-shirt quilts before but my dad wasn’t a t-shirt wearer. This tie, suit and white shirt quilt was as a t-shirt quilt for MY dad. He’s like a real life super hero hence the superhero backing and sashing. It was a fun quilt to design and create. A thought on this quilt is that quilts can be personal.
#1. They can be very special and sentimental.I don’t know about you but I really like and have strong feelings for some of my clothing. I’m a person who will wear a favorite t-shirt until it is too hole ridden and thin to pass as clothing. Those soft worn clothes can be the perfect fabric for a cuddly quilt. Using them in a way that makes them “last” makes me happy. 
All other clothing quilts I have made also hold sentiment and they have taught me a thing or two. Such as…
#2. Not all machines are made to handle jeans or many layers. Both the jean quilt and the suit quilt had parts that were very thick or many layers. Make sure you invest in the right needles and that your machine is made to handle such tough fabric and or multiple layers of fabric. The jean quilt was not machine quilted because I chose to display many pockets and zippers and buttons. These don’t do well on a long arm machine with out outlining and “cutting” around each thing. And even then you have to be careful about when the arm is traveling that it doesn’t catch or run into the objects. The suit quilt was long arm quilted and I should have been more diligent in getting rid of the interfacing on the ties and some suit pieces… Next time!
My mother saved our jeans my whole life… or at least as long as I can remember. We all wore hand me downs and when a pair was unwearable any more (they didn’t fit, they got a bleach spot or a hole, or they just got old) it went into a bag up in the attic. I was so grateful for this stash one day when I decided I wanted to make and then subsequently designed a jean quilt. I then climbed up into the attic and pulled out two large trash sized bags of jeans. I cut and sewed and quickly made that quilt. At the age of 16 I would never had saved enough of a variety of jeans on my own to make a quilt. Thanks Mom.
So I live in Mesa, AZ which may be the only city on earth that cares what high school you attended even into your eighties. There is a lot of school pride in this city and beyond that I am one of seven kids, our parents graduated from the same high school, six of us seven siblings graduated from the same high school and my husband also graduated from that same high school. I was very active in sports and extracurriculars and so I had LOTS of t-shirts… what else to do but make a quilt. From this quilt I learned…
#3. don’t stretch or pull the pieces. Clothing fabric and T-shirt are fun and easy to work with as long as you are careful. clothing fabric is different to your typical coating quilting fabric because it often has more stretch to it. When stretched these fabrics change shape and curl on the edges. Not good. So you have to be careful not to pull of fold these fabrics too much. T-shirt is fun because it sticks to itself. Because of this, when working with it the pieces can just be laid on top of each other without pinning. And when I can avoid pinning I do. Then just allow the sewing machine to feed the fabric through itself holding softly.
#4. There are endless possibilities. No one is going to have the exact same clothing to put into a quilt and so there are no two alike. When you decide the clothing you would like to use there are SO many designs that you can create. I made another t-shirt quilt and it is very different from my high school t-shirt quilt. This one (below) is made of Harley Davidson Motorcycle T-shirts that my father-in-law had accumulated over years. It is backed with fabric that I ordered from Sturgis, South Dakota. My father-in-law and my husband and his brother attended The Sturgis Rally together years ago. And to make it even more motorcycle themed, I quilted it with a motorcycles stitch. I love how it turned out.
There are SO many fun ways to quilt with clothing! Get designing and you could make your clothing into something great! Happy Wednesday!
Tags: Blankets from clothing, Quilts From Clothing, T-shirt Quilt, Tips for T-shirt Quilts
