T-Shirt Quilt

Last month's sewing project, Secular Prayer Flags, was so much fun that I decided to keep the sewing machine set up and see what project struck my imagination next. It didn't take long for me to stumble across my t-shirt collection.

Now, these aren't just any old t-shirts. These are historical t-shirts. These are t-shirts that commemorate specific periods and events in my life, and that's why I've held on to them all these years. The oldest ones date from the 1970s. 

While watching David Lynch's film Eraserhead in 1981, my husband and I kept saying to each other, "This is awful. We have to leave," but we stayed to see how bad it could get. It was so bad that, afterwards, I just had to buy the t-shirt.

I was wearing this shirt in a restaurant in 1977 when a man came up to me as I was leaving and said, "Honey, you don't want to be tall and blonde. You're cute just the way you are." What a sweet guy.

So, what can you do with a dozen old t-shirts? You can make a quilt out of them!

I arranged the shirts in random order on the back side of a plaid flannel blanket that I had spread out on the bed. Once I had the blanket completely covered, I pinned the shirts in place and began sewing them on, following the outline of each shirt and stitching around necklines and sleeves. 

In some cases, I stitched around the slogan or picture on the shirt's front. Occasionally, I flipped the quilt over and stitched along the lines of the plaid blanket.

When a t-shirt sleeve over-ran the edge of the flannel blanket, I wrapped it around to the opposite side and stitched it in place.

I didn't add any batting between the flannel blanket and the shirts, which turned out to be a wise decision. A dozen t-shirts are surprisingly heavy, so the quilt would have been too thick and cumbersome to stitch through, especially on my ancient sewing machine.

There were a few places where a splash of color was needed, and I toyed with the idea of top-stitching on a stray pocket or a sock. 

Then, I realized I'd probably spend the rest of my days absent-mindedly trying to pick off what looked like something that got stuck to the quilt in the dryer.

 

My first instinct was to use black or white thread, depending on the t-shirt's primary color. However, my craft projects are all about using up materials that I already have, rather than purchasing anything new, so I used some yellowy-gold thread that came from who-knows-where. In doing so, I emptied several old wooden spools of their thread, which created a need for another craft project that employs wooden spools. I'll have to give that one some thought.

Fortunately, cold weather is coming soon. I'm ready to snuggle under my new-old t-shirt throw!