A project

So about a month and a half ago, I got the urge to clean out my drawers. I wound up with a pile of 27 tshirts I do not wear from the many races, volunteer events and sorority bid days I went through in my adult life. These tshirts have moved from college to Minneapolis to Rochester and back to Minneapolis with me. I couldn't part with these due to sentimental value, but I didn't exactly wear them either. Does anyone really need to see me walking around as an advertisement for a blood center or know that I was in Delta Psi as part of the 2002 bid day? No, probably not. Will anyone ever even buy those shirts at a thrift store?? Of course not! Do I want to be that obnoxious person who always wears shirts from the races she's participated in? Oh heck no. So they sat in the drawer, taking up more and more room.... that is until this year. Being done with the clutter, I decided it was high time to turn them into the t-shirt throw I've been wanting to make for ages. I decided to go with a double sided quilt with 9 blocks on each side. I decided to start with the philanthropy/running/blood center tshirts for this quilt. Here is my pile of tshirts:

I did much research online about what I would need in order to turn this pile of tshirts into something resembling a quilt. I found out I should get a fusible fabric interface. A cutting mat and cutting wheel would be helpful too. Not wanting to buy these, I sent out a message to my womens group looking for anyone who had these supplies. For the fusible fabric, I went to the fabric store and just asked for some guidance. That's what the employees are there for and I got a lot of helpful advice from the lady who cut my fabric for me.

I started by separating the front of the t-shirt from the back (see above)  The first side was a lot of trial and error for me to get the right system down for cutting the tshirts and fabric to the right size. Repeatedly, I mis-measured my blocks to be 13" instead of 14"x14". Whoops.

My first block (EEEE!!!):

And the reverse side of the block, fused to the interface. This interface keeps the t-shirt from stretching, rolling and warping like t-shirt/jersey material is prone to do. This stuff would be great if I ever have to hem my dear husband's workout pants again....

The first half took me over 4 hours of cutting, fusing and sewing blocks together. I learned the hard way to sew three rows and then sew those rows together. Lesson learned during the first side was applied to the 2nd side and it went way better! I laid my blocks out to get the optimal color coordination. The cat was soooo helpful......

The finished first side:

Its not perfect by any means, but I think it turned out pretty cool! It took almost a month, but I finally resumed the process for the 2nd side. This is where I figured out the system:

1) cut apart tshirts

2) cut  interface  to about 14" wide x whatever width the interface came in (about 2') x 9

3) fuse interface to backside of t-shirt on all shirts

4) cut all blocks to 14" x 14". The first cut was done with the shirt design side up so I could center it before cutting. This time I only screwed up 1 block by making it only 13" wide

5) layout blocks to get proper ideal order 

6) sew top 3 together, repeat next two rows

7) sew rows together.

The end result of side 2:

And here are side 1 and 2 together:

Because sides 1 and 2 should eventually line up in order to tie them together, I used side 1 as a template to help sew together side 2. 

Next up in the process, I need to buy some batting for between the two layers. Then I will tie them together at each corner. The final step will be binding them together around the outside with fabric. Stay tuned for those steps. I may just have a nice little lap throw just in time for fall!