Do you use men’s shirts to make quilts?
I’ve made quite a few. The mister cleaned out his closet a while back and discarded MANY! I shoved them in bins and there they sat. I have shirts from my hubby, my son, my two sons in law, my father in law, and scraps left from my dad’s shirts. It was time to get them under control.
I finally took apart all the intact shirts. What a job! I use the sleeves, back, and the two front sides. I do not bother with collars and yokes. That’s just crazy!
Then I make stacks with all the shirt fronts in a pile, sleeves in another, and backs in another. They take up much less room this way.
I used these dies to cut up the sleeves.
I was generous with throwing away extra bits!
After a long afternoon, I ended up with this.
Doesn’t look like much, but these stacks are several inches high. My next project from these shirts will be to cut 2 1/2 inch strips from the shirt fronts. But maybe not today….
Have a good one!
I just made 9 quilts from my brother’s shirts for my SIL and nieces. His sudden death was hard on all of us. Life is a precious gift.
I am currently working on 5 memory quilts for my uncle’s children. I too, use my Accuquilt to make quick work of cutting up. I save the yokes for string quilts. My used 2 1/2″ triangles, 2 1/2 squares, plus one quilt was 8 1/2″ squares used in Bonnie Hunter’s Mountain Majesties quilt in her freebies tab. My first quilt was men’s dress shirts and ties made into a dresden quilt.
That is how I started my quilting journey – I bought xxxxl Hawaiian shirts from a hoarder and processed them all for fabric. I didn’t save the sleeves tho, I was still a newbie at the time.
You are off to a great start. It will be interesting to see what that all turn in to.
Holy Cow! You will have massive piles from the fronts and backs. This should prove interesting!
It will be fun to see what you end up doing with this. Do you starch your shirts at all before cutting or just press?
Just wondering. Have you ever done a post showing how many and what shape Accuquilt dies you have, which you use the most, any you don’t like or use? I have a studio 2, and just a small starter set.
It will be fun to see the quilts that come from that stack of cuts!
I’m including some of my late husband’s shirts in the grandkids graduation quilts. Even tho I’m using only all cotton shirts, they’re still slippery and a little harder to piece with than regular quilting cotton. Can’t wait to see what you make with these. Love the cheddar too!