The previous Chapter Advisor for Alpha Phi (and my friend) Bianca, recently asked me if I could make her a tshirt quilt. She said she had a TON of shirts but I didn't believe her. When she finally brought them over, they were in a big suitcase and she wasn't kidding - there were a ton. First thing I did was to make a rough layout so I could quote her based on the finished size. There were so many shirts, the only way I could do it was to make it double sided.
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Once Bianca agreed to the overall size, layout & cost, it was time to make the finaly layout. In the pics above, you can see i just laid the uncut shirts out in approximately how I thought they might go together. But, I need to get out the ruler to figure out the exact cutting size for each shirt. Some people can just start cutting and sewing and go with it but I have to plan out the puzzle exactly before I start sewing. I decided to do one side of this double-sided quilt at a time. First I like to "rough cut" the shirts. Basically I just cut off the sleeves and collar and separate the front from the back. This helps ensure that the shirt lays perfectly flat when I try to measure it.
Using my quilt rulers, I center the clear ruler over the design and write down the minimum size I could cut each shirt without cutting off the design. Then I write down the biggest size that the shirt will allow me to cut it. Then I write it all out in a grid and start working out what size I should cut each shirt.
Once that's decided, I can get out my rotary cutter and start cutting all the shirts!
Last but not least, I lay the cut shirts back out to do a double-check that it all fits together like I thought it would. It looks pretty good but boy-oh-boy is this going to be a big one! I couldn't quite get it all in the picture.
Coming up next: Interfacing & piecing
