Experiences Quilting with Men’s Dress Shirts – A Sustainable Approach to Quilting

by Katie Arrington Although I have always loved the idea of T-shirt quilts, I do not love sewing with knits.  And if I don’t love sewing with knits, I always figured I would hate quilting with knits.  How could I go about using old clothes without having to sew with knits?  My husband and I have been together since 2003, our senior years of college, and ever since he got his first “real” job, he’s had to wear a button up shirt to work every day.  Some of these shirts hold real memories for me- ones I bought for special occasions, ones worn on some of our pre-kid adventures, and ones I just loved to see him in.  Every year he goes through his shirts and purges, and I, more or less, keep all of them to be used in the future.  I wanted to make quilts from these old worn shirts so that we could all lay under them and feel wrapped in love by him and the memories from the shirts.  I also figured if I could figure it out with mens work shirts, then maybe in the future I could make quilts with the best loved clothing of my children.

I started the first quilt with his shirts at the first retreat of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild, in 2011. I went to retreat with a 6 week old baby and my brain could only work in simple designs. I was thrilled to leave retreat with the finished top.  I made big squares with his shirts, and one each from my dad and uncle thrown in, mixed in with a few of my favorite fabrics at the time.  It’s simple and clean and highlights the pattern of each shirt. Framing each big block in white helped highlight the different shirt patterns.  I sashed everything in aqua, which tends to be a recurrent favorite color of mine in quilting. For the back I used a vintage sheet my mother-in-law gave me because she knew I loved it and would put it to use.  Clearly, it is a work in progress/UFO. I started quilting it and hated what I had done. So, I am slowly picking it all out.  The overall layout of this quilt is a great way to simply and cohesively make a quilt from mostly woven shirts or pieces of clothing. This is going to be my main quilt project to tackle in the first part of 2018.

Since 2011 I acquired another hefty stack of my husband’s work shirts.  I wanted to be more creative for my second try at a quilt with his shirts.  I decided that I would make all improv blocks, that would aim to be at least 50% made up with his shirts (which was only semi-successful).  Every block in the quilt is different and incorporates some of my favorite fabrics next to pieces from his shirts.  It was hard to get to the 50% ratio so some blocks have a lot less than that, especially the low volume ones.  I love improv. This quilt was a joy to make.  I started 2 dark blue, light blue, low volume and orange blocks and built everything out from there.  I played around with the layout for the quilt a lot and in a comment on instagram it was suggested to add more of the pop of the color orange, so I did.  In addition to some of my favorite fabrics I put some pieces in to represent my kids, mermaids and the millennium falcon.  Straight line quilting is not my favorite thing to do, but this quilt called for it. So, that’s what I did along with some crosshatching towards the middle.  When I gave up the idea of having the lines be perfect and perfectly spaced, I had much more fun with it.  So it’s really organic straight line quilting.

There were so many fun left over bits and pieces that I didn’t want to part with.  Namely the pockets and the cuffs of the shirts, neither would have worked very well in an all over quilted quilt.  With all of the leftover pockets I was able to make my son a minky backed small quilt, which he loves sleeping under, and I imagine will be filled with cars and rocks at some point.

It’s hard at first to cut up old pieces of well loved clothing. But after that initial first cut, everything is easier. When I was starting both quilts I cut off the big back panel of the shirts, cut off the pocket from the front, cut the largest pieces I could from the sleeves and front pieces, and saved the cuffs.  Then I had a stack of nicely sized pieces to cut into large squares for the first quilt, or into smaller improv pieces for the 2nd quilt.  I love improv blocks and improv quilts and I really enjoyed mixing the dress shirts in with solids and some of my favorite quilting cottons.  None of the quilting cottons were washed ahead of time, and the mix of pre washed and not pre washed didn’t seem to affect the final quilt. Quilts with old clothing could be made in memory of someone who has passed or to be wrapped up in love and memories of someone still alive.  You could mix pieces from many members of a family, including everyone’s memories in the quilt.  If you don’t have enough shirts or items of clothing for a whole quilt, you could go to a thrift store and find additional items that complement and contrast what you have at home. Have you ever made a quilt from clothes?  We’d love to see if you have: comment below or tag us on Instagram @bouldermqg We also have a Sustainable Quilts board on Pinterest full of inspiration!