Living on Less – T-shirt Tied Quilts for Christmas

For the past few years fleece blankets have been quite popular to make, especially at Christmas.  They require no sewing, simply measuring, making small cuts and then tying the strips.  However, sometimes the fleece can be a little expensive, especially if you are making a blanket with Hawkeye or Cyclone fabric.

If you are looking for a frugal, but special gift for someone along the line of the fleece blankets and if you can sew a straight line, try your hand at making a T-shirt tied quilt.  The only supplies you will need are t-shirts, batting, a sheet, thread and some yarn.   As for the quilt itself, the t-shirt material is soft from being worn and washed and it makes for a warm, soft quilt.

Here is what a finished quilt looks like.

This is my husband’s quilt/throw and it is made from several of his old running shirts.  He is a runner and has even run the Boston Marathon twice.  To a runner, the t-shirts that they collect from runs that they have run in hold special memories to them.  Unfortunately after about 40 years of running he has had his fair share of t-shirts.

This is an easy project.  Here are the simple instructions.

For the quilt in the picture, the quilt squares are 12 inches square and ½ inch seam allowance was used.  Make a template out of paper and center it on the T-shirt design and cut the squares.  In my husband’s quilt there are 4 squares in width and 5 squares in length.  It is simply a matter of sewing the squares together to make the front of the quilt.  Then pin and baste the batting to the wrong side of the front of the quilt.  Sew the sheet, right sides together, to the t-shirt front of the quilt, leaving an opening.  Turn the quilt inside out, baste the opening shut and then tie the quilt with yarn in the corners of each square.  These are pretty simplistic instructions, and I hope that I haven’t left anything out.  You can find more detailed instructions on the internet.

To cut the costs, use a sheet you already have on hand.  For the batting, you can use an old blanket.

The end result is that you have a nice, warm tied quilt that has memory quilt blocks made from favorite t-shirts.  This is not only a very nice Christmas gift, but a frugal one.    If you have a lot of T-shirts and were like my husband – he wanted to save some of those T-shirts from his favorite races (one was the Chicago marathon) – this is quite a memory keeper and it is also very practical.  I thought of this far too late for my sons, but I do wish that I would have saved all of their Little League t-shirts and made a quilt for them.

These quilts make great Christmas presents especially if you have a family member that has a lot of sports t- shirts that they have accumulated over the years.  It is also a great way to recycle clothing.