Making a T-shirt Quilt – Part 3

Making a T-shirt quilt

Here’s where things stand right now on Jo’s T-shirt quilt. I’ve fused the interfacing and cut images from all the T-shirts in the stack, and I’ve got finished, framed blocks for eight of them.

I wrote about the tools and supplies I’m using for this quilt here.

And I wrote about the hows and whys of the interfacing here.

Today I’ll show you how I’m framing the images to make uniform blocks.

The shirts I’m using in this quilt range from children’s XS to men’s XL. That, my friends, is a big range of sizes.

There are some amazingly complex T-shirt quilts out there that fit all those sizes together like a jigsaw puzzle. You can see some of them in this Pinterest board I’ve been building.

Frankly – the thought of planning that out made my head hurt. And then the cutting and piecing would have to be really precise and I would be quickly getting far away from the kind of quilts I like to make.

(One of the things I’m most eager to hear in Diane Gilleland’s class about T-shirt quilts is how she plans the layouts. Her T-shirt quilts have a lovely harmony and simplicity to them, and I can’t figure out how she does it just by seeing the finished quilts. I can’t wait to learn more about her approach! RSVP for the free video workshop happening on August 21 and 22 and take the class with me!)

Until I learn Diane’s magic secret – I decided to keep things simple.

1. I already own a 15 inch square ruler – so all the blocks will be 15 inch square blocks. Easy.

2. I cut the T-shirt images whatever size works best for the image. Then I add fabric around the image until it’s bigger than 15 inches. Then I use that handy-dandy ruler to trim it to the exact right size.

Today I’m going to showย how I do that framing.

Here’s where we left off in the interfacing post.

Making a T-shirt quilt

The T-shirt has interfacing fused to the back and it’s trimmed where I like it.

I hit my stash and pulled some blue that very closely matched the blue of the T-shirt.

My original plan was to use contrasting fabric for the frame – like pulling out the green of her tail or the orange of her hair – but in the end I decided that would be too busy. I want the focus to be on the T-shirt images, so my frames add a bit of extra texture (none of them are solids) without adding additional color.

I added strips all the way around the image until the block was bigger than 15 inches. I added strips to the top and bottom first, then pressed it and added strips to the two sides and pressed again.

You can add to the sides first and then the top and bottom. Or you can work your way around the block log-cabin-style. It doesn’t really matter – just get fabric on all four sides.

Press all your seams away from the T-shirt center. And press everything from the back so you don’t smear your image!

Making a T-shirt quilt

Here’s the framed block with my 15 inch ruler set on top so you can see the extra all the way around.

Now – position that ruler where you want it and cut around all four sides. I wanted my blocks off center – but straight – so I lined one of the ruler lines up with a seam between the T-shirt image and the frame so everything stays nice and straight. If you look closely (click on the image to zoom in) you can see that the one-inch line on the ruler is lined up with the seam on the right side of the block.

I think it would be fun to have the images at interesting angles in the quilt, but Jo wanted them straight. ๐Ÿ™‚

Making a T-shirt quilt

And here’s the finished block!

You can see I added wider strips to some sides, and narrower to others. I don’t want the image centered in the block, so unevenness is good. Also – then I don’t have to measure anything. ๐Ÿ™‚ The effect is even more noticeable in some of the blocks with smaller images. Scroll back up to the top of the post to see the rest of the blocks so far.

Tony the Tiger was the only image big enough to cut 15″ square with no framing – so he’s in there just just from the T-shirt. Everything else is getting at least some framing.

Next week I’ll be back with a post about handling T-shirts whose images go right up to the armholes.

See all the T-shirt quilt posts here.

Happy quilting! Have a great weekend!

Best,
Wendi
Applique Wendi (with fabulous hat)

 

Making a T-Shirt Quilt – Part 2

How to Make a T-shirt quilt

Yesterday I wrote a bit about the tools and materials I’ll be using to make Jo’s new T-shirt quilt.

Today I’m actually getting started!

As I mentioned yesterday – the main challenge in making a T-shirt quilt is that T-shirts are stretchy. Stretchy fabric is usually the LAST thing you would choose to make a quilt. It stretches – which makes precise measuring hard. And the edges curl when they’re cut which is really annoying.

So the first step is to make your stretchy T-shirts no longer stretchy.

For that I used interfacing.

Specifically – Pellon 906F. It’s the lightest weight interfacing I could find.

Here’s how the interfacing works. . .

The Pellon 906F is a fisuble interfacing. That means you iron it to the back of your fabric and itย creates a permanent bond. You’re basically gluing a non-stretchy fabric to the back of a stretchy fabric – which makes the stretchy fabric no longer stretchy.

Clever!

I chose the lightest weight interfacing I could find because I didn’t want to make my fabric overly heavy or stiff. With the 906F it still drapes nicely – so that’s good!

Here’s the step-by-step. . .

Step 1 – Cut away the front of the shirt

How to Make a T-shirt quilt

I cut right up the side seams and across the shoulder seams, as close as I could get to the seams without being too crazy fussy about the whole thing.

Step 2 – Add interfacing

How to Make a T-shirt quilt

See the interfacing peeking out where the armholes were? That gives you a sense of how big I cut the piece of interfacing. From the back it’s just a big square of white fabric stuck to some blue fabric – not the most useful image.

Cut a piece of interfacing larger than the image on the front of your shirt.

Lay the shirt front face down on your ironing board.

Iron the interfacing to the back of the image. Follow the package instructions as best you can.

This involves slowly counting to ten over and over and over and over again. It’s very boring – but it’s not hard and it’s what makes the whole thing work. Just listen to some music or a podcast or watch TV while you do it. ๐Ÿ™‚

Important note – the instructions for the Pellon 906F say to flip the fabric over after the initial fuse and iron again with steam from the front.

Don’t do that!

A lot of the inks and image transfers used on T-shirts will melt and smear if you iron directly on them. Instead I lightly spritzed the back all over with water and pressed the whole thing again until it was dry.

Step 3 – Cut the image however you like

How to Make a T-shirt quilt

I’m cutting all the images for this quilt with square corners. That’s easy if you use clear rulers and rotary cutting tools. You don’t have to do itย – but it will make for easy framing.

For the technique I’m using I’m not measuring at all. Easy peasy! I’m just cutting around the image in a way that looks good to me for that image.

And that’s it! The T-shirt is no longer stretchy. The cut edges don’t curl. And I have a nice, easy shape to frame out for the final block. Tomorrow I’ll show you that step – how I frame the images to get blocks that are all the same size. With no measuring!

Disclaimer – This is my first T-shirt quilt ever. I’ve made a lot of quilts and I’ve worked with knit fabrics – so I’m not starting from nowhere. But I am in no way an expert! If you want to learn from an expert, sign up for Diane Gilleland’s class here. She makes some BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL T-shirt quilts and I’m definitely taking the class myself. It’s free if you RSVP for the live version!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi
Applique Wendi (with fabulous hat)

Making a T-Shirt Quilt – Part 1

 

We’re a T-shirt-wearing family. All three of us wear T-shirts all the time – the geekier the better. (Our favorite source for great designs is Tee Fury. They have a new design every day – available for only a day. Fun!)

Jo has been saving her outgrown T-shirts for years, with the thought that someday I would make her a T-shirt quilt with them.

Someday is suddenly NOW. She’s going away to school in a couple of weeks and has requested a T-shirt quilt for her bed.

I have never made a T-shirt quilt.

A couple of months ago I saw that Diane Gilleland is offering a video class showing how to make T-shirt quilts. Awesome!

Diane is a terrific teacher and the author of the wonderful book Quilting Happiness. You can read my review here.

And her T-shirt quilt class isย FREEย if you watch it live. Even more awesome!

Get all the details and get signed up here.

Seriously! Do it! I’m doing it!

But first I’m going to muddle through one on my own because Diane’s class is happening the last two days before Jo heads off to school and I know I’m setting myself up for major stress if I try to actually make the entire quilt in two days.

And guess what?

I’m going to share the muddling through part with all of you! I always get such nice emails when I share my mistakes publicly and this has the potential for some truly spectacular failures. ๐Ÿ™‚

I’ve done a little bit of research about T-shirt quilts, but mostly I’m winging it. I figure I’ll learn all the good stuff in Diane’s class. ๐Ÿ™‚ But here are a couple ofย key things I’ll be doing/tools I’ll be using. . .

Interfacing

T-shirts are stretchy. Stretch is bad when you’re trying to do precise piecing and end up with nice, straight lines. Plus the cut edges will curl up and make me crazy when I’m trying to sew them together.

So the first thing I’m going to do is make my stretchy fabric not stretchy anymore. For that I’m using fusible interfacing.

I don’t sew clothes or structured bags much, so I’m no interfacing expert. I decided to use Pellon 906F – a very lightweight fusible interfacing. I took a totally wildly random guess and bought 6 yards for my quilt. I’ll let you know later if that was enough. ๐Ÿ™‚

I’ll write a post showing what I do with the interfacing.

Totally Random Sizes

The pile of shirts ranges from children’s XS to men’s XL (she added a couple of Alan’s old shirts to the stash too). We want to keep the images on the front of the shirts as intact as possible, so I decided to frame each image with scraps of regular fabric. I’m a little worried about mixing wovens with knits, but it’s what Jo asked for and I’m willing to give it a try. I’ll let you know how that works.

The finished blocks will all be 15 inches square. Why? Because I already have a 15 inch square ruler and I’m going to use it to make trimming the blocks to their final size quick and easy.

I’ll share how I standardize the sizes of the blocks in its own post.

Jo wants a twin-sized quilt, so I’ll be making 30 blocks. I think she has 28 T-shirts so I’ll fill in the last couple of blocks with fabric of Jo’s choice.

Tune in tomorrow for theย post about the interfacing!

And remember to sign up for Diane’s class if you want to learn from someone who has actually DONE THIS already and done it very well. No – I’m not an affiliate or anything. I’m just really confident that the class is going to be awesome and I want you to get in on it. ๐Ÿ™‚

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi
Applique Wendi (with fabulous hat)

3 Ways to Join Yarn without Tying a Knot

How to Join Yarns with No Knot - Three Ways

Today, I’m going to show you my 3 favorite ways to join a new yarn without tying a knot. These techniques can be used:

  • When you’ve run out of yarn, and want to join a new ball of the same color
  • To change to a new color according to the pattern (although the color change won’t be as clean as with this color change technique)
  • To add new yarns when you’re making a scrappy project- great for leftovers!

Russian Join

The Russian Join allows you to connect all of your yarns before you begin crocheting. You’ll want to check out this tutorial for a full how-to.

how to russian join yarn

This technique is great if you have a lot of small pieces of yarn. You can join them in advance and then just keep crocheting! The result in joining up little pieces is a fabulous magic ball!

magic ball

‘Double Up’ Join

This is the technique I usually use when crocheting. You basically crochet a stitch or two with both your old and new yarns, then drop the old yarn and continue with just the new yarn. It’s very secure and quick. Visit this blog post for details!

join with no knot

The disadvantage is that those couple of stitches are a little thicker (due to the 2 yarns), but that doesn’t bother me much!

Spit Splice

This technique is the cleanest, but only works for wool yarns. And yes, you use spit! Read the full tutorial here.

This can be done either in advance or while you’re crocheting.

Which is your favorite?

Or do you prefer to tie a knot? It’s okay!

If you’re going to tie a knot, I recommend the following:

  • Tie the knot as you go, not in advance with the yarns
  • Start crocheting with your new yarn, then tie the knot after you’ve done a few stitches

I show how to do that in this tutorial.

Happy stitching!

Here are handy links to all the posts about yarn. . .

Return to the main table of contents for Letโ€™s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the lessons for the basic crochet stitches.

Happy stitching!

Video – How to Do Turkey Work Embroidery

How to Do Turkey Work Embroidery - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Turkey work is an unusual embroidery stitch that gives you a special effect. If you make long loops you can get a hairy or fringy look. Shorter loops can be trimmed to look like the pile of a rug or shorter hair.

Neat!

Turkey work stitching isn’t difficult, but it does require a bit of focus so you don’t lose track of what you’re doing. I tend to mumble to myself while I do it. . . flat stitch, loopy stitch, flat stitch, loopy stitch. . .

Here’s what I’m talking about.

See what I mean?

You can work this stitch on flat embroidery – you’ll often see it as the center of flowers, for example.

But I use Turkey work most often on little felt softies. It opens up a whole range of possibilities for hair, manes, tails, bushy eyebrows and more. ๐Ÿ™‚

I used it here for the mane on Zoey Zebra.

Zoey playing Pin the Tail on the Zebra

In the video you saw me working on Leon Lion’s mane. Here he is all finished.

Leon Lion - felt lion softie holding a birthday cake. I used Turkey work embroidery for his shaggy mane.

You can get the Leon Lion pattern here.

Want to see another way to add longer hair to a softie? This tutorial shows how to add yarn hair to a crocheted amigurumi, but you could use the same method with embroidery thread on a smaller felt softie.

Here are all my lessons for fill stitches (besides satin stitch).

Return to the Learn to Embroider main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons for all the other stitches.

Play with some felt! Try the Oddballs – a fun pattern for silly monsters.

Free Christmas Pattern – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament

free felt reindeer stocking pattern from Shiny Happy World

Deby at So Sew Easy has designed a cute felt tree especially for toddlers (nothing breakable!) and asked me and a bunch of other bloggers to design some fun felt ornaments for the felt tree.

You know I love working with felt and designing things for kids – so that was an easy yes! ๐Ÿ™‚

I love Christmas tree ornaments that also hold gifts! This mini stocking is about 6 inches tall – perfect for holding a gift card, some candy, a small toy, some jewelry, or any other little gift. Fun! It’s easy to make too! It’s all hand-sewing, so it’s perfect for toting around with you to stitch a little bit at a time. And the whole thing uses just one easy stitch – whipstitch. Ready to make it?

What you’ll need. . .

  • 1/2 sheet wool-blend felt for the stocking. I used Babbling Brook from my shop.
  • scraps of wool felt for the reindeer. I used Tahitian Sunset for the face and ears, Sandstone for the antlers, and Barnyard Red for the nose.
  • embroidery thread to match the felt (I used DMC thread in 502, 3858, 3032, 816, plus black #310 for the eyes and mouth – also available in my shop)
  • freezer paper (optional, but recommended)
  • small bit of baker’sย twine or other yarn for the hanging loop

Instructions

Download the pattern here. Print or trace the pieces onto freezer paper. Fuse them to your felt and cut out the pieces. Leave a little extra seam allowance wherever the line is dotted (the base of the ears and antlers). That extra bit will tuck under other pieces for a neat finish.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament - a free mini felt stocking ornament pattern from Shiny Happy World

Arrange the reindeer pieces on one stocking piece. The antlers and the ears should tuck behind the head just a bit.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament - a free mini felt stocking ornament pattern from Shiny Happy World

Whipstitch the antlers and ears in place with 2 strands of matching thread. (Here’s a video showing how.)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament - a free mini felt stocking ornament pattern from Shiny Happy World

Whipstitch the face and nose in place with 2 strands of matching thread. Using 4 strands of black thread, embroider the eyes and backstitch the mouth.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament - a free mini felt stocking ornament pattern from Shiny Happy World

Add the second stocking piece and whipstitch the two layers together all the way around the edge, leaving the top open for gifts.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ornament - a free mini felt stocking ornament pattern from Shiny Happy World

Use the baker’s twine to make a hanging loop in one corner. Done!

Like all Shiny Happy World designs – you’re welcome to sell items you make with my patterns, but please don’t sell or distribute the patterns themselves.

If you like this free pattern, sign up for the Shiny Happy News! Subscribers get a weekly newsletter full of sewing tips and tricks, free patterns, special discounts, and other things to make you smile. ๐Ÿ™‚

Happy stitching!

How to Applique with Whipstitch – a video tutorial

How to Applique with Whip Stitch - video tutorial. Sample shown of a green dot stitched to a square of turquoise felt with pink thread

There are a lot of different stitches to choose from when you applique felt – buttonhole stitch and running stitch are especially popular. But my very favorite stitch to use is whip stitch.

It’s fast.

It’s easy.

I love the way it looks.

Want to learn how? Here’s a video!

See how easy?

I stitched the whip stitch sample in the video with contrasting thread so you could really see the stitches, but usually I use thread that matches the applique pieces, so mistakes and uneven stitches won’t be very visible. (Sneaky.)

I should note that applique with whip stitch is a little bit different than whip stitching the edges of felt pieces together. I have a separate video showing how to do that here.

Applique with wool felt is one of my very favorite things to do!

It’s all done by hand, so it’s work that’s easy to carry around with me for quick stitching in free moments here and there. And the wool felt and smooth embroidery thread feel so nice in my hands! Plus the colors are so rich and pretty!

Give it a try with this fancy felt coffee sleeve. It uses whip stitch to applique all the felt pieces, and blanket stitch to sew the edges of the sleeve.

Fancy Felt Coffee Sleeve - a free pattern from Shiny Happy World

Get the free pattern here.

I also used whip stitch to applique the polkadots on Rhonda Rhino‘s fabulous dress.

Rhonda Rhinoceros - a cute felt softie of a rhino wearing a polkadot dress and holding a balloon

And the fancy decorations on this felt Dala Horse Christmas Ornament.

felt dala horse Christmas ornament with embroidery and whip stitch applique decorations - made with a pattern from Shiny Happy World

You can use whip stitch to add decoration to so many different felt projects. I love it!

Happy stitching!

Play with some felt! Try the Oddballs – a fun pattern for silly monsters.

How to Care for your Craft Scissors

I have three pairs of scissors: a pair for cutting fabric, a pair for cutting tape and an all-purpose pair (that happen to be child-safe so I can use them for travel).

scissors

Having different pairs for different craft purposes allows you to keep them in tip-top-shape, and makes your crafting easier! Here are some tips I have for keeping your scissors healthy.

Mark your Scissors

Do you have a family member who might be tempted to use your fabric-only scissors for cutting construction paper? Add a label to them! And consider keeping your special scissors away with your fabric stash.

Clean Scissors with Rubbing Alcohol

I have a pair of scissors just for cutting packing tape. Because tape leaves a residue that makes scissors icky!

When mine get too icky, I use rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball to clean the blades. The sticky comes right off!

Get them Sharpened

Many craft stores have an occasional sharpening service. Just like nice knives, it pays to get your scissors sharpened!

Any tips to share?

How many scissors do you have? And what types are they?

Do you have any care tips you’d like to share?

Read about Wendi’s “Great Scissor Rotation” here.

How to Piece Batting Together – a Thrifty Trick

Thrifty Tip - How to Piece Batting Scraps

Did you know you can piece together batting scraps?

Sometimes when I’m cleaning out my sewing room, I ask myself why I’m keeping all these long skinny strips of batting around. They’re mostly strips cut off the edge of a quilt after quilting and can be anywhere from 5-10 inches wide.

This week I was sooooo happy to have them!

I ran out of batting with just a few blocks to go on the Wild Flowers quilt. I’m doing Quilt As You Go, so small pieces work, but they needed to be at least 10 1/2 inches and I had already used all the bits that size.

I’m trying to finish the quilt by this weekend, so it was time to grab some of those scraps and piece the batting together.

Did you know you could do that?

Yep! And it’s pretty darn easy.

Step 1

Set your machine to the widest, tallest zigzag you can.

Step 2

Butt the edges of two batting scraps and run them down the machine so that the seam runs right down the middle and the zigs and zags catch some of the batting on each side.

How to Piece Batting Scraps - a thifty trick from Shiny Happy World

My machine often skips stitches when I do this. Don’t worry about it as long as most of them catch.

Step 3

Use the new, bigger piece of batting.

How to Piece Batting Scraps - a thifty trick from Shiny Happy World

Butting the edges keeps you from getting a fat ridge of overlapped batting in there, and the zigzag stitch is plenty to hold the pieces together during construction. And look how nicely it all holds together once I add some quilting! Click on the image if you want to see it bigger so you can really see where that seam is.

So that’s it! I used up some of those bulky batting scraps and I’m ready to finish the last blocks for my quilt. No shopping needed!

Want to know what my favorite quilt batting is and why? I lay out all the details in this post – My Favorite Quilt Batting.

These links go to all my posts about quilt supplies.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about cutting and quilting your background blocks.

Happy stitching!

The Future of Crochet: 3D Printing for Hooks

Right now, you have 2 choices when it comes to crochet hooks. You can go to a store and purchase a hook that’s been made in the millions by a manufacturer or you can purchase a hand-carved, custom crochet hook.

furls crochet hook

In the future, I think there will be a third option. Hang on to your crochet hooks.

What’s wrong with the current options?

When a manufacturer makes a crochet hook, they’re trying to make one that will appeal to a large number of people. Their goal is to sell them by the thousands/millions.

crochet hooks selection

While there are lots of different designs, there might not be a hook that’s perfect for you. Especially if you have small hands or a unique crocheting style.

The hand-carved hooks can be personalized (for example, to fit a smaller hand), but they are pricey. This makes purchasing one ‘just to try out’ out of reach for most consumers.

Crochet Hooks and 3D Printing

Have you heard of 3D printers? They’re basically printers that use a resin (instead of ink) to create a 3D item.

Less than a decade ago, these printers cost tens of thousands of dollars and were only used by researchers and companies. Now, though, there are a selection of 3D printers available in the $500 range, meaning they’re becoming practical for home use.

reasonably priced 3D printer

You probably have purchased a pdf pattern online for knitting, crocheting or sewing. These are usually patterns made by independent designers (like me!) that can be produced without the costs involved with printing & distributing a book.

This model allows independent designers to create patterns for niche markets. For example, a giant company might not be interested in spending thousands to produce a squid pattern, but as a pdf pattern (without much cost overhead), designing an adorable squid is practical! Yay, niches!

I predict the same thing will happen with crochet hook designs. You will be able to purchase 3D Printer Plans for a crochet hook, that you can print on your printer at home.

Sketch for a crochet hook for a 3D printer

The cost of these plans would be similar to purchasing a pdf pattern, and would allow the customer to purchase a crochet hook almost exactly to their liking. Independent hook designers will cater to different hand shapes and styles, exactly as they do now with stitching patterns.

Isn’t that such a cool future?

What do you think? Do you see print-at-home hooks in your future?