T-Shirt Quilt Class Part 1

This fall I was lucky to teach a t-shirt quilt class through a local community organization, UFM.  I was talking with the director about quilting classes that would do well and we some how got around to t-shirt quilts.  I've made several t-shirt quilts throughout the years and recently started making them for others.  When you're sewing for others efficiency becomes essential.  I decided I had enough practice making them that I could teach others how to make a t-shirt quilt class. Note: I only remembered to take photos at the last class so I sprinkled them throughout the post even though they don't technically line up with each topic in each paragraph.

Meg working on putting the sashing onto her t-shirts.

I set my class up into 3 sessions. The first session was only 1 hour on a Wednesday night.  This class was specifically to cover what the students would need to bring to class on the two Saturday sessions we would be holding and to demonstrate what we would be covering the first session.  I had handouts and materials all there so everyone could see exactly what was going to be needed.  The most expensive too that students were going to need for the class was a 16.5"x16.5" square ruler to cut out their t-shirts.  They cost $35 at our local fabric/crafting store in town.  Luckily, the day before class my brilliant husband decided he could make them a lot cheaper than that so he went to the Home Depot and purchased some thick clear acrylic and made one on his table saw here at home.  At class I offered for those who were interested he would make them one as well.  Everyone took me up on that offer.  His only cost $10.  They don't have the nifty measuring lines but for our class we didn't need them.

Barbie working on her t-shirt quilt.  This was Barbie's first time sewing.  She did an awesome job!

Our first Saturday class was an all day class where you worked until you were finished.  We cut off the arms and sides of our shirts, ironed on lightweight stabilizer and then cut out our shirts with our new nifty 16.5" square ruler.  Most ladies had between 9-16 shirts.  I had one very ambitious lady who had over 60 shirts!  (A little more on her quilt in my next post.)  Students brought their irons, ironing boards and cutting supplies and worked hard.  Most everyone was finished before 4PM.  No sewing required!

There was lots & lots of ironing throughout our classes.

This was a mother-daughter team, Bonnie and Shelly.  Their teamwork worked great. They brought only one set of
all the supplies and it worked out that while one was sewing the other was ironing or setting
up for their next row.

The following Saturday we met again to piece our t-shirt quilts together.  After answering the question multiple times, "Are you sure we are going to get these done today?"  I think I finally had them convinced that we would.  And we did!  With all of the prep work out of the way we started sewing on our sashing between the t-shirts and then joined them into rows of t-shirts.  We then connected the rows with sashing and added our borders.  These were some hard working and determined ladies in my class.  I helped by ironing and cutting as necessary.  My biggest job throughout all the classes was doing the math for fabric amounts and such.
Everyone finished the piecing of their quilts on the day.  My student, Diane who had the 60+ t-shirts finished the front side of her quilt, using 30 t-shirts on it.  I would say that's pretty darn good work!  Next time I'll show you how their quilts looked after I quilted them.

Our mother-daughter team, Shelly and Bonnie, showing the t-shirt quilt Bonnie pieced.

Our mother-daughter team, Shelly and Bonnie, showing the quilt that Shelly pieced.

Barbie's quilt pieced at the end of a long day. This is a gift for her son for Christmas.  We figured he wouldn't be
surfing quilting blogs and run into his quilt so he went ahead and put it in here.  :)