So I have a lot of old t-shirts that I could never bear to throw away. Concert shirts, for instance. Sentimental value. I still can’t bear to throw them away, but I also can’t justify keeping a whole box/bag of limp, crumpled cotton. Is there a way to display them somehow? Framing, perhaps, or…I dunno, making a quilt?
RaceQuilts.
Never dealt with them but it was first in the search results. There are other companies.
Thanks, but if I do that, I’ll figure out how to do it myself.
Absolutely make a quilt! They’re absolutely perfect for quiltmaking. Heck, you can do a simple quilt by machine, just cut out squares of the same size and start stitching. Make a single backing piece of something solid and a few tacked corners where the squares come together and you’re done. It could be a one day project if you’re motivated enough.
Or if you want more body to your quilt, use a lightweight fusible web – it’ll prevent stretching. Stretchy fabrics are a bitch to quilt.
Yeah, quilted or in frames – what else is there?
Wha-wha-wha. I do embroidery, not quilting! What’s the something solid for the backing piece? What’s a tacked corner? Bear in mind that these shirts are the definition of stretchy, since they were washed a gazillion times before retirement.
How about a bunch of throw pillows?
You could stretch the design part over foam core and pin them around the sides, then display them as is or in frames. If you plan to frame them I would try to get them to a standard size, you will save a lot of money that way.
Okay. So you go to the fabric store (it’s the place they built around your favorite embroidery supplies) and you ask the old guy behind the counter for “interfacing”. He’ll immediately ask you what you’re working on and tell you exactly how to do it. Really, he will. If he’s not there, find the oldest woman you can find. Forget the young 'uns, they may have applied here because Subway wasn’t hiring. It’s the old people working at fabric stores who know what they’re talking about.
In case he’s out sick and Britteney doesn’t know a whipstich from a basting stitch, you’re looking for interfacing. It’s a nonwoven “fabric” which will give your t-shirts some stiffness while you’re working with them. I suggest the fusible - iron on - stuff.
Cut up your t-shirts. It will be easiest if your fabric squares are the same size, so cut a template out of cardboard and trace it on your shirts to get the same size pieces.
Cut as many pieces of fusible interfacing as you have t-shirt squares. Iron one square of interfacing to each square of t-shirt.
Arrange the squares in a pleasing fashion. Sew them together with a 1/4 inch seam allowance (that means put two squares face-to-face and sew along the edge you want them to share, 1/4 inch away from the edge.) It’s easiest to sew the squares down into columns, then sew the columns together.
Now you have the front of your quilt. Measure it, and make a back for it. You might be able to find a fabric as wide as your quilt, or you may have to sew pieces together to the right size. This can be more t-shirt squares if you want a double sided quilt, or it can be any fabric that you like. Now you have the back of your quilt
Put the quilt front and back together, right sides touching. Sew along three edges, and about 3/4 the way along the fourth. Turn it right-side out through the unsewn part and finish by closing the opening with a small, as-invisible-as-you-can-get stitch. Considering you do embroidery, that part should be easy for you!
“Tacking” just means sewing the back to the front in a few spots, through all the layers, so it doesn’t poof out and get all twisty. At a few spots, just take a needle and thread and make a few front to back to front stitches and tie it off. You can also get purty and put a small ribbon through a wide-eyed needle and insert from the front to the back and then back to the front and then tie the ribbon into a bow or knot.
Awesome idea! I’d still want to use some interfacing to give the fabric some strength, but this is much simpler than a whole quilt.
My friend’s mom (a champion quilter) has made tee-shirt quilts. The first quilt she did, she cut the tee shirts into 12-inch squares and applied them to 12-inch squares of the interfacing. She said there was too much stretching and her squares weren’t “square”. (She’s picky.)
So with subsequent quilts, she cuts the tee-shirts and the interfacing a few inches larger than what the finished square will be, and she trims them to size after ironing. There’s some waste, but she says her squares are more square. She uses sashing strips to join her squares and she has them professionally quilted, but like I said, she’s picky. She’d sooner run naked down the street than tie a quilt. Horrors! 
Here’s a link to some more instructions.
WhyNot speaks the truth about the help in fabric stores. If they’re under 50, don’t ask them anything, except maybe where’s the bathroom.
All right; thanks for the help! I have more use for a quilt than for pillows, so it’ll be a quilt.
What’s going to happen when the over-50s die off?
As usual, Thinkgeek has the answer:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/e1fa/
(not to the over 50 question {answer: throw a party}, but the t-shirt one) 
Well, it’s statistically impossible to be surrounded with fabric every day and not eventually develop an interest in making, say, this. But it can be a slow process. Tomorrow’s old hands are aging, like fine wine, and in another 25 years may be worth asking advice from. 
That. Is way cool. 
Okay, I know what I’m adding to my Christmas list. I tend to hang on to my t-shirts well after I stop wearing them for sentimental reasons.
I’ll throw a different idea out here.
Get a mannequin torso like this.
You won’t have to cut up your shirts, you can see both the front and back, you can easily and quickly change the shirt to fit your mood or occasion. And you’ll have a fun conversation piece when people visit.