Repurposing old t-shirts

[senoy]

@Beckdawrek

A blanket is one layer of fabric. A quilt is 3 layers, a quilt top ( the t-shirts) a layer of batting and a back. They are quilted togeter, which means sewing through all the layers. A comforter is a quilt with very heavy or fluffier batting.
Quilting(sewing the layers together) can be done with just a thread and needle. Takes forever. Purists believe that’s the only way to do it.

Blankets are often two layers. A front and a backing. Otherwise, that’s pretty much it. In a blanket, the layers are connected loosely if at all. ‘String quilting’ is an example of that (every foot or so a string tacking the material together.) So the person who had a bunch of T-shirts and a fleece back was likely the owner of a blanket. The easiest way to tell is to see if there are a bunch of patterned stitches running around seemingly randomly throughout the quilt. If so, they it’s a quilt. If not, prolly a blanket.

The stretchiness of T-shirts can be mitigated by glue on stabilizers. They are non-stretch fabrics infused with heat activated glue that you iron on to the back of the T-shirt.

[Beckdawrek]

@senoy

Blankets are often two layers. A front and a backing. Otherwise, that’s pretty much it. In a blanket, the layers are connected loosely if at all. ‘String quilting’ is an example of that (every foot or so a string tacking the material together.) So the person who had a bunch of T-shirts and a fleece back was likely the owner of a blanket. The easiest way to tell is to see if there are a bunch of patterned stitches running around seemingly randomly throughout the quilt. If so, they it’s a quilt. If not, prolly a blanket.

The stretchiness of T-shirts can be mitigated by glue on stabilizers. They are non-stretch fabrics infused with heat activated glue that you iron on to the back of the T-shirt.

That’s exactly what I would do. Tacking or tying is easy to do. Sew the t-shirt graphic panels together. Get fleece fabric to fit and use embroidery floss to tack it evenly at the cross seams. Bind the edges. Cool blankie!

[kopek]

@panache45

Is there a way to cut around the design and then attach it to a new t-shirt?

Some of the younger people I work with have done that; it was some sort of fashion trend that just totally missed me. For the most part the result doesn’t look all that great unless you attach it to a much heavier shirt; a tee design onto a sweatshirt for example. Its like someone else pointed out about different weight materials in the sense of a quilt — when it doesn’t work it fails pretty badly.

[ftg]

Many of these ideas don’t work when the t-shirts have holes in them. For me, if it doesn’t have holes it’s still a t-shirt.

Once they get truly holey, then it’s off to the rag bin in the basement. Use them for wood finishing projects and such.

[Llama_Llogophile]

@Spiderman

I have a quilt/blanket; it’s t-shirts with a fleece backer. Can be anywhere from sofa throw to king size bed. If paying for it, shop around as pricing can vary greatly; one place can be double the next.

I’m thinking of going with this place. Probably a twin or a full. Price is reasonable, and waaaay lower than a few other companies.

[Icarus]

My idea would be a photo-collage. Take a picture of yourself wearing each one. Then stitch the pictures together into a larger picture (I would go for a simple row/column layout). Have it quality printed poster size, and framed.