T Shirt Quilt

DIY T-Shirt Quilt
Before I explain this project, I need to set two things straight. First off-- I'm a sentimental hoarder. If a fond memory is even remotely related to an inanimate object, I keep it. For example, I have almost every ticket from any movie I've ever seen, I have a serious problem with getting rid of stuffed animals, and I have a knickknack box full of dumb things like a dried clover flower that my friend threw at me while we were lying in a cornfield, bored, waiting for a cross country race to end. (I also have a craft supply hoarding problem, but that's a different story.) The second thing I need to get straight is that I've always been a joiner. Clubs, teams, committees, sororities, you name it. In the life of an average American teenager, if a person has the sentimental hoarding trait mixed with the joiner trait, by the age of 18, that American teenager will have a CRAP TON of t-shirts. And this is where the t-shirt blanket comes in.

My mom made me this blanket as a high school graduation present, and it is still one of the coolest things she's made me. This blanket is so meaningful because those shirts were my favorite shirts EVER growing up.

Space camp, elementary school, 4-H club, AAU basketball, student council-- all of the shirts are there. It's like my childhood is stitched up in all that jersey knit.

I don't know when my mom made the decision that she was going to keep all of her kids' t-shirts and then someday make a blanket of them, but it worked out that way and now she's working on my little brother's t-shirt blanket as he gets ready to graduate and go off to college-- so it's kind of perfect timing to write this tutorial. :)

If you understand how to make a basic quilt, then a t-shirt blanket will be easy with the right supplies. I do know that it takes a long time to make one of these, I actually made a second t-shirt blanket when I collected more t-shirts, but it is totally worth it and it will be so meaningful for you or as a gift.