Make Your Button-Up Shirts into a Quilt! Perfect Beach Blanket. 

When my Mom passed I made quilts for myself and my siblings from her clothing. I found adding fusible interfacing to the back made it SO much easier. And, the quilts turned out beautiful.

I made a memory quilt for a family using their late father’s work shirts. I cut off the sleeves, cuffs, yoke/collars, pockets and button/buttonhole strips. Then I cut 2.5” strips which were different lengths and made an abstract “jelly roll” quilt. I used contrasting color triangles to connect the strips together. The family loved it. I wanted to attach a photo but didn’t know how.

Starching the fabric makes it much more user friendly.

I use THRIFTED shirts for quilts all the time. The fabrics are soft yet durable...

Your beach blanket is lovely! I would be so lucky that the stripes on my blanket are as perfect as yours.

It turned out really cute!

I got alot of oxford weight shirts on 50¢ day at my local thrift store. Choosing for weight of fabric first, then color. Luckily, found a heavy weight flannel sheet for batting and a set of muslin curtains for backing, pieced out with extra shirt pieces. Looks good !

I really like how the grey sashing goes with the blocks. I have tons of quilting material that I have bought at thrift stores.Lots of folks buy material and don't get around to using it. I call that a picnic quilt. I even made one with with some raincoat material on the back so if you have a nap or picnic on grass that is a little wet, you stay dry.

I did A Quilt out of Pendelton wool shirts for a client, will is such a dream to work with I did squares and rectangles left some pockets on and other tags and some buttons areas, got first place at the county fair on it

Well...if this isn't a fantastic idea I don't know what is!! What a great way to use old but good men's shirts up and make them into good quality quilts. I will go the secondhand stores and see what I can find. This is exciting! I will look for bright colours and add to that what I have already here at home. Then we have a collection of buttons, too. Sewing is my favourite pastime.

I use men’s cotton plaid and striped shirts from the thrift stores to make baby quilts for my grand babies. They turn out so soft and have a vintage feel to them. I just finished a pinwheel quilt from 6 different plaids set with white on white background fabric. It’s darling. Thanks for showing how to use men’s shirts and repurposing them.

So cute... Luau shirts would make cute summer blanket or picnic table cloth. Thanks for sharing all the pros and cons. Very informative 👏👏

I made a memory quilt from my Friends husbands shirts, who had passed away. You can imagine the stress I felt making it. After completing it, I heard using interfacing on the more silky shirts would have made it so much easier. Wished I had known that first. The iron on interfacing would have make cutting the shirts so much easier. None the less the quilt turned out amazing!!

Lovely ❤. Nice light weight cover for taking a nap on the porch. 😀

I like it, I think it is pretty! 😃

Looks really nice

You could iron on a fusible interfacing on the back of the fabric to Give it more body, also to spraying it with a little bit of starch and ironing it may have given it some more stiffness, but it turned out pretty!

So cute! I think when it doesn't have any batting it is called a "summer spread".

It’s really cute. I bought a blue Jean type quilt already done without padding or backing. I attached a navy blue sheet to it for backing and I love it. There’s no padding. The quilt is like a queen size and cost me 6.99.

Beautiful! Thank you for being honest about the challenges of making this project though, I’m a beginner lol and a perfectionist myself-so this is clearly not the fabric I should use if I want to duplicate.

You sew quilts exactly like I do. It is fun to watch. I made a double quilt for my, then, daughter-in-law from her grandma's dresses, which were, by the way, all silks and satins. I tell ya, that was no easy task, but I got the job done. Took me a bit longer than usual, but I got it made. My daughter in law absolutely loved it and made her think of her grandma everytime she used it. I haven't done a quilt like this since my own husband died 12 years ago, and it's got me thinking I should start doing this again. Thank you for brining me back to my happy memories. 🙂

Just extended my daughters quilt, used her old clothes and receiving blankets and couple scraps

I love to read the comments because I learn a lot of tips. This time my tip is to put strips of newspaper under the fabric as you saw so it is less slippery. you can rip it off once you're done. This is a tip from my grandma and it works.

You might want to machine tack the intersections of the blocks so that the two layers stay together. PS the outside edges are borders. The strips that go between the blocks are referred to as sashing. Great video.

Definitely when it comes to designing less is more. Omitting those other two colours made it easier to lay out a pleasing pattern. The border pieces are genius. I would call it a summer throw quilt. Another great finished item 👌 👏

Thank you for showing us your techniques and sharing this experience. The experiment turned out well!

Very cool. I want to do this with my dad's flannel shirts.

Beautifully done but I do totally agree that shirts and especially sheets are exceptionally difficult to work with. I've done a Dresden Plate quilt that I made with 37 of my husbands silk and cotton dress ties! I thought I would be fancy and use a 'silky' sheet for the backing. I almost lost my mind. But everyone oooo's and ahhhh's over it. But never again.

I used very vintage very outwashed bedcloth for quilts and found out that the best pattern for these very thin fabrics is Dresden plate. The seams stiffen the work, and it's sewn on another fabric. Just as suggestion for the leftovers or another project. Your shirt quilt turned put very pretty.

Love it! It makes a perfect summer weight blanket.

Great tutorial! Only thing I can say is that using a 2 layer quilt for sandy beach, you will end up with tons of sand that works it’s way in between the 2 fabrics and won’t come out.

Thank you so much I really really enjoyed watching you Crete this stylish and elegant and stunning blanket/quilt. The colours are perfect and they look so fresh too. Please stay safe and well too xxx Mags

Epic!!! Subscribed!!! I've never made a quilt, but definitely have interest. A family member passed away in January and I've recently cut all the seams of their cotton button up shirts and have been wanting to do a fun easy going "quilt" without learning batting as a beginner to quilts, so something like this would be perfect! Perfect summer weight as well!

You should be very pleased with how it turned out in spite of some of the fabrics being a little challenging to work with. Well-done!

I really like how you explain everything in detail. Makes it easy for new quilters.

Norah, to this 73 year old who grew up in Georgia, this would be a summer coverlet.

Thank you for sharing this. I accepted the task of creating a memory quilt from three of my BIL's flannel shirts for his grandson, and this would be simple yet perfect layout.

Very nice. I've made 'quilts' without batting and I call them 'coverlets' :)

I buy used full size comforters and sew my handmade quilt to it….it is so easy

When my Dad passed away I also made quilts out of his shirts. My mom and siblings loved them!

Would also serve as a nice table topper, maybe over a solid standard tablecloth on the diagonal.

I love this idea. Thank you!

I love how those patterns and colors work together.

This is how I make my quilts now I always put a back on them I have made 15 quilts and never stopping

So basic and turning lovely scarf , I will make it the future ……❤

No batting is called a coverlet! Nice video🙏

You deserve to be happy with it, very pretty, especially as a throw over your shoulders

I think it is a nice quilt but I would put batting in it. I like the colors.

Love the Idea, I never did something like that but you explained so well that I may try it. Thanks

Just a little tip, you could use a thin interfacing and have no problem with shirt fabric. I make a lot of memory quilts and use it all the time. Turned out great. Hope you enjoy it a lot this summer 👍🏻

This shirt cloth is good for the denim circle quilts. The heaviness of the denim compensates for the thinness of the shirt cloth. There are several videos on YT on how to use a circle template to make a denim quilt.

Thank you for sharing your process as well as things to consider when making shirt fabric selection! I look forward to trying my hand a creating one.

Very cute.. I use Pellon PF44 interfacing. You iron it on then cut out your squares. Makes a huge difference.

You are one of he very best people in the world..

Loved it .... I too sometimes get worked up while working with slippery fabrics . but appreciate that you completed it

What made this one hard was working with those stripes. Choosing different fabrics would have made it much easier.

Do you think if you pre-starched the fabric might have helped? I know sometimes I pre=starch my quilt fabric by spray starching the fabric until saturated. The let it air dry overnight and repress with a hot steam iron before cutting. This increases the surface area's friction and holds the fabric pieces together as they do not slip. This is a technique I learned from Fat Quarter Fabric videos and would help with this project.

Great idea! Have been trying to come up with a LIGHT blanket - it gets up to 120+ here in Phoenix, Arizona!

Pins are useful in piecing

Starching thin fabrics makes them cooperate better. Terial magic is great but irons to very stiff. Your project turned out very nice.

Wouldn't pins do the same thing as glue? I'm wanting to get back to sewing after learning decades ago and I'd love to make a quilt. Those little clips they have now seem really great and easy to use, but you can't sew over them like horizontally placed pins which also keep your top fabric from continually sliding forward.

Could you have used a little starch on them before you made your cuts? That might have helped with the lining up of the stripes. Great video!!

Norah!!! This is super cute! I also make thinks outta shirts!!!

Nice one

Love it!

Spray shirt with spray starch and iron before you cut into squares.

I have been saving these cotton print and striped men's shirts and I really need to at least!) start to cut some pieces for a quilt and save for when I get into that "phase" again! I think I'm going to do hexagons about 4 or 5" size..nothing too intricate..But I simply love the vintage look of using these men's shirts..it reminds me of my Great G.mothers quilts.As a child I could lay on her elevated bed for hours just look at the hundreds of various prints, stripes, and many of them I recognized from old house dresses and stacks of outgrown clothing she saved.I like to quilt in the Winter,warm and cozy!

All the quilts I've made (three complete) I've made with men's second hand all cotton shirts. They've been a dream and when I bought normal quilting cotton I was hugely disappointed. It was so flimsy! I hand-piece and hand-quilt and don't worry about perfect for sure. So try another before you give up. So much better for the world!

Really beautiful ☺️

You can add lightweight fusible interfacing to the lighter weight fabric and it would stablize it quite a lot.

This is a good project. I do have an idea for it. If you leave a larger gap/opening instead of 8 inches and sew in a zipper there, this could word as a cover/protector for a woolen/fleece blanket.

I love it. It is beautiful! I love the stripes!

I'm making a shirt quilt right now. I'm at the point where I will be sewing on the first border. I'm using the anvil block so a lot of HST's. I also found that a careful choice of shirts has made the going easy. What I haven't found easy is the picking away at this lady's video to prove that some of you need to be insufferable know it all's to get through your day. If any of you ladies have content on RU-vid, please let me know. I would like to see what you have to offer. Thank you.

It would make a great beach blanket

Perhaps adding starch before you cut would have helped with stiffening the farbric for easier cutting abd stitching.

Really nice!!!

I love it.

I love this ♥️

Good job ❤

Very nice

Great idea thanks for sharing

You did a great job keeping the stripes straight. But if you find that hard, another time you could make them intentionally crooked for a lively look. At least one world famous quilter recommends this!🙂

Here's a hint to make shirt fabric easier to handle. Make your spray starch with 4 parts water and 1 part vodka, spray your fabric and give it a good press, then start sewing. Also only use 100% cotton or cotton linen blends.

Very nice blanket

You did a great job.

This came out so lovely!

Love it. I’ve made a couple of shirt quilts. I don’t know how to add a picture. Sorry. Yours came out great.

A lot of people use a light weight fusible interfacing as a stabilizer.

Love this idea 😍

Well Done !! All your hard work was worth it, it is absolutely lovely, I will give it a try.....

I love it!

It's beautiful!

Excellent 🙏

Very interesting and helpfull

Quilting does involve sandwiching layers of fabric, minimally three. However the "quilting" happens when the layers of fabric are stitched together between fabric using needle and thread either with a machine or manually. You have beautifully made a nice blanket not a quilt.

Ok, I bought a vintage cotton quilt from an auction but when I got it, I realized someone used a sheet to finish the quilt as the backing. Because the sheet doesn’t stretch like cotton quilt fabric, the actual quilting stitches that sandwhich the 3 pieces together rip apart because of the non-stretch of the sheet. My question…. How do people use a sheet in quilts? I don’t understand how it would allow for the quilt to give just enough to not tear the quilting stitches apart? I understand that this quilt has no batting and will probably be easier to handle as far as the issue I have, but with the front fabric (shirts) being as stretchy as she says they are (prob part polyester. A yuk in my view as she learns this in her video. Appreciate her honesty) how is this quilt going to behave with a stiff sheet at the back? Is the sheet part poly too? Thanks for any help. Not sure what I am going to do with my gorgeous vintage quilt in turquoise sand reds, but has the sheet backing and quilting stitches tearing apart. Might be too much work to fix.

You could have put a light fusible backing to your squares so they would not stretch.

Great little project! Thank you. 🙂

Thank you, for your warning about the fabrics as a beginner this was valuable information to me 😊. I’ve been looking what to make using 3 fabrics and this looks great 😊. I could make this, with flannel lol

So clever! I love it