HeatherH Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Good Morning Friends, I am hoping someone may be able to help me out with this request. I have been asked if I would sew a T- shirt quilt as a gift for Xmas ( Lap size or bigger). I would make it from T-shirts supplied by the client, her husband runs in marathons & she would like to do something with the shirts. I am a quilter (piecer) and I am game to do this but I don't really know what a T-shirt quilt is or how it is commonly done. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have not given the client any estimates or actually committed at this point. Pricing suggestions would also be appreciated. Thanks for your advice. Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quilting Heidi Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Heather, I've not paid any. There are several on this chat that have made these for clients and I think they charge in the range of $20 - $25 a t-shirt if I recall. Do a search as it has been discussed several times over the last two years. I just can't remember the person that was the one that has made lots of them. You do have to use interfacing to stabilize them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoryJM Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Heather, I think Shannon has a tutorial for this on her blog. Click here to get to it: http://piecefulkwilter.blogspot.com/search/label/t-shirt%20tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnavans Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 I have done 10+ Tshirt quilts. The part I find to be the most time consuming is the stablizing part. I only have a home steam iron. The blog referred to by Dory is great. I only fuse one shirt at a time because of a bad experience once. I only recently purchased the long arm so when I guilted the Tshirt quilts, I quilted them on a domestic machine. So, I cannot give any advice about quilting them on a longarm. I can tell you that the tshirts with white, thick paint will melt. If I can help in any way, please feel free to contact me. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustSewSimple Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 I make them all the time for pay and it pays well. Go to webshots and in the search box type justsewsimple and one word. You can sort through the quilts there and find my t-shirt quilts. They are really fun to do and I consider each one a work of art. Have fun doing yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharon M Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Sylvia, your T-shirt quilts are awesome! makes me want to start collecting T-shirts! I read Shannon's tutorial too! Great tips Shannon! putting this post in my favorites for "someday"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeatherH Posted November 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Thank you for the grat advice, I post a picture when I am done. Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra Darlington Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 I did just a few t-shirt quilts, so I'm certainly not an expert. One tip that someone shared with me was to use a stablizer called Pelon SF 101 which I bought at JoAnn's with my coupon. Since I haven't tried any of the other stabilizers, I can't compare them. This one seemed to work very well, so I just stuck with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnavans Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Sylvia, I love the bright colors that you used. I will have to try that next time I do a tshirt quilt. I have used black and dark blue before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarieBrewer Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 When I made a Sturgis Rally t-shirt quilt I cut a piece of acrylic 17x17 and decided that is how big my quilt squares would be. Then I just set it on each shirt and cut out the squares then cut my fusible knit interface and ironed it on the back of the squares. If the guy is small you could make smaller squares. After ironing the two together I put a sashing of batik (1 1/2 cut strips) around each sq and then tied it all together w/a black sashing across the up/down the rows. If you search sturgis rally quilt for older posts, I think you can pull up a pix of the quilt I did. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarieBrewer Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Heather, do a search for Rally Quilt and the quilt will come up. Hope it's helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarieBrewer Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Ok, I need to do my research b/4 giving advice. When you search, do a search "from the beginning" and then for sure it will come up. Sorry!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LFQuilts Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Heather, Pricing for t-shirt quilts is all over the place and the going rate seems to be based on location - i.e. what the local market will bear. Here are a few URL's for folks who do this for a living: http://www.tshirtquilt.com/ http://www.handmadeforu.com/ http://www.memorylanequilting.com/ http://www.pshquilts.com/ http://www.campusquilt.com/ http://www.patchworkmemories.com/ http://soquilts.com/pricing.aspx You have to spend time figuring out what their pricing includes - stabilizing the shirts, quilting or something else, materials for sashing/backing/borders, batting, etc. When I first heard of the $20-$25 pricing per shirt panel, I thought it was high. Now that I've made several t-shirt quilts and tracked time/materials, the pricing doesn't sound so high any more:) But I'm still trying to figure out the optimal way to present pricing to my customers so they understand the work involved. I'd say to estimate a price, make the quilt, and then reflect on future pricing. Explain to your customer that your future rates may vary . . . The first time we do anything is a learning experience. Most of all, have fun! T-shirt quilts are a great way of giving people their memories back in a useful form - rather than gathering dust under the bed. Lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbi Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Heather, here are two ideas I've used. If you end up using photos, use GOOD photo transfer paper... the stuff I used wasn't as good as I thought. I was so sad to see the boyz quilts with the faded pics when I was in LA... Lesson learned. These are what I made for my grandsons: B-2's quilt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbi Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 He's a football player so I used some Vince Lombardi quotes along with the pics. Here's Bren's quilt: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustSewSimple Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 I do almost what Marie does. Except, I stablilze the shirt first then cut using my 17X17 template. Then I add my fabric according to the color of the shirt. They always turn out super/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.