T-shirt Quilt - Part 2

Alternate Title - I will be interfacing for the rest of my life...

I did kind of a lot this weekend, so I'm really going to try to fill you in on the process without boring you to death. We'll see how it goes! If you missed the first part of this project you can read about it here.

The to-do list this weekend consisted of adding interfacing to all of the tshirt edges and sewing all of the squares together. Boy it sounds like nothing when I write it out, but I assure you this was a major undertaking. Mostly just the interfacing part. I'm not sure if it's me or my machine, but sewing knits does NOT work out for me. They stretch and end up looking all wonky. Since I wanted to avoid a lopsided, very homemade looking quilt I added a strip of interfacing to each side of every square.

I didn't have a whole lot of interfacing in my stash (maybe 1/2 or 3/4 yard), so I cut strips about 3/4" wide and the length of the square. Ok, technically some were 14" long and others were around 12" because I didn't have interfacing to waste overlapping on corners! Once I was tired of cutting strips had plenty of strips to start with, I started fusing it to the tshirt edges.

If you cut the interfacing a little bit to long (there is a tab sticking off the edge), you should definitely trim that off before you press the iron unless you really want fusible interfacing stuck to your ironing board. Oopsie : )

For some reason my iron has started to steam like there's no tomorrow even when I have it on the lowest steam setting. This is probably because my iron and I have a love/hate relationship....oh, who am I kidding. It's pretty much skewed toward the hate side. I'm not big into ironing, so the iron probably feels neglected. Perhaps it's still steamed (ahaha, sorry I couldn't help myself) about roof debris getting all inside the water chamber. (That was totally not my fault though - and a story for another time, sorry) Whatever the reason, my iron hates me and for this project has decided to soak everything.

Despite the fact that I was treating my interfacing like an endangered species, I didn't have enough. *Sigh* Thanks to my thrifty cutting this is all I have left:

I went to Beverly's and got some more interfacing (and passed on some beautiful fabric that was 1/2 off, it was heartbreaking). I had been using woven interfacing, but got some slightly thicker non-woven stuff for the rest (it was cheaper and seemed better for a purse which is on my to-do eventually list). I'd recommend the woven stuff though because as it turns out, the non-woven kind tends to show where you pinned it and leaves tiny holes.

Then it was finally, FINALLY time to sew! This interfacing extravaganza may have permanently scarred me. I do not want to interface anything for a long time...although when I do, I am going to be a master!

The rows came together pretty quickly. I tried to time it for you, but of course the one time I made sure to look at the clock, I also ran out of bobbin thread. So including winding new thread onto a bobbin, one row took a little over 15 minutes. You could probably finish one in a little over 10. It seemed much faster, maybe I was just getting a rush from sewing faster than I ever had before. I was seriously enjoying all straight lines! I used a 1/4" seam allowance, no real reason why. That's just what I picked.

I was a bad girl and didn't press my seams after I finished putting the rows together. Honestly, I just completely forgot until I was already sewing the first two together. Maybe watching hulu while I sew isn't the best for my level of concentration. : )

Next you're ready to connect the rows! I was getting more and more excited here because it was really coming together! Don't skimp on the pinning at this stage! Pin right sides together. I would suggest pinning near where the shirts should line up and then maybe one in the middle of each shirt. Mainly you just want to make sure all of the lines will match up.

I couldn't go quite as fast here because I was trying to be careful about making sure the edges lined up. That and there was a lot of quilt hanging out to the side after the first two rows. Don't freak out if you have some places looking a little funky and not laying flat at this point.

Now for some shocking news - I pressed those seams! It makes everything lay flat. Initially I was just pressing where I connected each row, but it looked so good I went ahead and pressed all of them! So unlike me! But I'm kind of seeing why people are always saying to press the seams because it looked much cleaner after pressing.

Ta-da!! I was so proud. : ) It actually looks like a real quilt! I found some king size jersey knit sheets on clearance at Target this weekend and I'll use one of those for the back. I'm still waiting on the batting I ordered to get here. Stay tuned for part three and the finished product! If you have any questions, please email me. I didn't write anything down as I was going so I may have missed something!