Sustainable Quilting with Men’s Shirts
A Sustainable Quilting Staple for High Quality Cotton and Color
A rainbow of Men’s Shirts prepared for quilting!
Wow! Look at all of this beautiful FOUND COLOR! Men’s shirts are so vibrant these days. Thank you men for breaking out of your white and blue button downs!
Men’s dress shirts, and some women’s shirts too, are amazing to quilt with. They are often made with the finest of cottons in sumptuous weaves that add a subtle texture. Perfect for folks who find quilters’ solid cottons a bit too boring but are also looking for an alternative to busy prints.
Tips On Resourcing Men’s Shirts
Look in your family closets
Ask friends and neighbors if they have any shirts they are getting rid of
Look for thrift overflow outlets where you buy by the pound to pay less than a $1 per shirt
Buy at your local thrift store
Look for the colors you like or need
Start with XXL rack
Look for the half off tickets first
Set a price limit. I never pay more than $5 a shirt
Stack and Cut Shirt Sleeve Improv Curves
Another thing I love about quilting with Men’s shirts? The shoulder curves of a men’s dress shirt sleeve are already cut in relationship to the bias for easy curve piecing and the sleeve itself is a tapered wedge. They are ready made for creating beautiful flowing, grid busting improv curves with little waste.
If you don’t have a lot of shirt sleeves you only need one to use as a template to cut similar shapes out of your quilting cotton stash.
Try it on your own or sign up for the online improv quilting class, Stack and Cut Shirt Sleeve Curves. It will be live on zoom February 11-12, and the recording will be available through the end of June 2023.
Let’s cut some shirt sleeves out together to get you started! Watch the video below!
Tell me about your forays into sustainable quilting with men’s shirts. Have you tried it? Any tips or questions?
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Four of my quilts and their stories are headed to The International Quilt Museum’s permanent collection! I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to be included in their permanent collection.