You are probably wondering can you actually make a quilt from dress shirts? And the answer is yes you can. Its actually quite easy, it just takes time. The whole reason I made quilts from dress shirts is because I got bunch of dress shirts from my mother and mother in law.
I’m not about to let that high quality fabric go to waste. The easiest way that I found to process the dress shirts is as follows:
- Remove Cuffs
- Cut sleeves from shirt
- Remove split yoke if there is one
- Cut off buttons and collar
- Seam rip breast pocket if there is one
Once the dress shirts are deconstructed you are able to cut your pieces to fit your patterns. I also don’t throw away the sleeves. I simply either seam rip the seam or cut it off completely. This allows me to get as much fabric from the shirt as possible.
Do know that this is a lengthy process and takes a lot of time and care. If you are anything like me, you use up every inch of fabric that you can. Making quilts out of dress shirts is one of the most cost effective ways to build your stash in my opinion. It is also a great way to make a keepsake for years to come.
It is what I did when my grandfather passed away. I was given a lot of his old dress shirts and knew I wanted to make a quilt from them. They all happened to be in the same color pallet so it worked out beautifully. It was actually the very first quilt I ever made. (See below- pattern is squared 2 by Suzy Quilts.)
The second quilt was made from dress shirts that were my grandfather’s as well. Made from another free Suzy Quilts pattern. Pictured below is the Retro Plaid Quilt Pattern. Pattern Linked here.
So you see making quilts from dress shirts is quite easy and inexpensive. The question you have to ask yourself is if you want to spend the time processing the shirts.
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