6 Myths About T-shirt Quilts - Busted

There are a lot of myths about T-shirt quilts. Here are 6 True or False questions about T-shirt quilts - how many can you answer correctly?

The more you get right, the more you know about T-shirt quilts. And the more you know, the better choices you will be able to make in choosing the right T-shirt quilt maker for your T-shirts.  

True or False: 
Only T-shirts Can Be Used in a T-shirt Quilt

False!  T-shirt quilts have evolved beyond just T-shirts. You can include just about any machine washable fabric in your quilt. This includes sweatshirts, nylon jackets, bags, baseball caps, and so many other things. You can even included stuffed animals in your quilts.  

Read more about what can be used in a T-shirt quilt here. 

True or False:
Good T-shirt Quilts Must Use Iron-on Backing or Interfacing to Stabilize the T-shirts

False! Traditional T-shirt quilts were made with iron-on backing glued to the back of each block. This is also known as stabilizer or interfacing. It was used to make the sewing of stretchy fabric to non-stretchy fabric easy. It is also what everyone in the industry said you had to do. 

But this made for a very uncomfortable and stiff quilt. Thanks to modern style T-shirt quilts and new sewing machine technology, the need for stabilizer is a thing of the past.  

Read more about why stabilizer is unnecessary and undesired in T-shirt quilts here. 

True or False: 
All the Blocks in T-shirt Quilt Should Be the Same Size

False! Not all the logos on your T-shirts are the same size, so why would you want to cut them all the same size?

If you use one block size, the larger designs will be cropped off and the smaller designs will be left swimming in too much space. 

Blocks should be cut to fit the design on the T-shirt. The result of this is a quilt made with many different size blocks that are puzzled into a dynamic design. 

Read more about the different styles of T-shirt quilts here.

Planning a T-shirt quilt?
Here are step-by-step directions for ordering your Too Cool T-shirt quilt.

True or False: 
T-shirt Quilts Are Easy to Make

False! For most people, making a T-shirt quilt and making it well, is difficult. Making heirloom quality T-shirt quilts takes practice, experience, skill and specialized equipment. This is why an awesome T-shirt quilt will cost a lot more than a low quality blanket. 

Read more about what it takes to make a great T-shirt quilt here. 

True or False: 
A T-shirt Quilt Must to Have Three Layers to be a Quilt

True! A quilt has three layers – the quilt top made from T-shirts, the batting is in the middle and the bottom is another fabric.  The three layers are held together with quilting.

If a T-shirt quilt has two layers, it is not a quilt. Rather, it’s a blanket.  Although the use of a blanket and a quilt are identical, they are not the same. A quilt is like a sports car and a blanket is like a Ford Pinto. They both can get you to where you want to go, mostly, but a quilt does it in style and the other just gets the job done. 

Read more about the differences between a quilt and a blanket here. 

True or False: 
A T-shirt Quilt Always Has to Be Dry-cleaned

False! There are two reasons a quilt would have to be dry-cleaned. First, if the backing material was not pre-washed to set the fabric'S color.  Washing a quilt in this category would result in a backing that shrinks and bleeds colors onto your quilt. 

Second, if there were a “dry-clean only” item used in the quilt. If there is one “dry-clean only” item in the quilt, then the entire quilt needs to be dry-cleaned. 

Read more about the care of T-shirt quilts here. 

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