Quilting a T Shirt Quilt

[Judy B.]

I'm planning to hand quilt a t shirt quilt. What is the best stabilizer to use for the shirts? I've practiced on two different kinds. One was quiltable but hard. The other was impossible. Both were iron on. Thanks

[Kathryn S.]

Hi, i don't have any experience with T shirt quilts, but I haved use a very lightweight iron on tricot interfacing product before in regular sewing, that might not be too stiff to hand quilt through. I've not heard of anyone hand quilting a t shirt quilt before- it sounds like a difficult thing to do.

Kathy

[Rita C.]

Sounds like a difficult thing to do by hand. What about mistyfuse? I have not used it myself but I have seen it and as it is not a solid all-over glue maybe it would be easier to quilt through?

[Eileen K.]

I make t-shirt quilts very often, and I use the fusible tricot on all of them. I don't know how it is to hand quilt through, but I machine quilt with no problems.

[Dawn S.]

Having just finished one t-shirt quilt and almost finishing another, I will say you are a brave person to want to hand quilt one! I will admit half of my shirts were sweatshirts, not t-shirts, and they were a real bear to machine quilt with a domestic machine! I agree with Rita about maybe trying Mistyfuse. It is supposed to stay quite soft. (My Pellon 911 sure didn't!) And, the light weight iron on tricot that Kathy and Eileen suggested sounds like something I may be trying in the future!

Might I suggest that you take some of the backs of your shirts and make some sandwiches with the batting and backing that you will be using, and try some of stabilizers that have been suggested, and see how well they needle. And, then visualize doing 9, 16, or 20 of them!

Good luck!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

[Renata L.]

I have never made a T-shirt quilt myself but one of my sisters does--she uses Pellon 906F non-woven fusible interfacing because of its lightweight nature and ease of quilting. Of course, she machine-quilts her T-shirt quilts, so I would not know how well it would do with hand-quilting but I would surmise it would be worth trying out on a practice piece to see how you might like it.

[wendy w.]

I've not quilted a t shirt but I have done some embroidery using heat and bond light and not had any problems. That was using a sharp needle but I don't know if that would damage t shirt fabric which is stretchy so I would assume you would need a rounded end needle :?
Sorry not much help.