Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Colors Of Summer

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* I am excited to award this gift!!!

Today Is the Colors of Summer project! I have been saving my old
t-shirts and wearing some others for gardening. I just could not part
with them. Their colors were still fresh and cheerful and in good
shape... but not really for wearing out. While cleaning out my closet
this spring I found the saved stash of shirts. Having just put away
some winter throws from our living room the idea of a "summer throw"
for my family seemed perfect! Perfectly easy I imagined and I do believe
it came out that way also!

This throw is like a quilt but their are no "insides" to the quilt. Just the
top and it's textured back :) Perfect! You could finish this in 2-3 days
worth of free time!
*** Just think of the cute t-shirts that our children have or teenagers!
Oh the posibilities!
*** Think about the dimensions of the throw you would like to end up with
OR just cut out all of the t-shirts and "wing-it".
*"wing-it" is not a dance that chickens do :) It is a dance that
we/some of us do sometimes or even all of the time! makes life exciting!

Let's get started~

Supplies:
*old t-shirts {with or without decoration/designs}
*thread
*scissors
*square of cardboard {size of the squares you would like your quilt to have and
PERFECTLY SQUARE}
*iron {makes cutting easier}

1) Select your t-shirts, or the fav's of the one you are making this for...
oh! with their permission! heehhe
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2) Iron t-shirts. You can do this all at once or one at a time.
*this makes cutting out precise squares much more enjoyable!!!

3) Use your cardboard square template, place it on one of your t-shirts and start
tracing around the template with a soft pencil washable pen.. I used pencil
with an ultra light hand so as to barely see it.
*Place the template strategically so you use the t-shirt fabric with little waste.

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4) Keep the squares in nice neat piles so there is no chance of stretching or wrinkling.
*it HELPS to keep the WEAVE {just go by those little lines that all t-shirt
fabrics have} of the fabric in the same direction in the piles.
a techy type of thing but it will keep everything going SQUARE when you start
to sew :)

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5) All t-shirts are cut and in there color pile. Let's lay out the squares for ONE row.
Just arrange in a color pattern that pleases YOU:)
*i went horizontal here...rather the width of the fabric.

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6) Pin your first row of squares together and use as many pins as you need to get
nice neat squares. Neatness does pay off in this project.

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7) First row done.
Layout the next row above the first row until you get a pleasing arrangement.
PIN & SEW the second row.
*YOU NOW HAVE TWO SEPARATE HORIZONTAL ROWS.

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8) Continue in this manner until you have the desired number of rows built up.

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9) NOW you can start to attach the rows VERTICALLY TOGETHER.
*Match up the seams.
*I matched up and sewed a row at a time and did it in two halves so that
I only had to work with the bulk of the fabric once, when I sewed the final
middle seam. :)

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10) You can stop here or continue on with a binding around the perimeter of the
t-shirt throw.
Why did I not move this Gazing ball out of my way!!!???

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For the border/binding around the edges, I used some left over favorite fabric that I used here originally :)

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This fabric was a perfect match-up for me!
I just cut four strips of about 2 1/4" wide. Two for length and two for width of the finished t-shirt throw.
***OH, cut them each about 3" longer than the sides of the throw.
Pin strips on opposing ends, sew.
Sew with a 1/4" or smaller seam.
Then same for remaining 2 sides.
Press under the outer edge of the strips by 1/4".
Fold binding over to cover the seam and press.
pin and hand sew Or machine sew binding around the T-shirt Throw.

You ARE DONE :)
Whew! This project is much easier than my lengthy directions seem to
imply. I tend to like to give a lot of pointers... just ask my daughter and son!
Remember, this is just a bunch of T-shirts :)


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P8040041/smoothside P8040035/textured side

I hope that you make this T-Shirt Throw. Now that I have the final photos finally taken I am going to start using it... Just in time for our heat wave this weekend LOL!
I am going to figure out how to start a flickr group for your Celebration Projects :) {just look at my empty side bar... sewing etc. I know, computers~ not so much.
Thank You for playing :)
See you tomorrow :)

Hugs, Mary

5 comments:

Sugar Bear said...

Oh Mary you need to come to CT and teach me to sew! I LOVE this!
Karla

Sarah said...

This is super sweet in it's sherberty colors. (And it has my brain ticking...perhaps I should get my serger rethreaded stat, I think that would make the sewing easier.)

Draffin Bears said...

Wow! what a lot of pins Mary.
I love your project and it what a great idea, using all your old tee shirts.
You have made a pretty throw.

Hugs
Carolyn

Merci-Notes said...

ehhehe,
I told you I was techy like that :) All of those pins!!!
It comes from working with Plaids AND HOme Ec classes! Match match match to get an "A".

A serger must be a joy to use Sarah!!!

And say, I am a big sister to four beautiful and wonderful sisters... so "teaching" is a thrill for me!

Thank You girls!!!

Hugs,
Mary

Unknown said...

That throw is SO cute! I just saw it now!!!! Cute! but I cannot sew, though my mother is a master quilter. :)

Angie