Upcycling

[sarahkoenigs]

Does anyone know about how much yardage is in a men's small dress shirt? I want to upcycle some very precious clothing and use the material in quilts for my children.

[FarmChick]

I think it depends on size and style (fitted or looser). If I were going thrift store shopping for quilt fabric, I'd be looking at the biggest sizes I could find. Also, the ones that have a pleat at the back yoke and no fitted darts or seams. Long sleeves also have more fabric obviously than short sleeves.

[gershwin64]

I would say in a mans small a good fat quarter on the back if there's no pleats and maybe 2 fat eighths out of the front?
You already have the shirts right?
Tina

[sarahkoenigs]

Well my son was killed about two years ago and I have been thinking about making some projects with his clothes for his brother and sister. I was thinking about doing a double wedding ring quilt for each of them and using Matt's shirts for at least the squares in the center of the rings. Maybe for the rings thmeselves if I have enough fabric. He was petit and his small men's dress shirts are mostly the snug fit, or modern fit I think they are called.

Anyway, before I cut anything I wanted to know if anyone thought I would have enough fabric in a shirt or two for a queen size quilt. Just the squares?

[knitnoid]

Yardage depends on size, seams, how you tear your shirts apart, pockets, design of shirt. I love using recycled shirts in my quilts. Since I buy shirts to recycle and I track my fabric purchases and usage, I came up with an average yardage of 1 1/2 yards. This is based on a man's large. A while back I wrote a post on how I came up with this figure.
http://pamela.avaraarts.com/shirt-yarda ... t-yardage/

[QUODDYNLILLYMOM]

First of all,I am sorry for your loss.I know how valuable these clothes are to you. Make sure when you are ready to do this that you inspect each for wear and mark bad areas before you cut that way you can judge exactly where to cut. Keep all of the left-over pieces.Some could be used in a "coin" stack for the back of the quilt, adding as much as possible to each of theme. Also, the yolk is really great to use when making the label for the quilt. You could also use the leftovers in a memory quilt that included perhaps pictures done with the printer iron-ons. I have done this several times and it is quite quick and easy and it really is a tremendous keepsake.

[scrapquilter48]

Your embarking on a fabulous memory quilt, requiring lots of work, wish you success and would love to see it all finished. It will be well cherished. You could even use one shirt as backing for a blazer made from leftover staff of your strips and his shirt.. Quilt as you go method, where shirt serves as a template..