How to Plan a Holiday Themed T-shirt Quilt

What’s your favorite holiday? Are you one of those people who go all out for a particular holiday?  If you or someone close to you is a nut for a particular holiday, a holiday themed T-shirt quilt is a unique and practical decoration for you!

What is a Holiday Theme Quilt?

A holiday themed T-shirt quilt is made from T-shirts celebrating that particular holiday. For example, Halloween T-shirts used for a Halloween quilt.

Why Have a holiday theme quilt made?

• It’s fun to collect the T-shirts for your quilt
• A quilt can be used to stay warm with
• It is a unique decoration
• A quilt can be a conversation piece
• It’s portable
• It's warm

How to Collect T-shirts for a Holiday Quilt

Like any holiday decoration, you find them mostly before the holidays and deeply discounted shortly after the holiday.  But be on the lookout through out the year for T-shirts. Here are some places to find T-shirts for a holiday quilt.

• Discount stores such as Walmart and Target have holiday T-shirts from before the holiday until they are sold out after the holiday. If you see a T-shirt that you have to have and will wear, get it before the holiday.
  
  But after the holiday you can watch for them to be discounted. And since you are purchasing the T-shirt for a quilt, the size does not matter. Although if you have a choice, go with the larger one.
  
  
• Second hand stores are also a great place to find T-shirts. Like many of the discount stores, they will have a selection of T-shirts before and after the holiday. But they will also have holiday T-shirts intermixed with normal merchandise.
  
  
• Garage and yard sales offer an opportunity to find T-shirts for your favorite holiday. We routinely find Christmas, 4^th of July, Easter and Halloween T-shirts at garage sales. Most people do not attach a high value to their T-shirts because many times they were a gift. So you might be able to collect an entire quilt’s worth by just going to garage sales.

Beyond the T-shirt - Other Items to Consider

• Sweatshirts, sweaters and any other washable fabrics can be used.
  
  
• Carefully consider using T-shirts that are a one-off color family. For example, Halloween T-shirts are mostly orange and black. You can also find them in gray, white and purple and other nontraditional colors.
  
  If you have all orange and black T-shirts and just add in one nontraditional color shirt, that one resulting block will stick out like a sore thumb.  If you want to add in nontraditional colored T-shirts make sure you have a number of them so it doesn’t look off.
  
  
• Christmas T-shirts are plentiful. At garage sales you will see a ton of them. You might consider picking a theme within the Christmas theme.
  
  For example, there are Santa Clauses, snowmen, teddy bears, angels and penguins among other choices. If you decorate your home with a particular theme, you can continue that theme into your quilt. 
  
  
•  4^th of July or flag T-shirts are also readily available at garage sales and thrift stores. Be aware that most of these T-shirts are made by various brands of clothing.For example, Old Navy has a 4th of July T-shirt each year.
  
  Sometimes you will be stuck with the brand name on the T-shirts while other times you will be able to avoid the name when the T-shirt is cut. The 4^th of July quilt here has a number of Old Navy T-shirts. 

Next Step

Once you have all your holiday themed T-shirts together, you need to have your T-shirt quilt made. Here are the steps to having Too Cool T-shirt Quilts make your quilt.