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Not all T-shirt quilts and blankets are made the same.
Some are quilts. Some are blankets. The materials, construction, and finishing all affect the price.
Below is a comparison of three major T-shirt quilt and blanket makers and the factors that matter most.
After the table, you’ll find a short explanation of each factor.
A T-shirt quilt has three layers — a T-shirt top, a middle batting layer, and a backing — held together by quilting stitches.
A T-shirt blanket has two unattached layers and no quilting, making it less durable, less structured, and lower quality.
The image here show the back of Project Repat T-shirt blanket with the back of a Too Cool T-shirt quilt. There is no stitching holding the T-shirt to the back of the blanket.
They both might keep you warm, but that’s where the similarities end. The differences between a quilt and a blanket impact cost, feel, and durability—important factors to consider before you decide which is right for you.
There are many T-shirt quilt styles, each creating a different look. Traditional styles use uniform blocks, while modern styles use varied sizes and layouts to better fit each design. Choosing the right style depends on your shirts and how you want the quilt to feel and look.
Traditional Style T-shirt quilts or blankets use a standard size block. These blocks are then lined up in rows and columns. A quilt or blanket made with a one set size block does not account for graphics larger or smaller than that block size.
Look for quilt makers using many different block sizes. Read more traditional style T-shirt quilts that use one block size here.
And read more about puzzle style T-shirt quilts here. Here at Too Cool T-shirt Quilts, we invented quilts with different sized blocks in 1992.
In any grouping of T-shirts, there will be large and small graphics. This means that a quilt made with just one block size will end up cutting off parts of graphics or leaving other graphics with too much space around them.
If a design on your T-shirt is larger than the standard block size, then the graphic will be cut off. This can break your heart if it’s your favorite T-shirt.
The backing of a T-shirt quilt is more than just the back side. It affects the quilt’s durability, softness, and how the quilting appears.
High quality backing material is expensive. To be profitable, many quilt makers will choose the cheapest fabric. Good for them. Bad for you!
Although you don’t see the batting in a quilt, it is very important. The type of the batting used influences the look, quality, feel and most importantly, the longevity of your T-shirt quilt.
A cheap batting will be made from polyester, have a high loft and look puffy in a quilt. Thicker is not better or warmer.
A high quality batting will look thinner and better!
You can see in the photo here how the batting effects the folding of the quilt. The quilt on the right is a Campus T-shirt Quilt. The quilt next to it is a Too Cool T-shirt Quilt.
If a quilt doesn't have batting, it's not a quilt. It's a blanket.
Quilting is the process of stitching all three layers of a T-shirt quilt together: the top, the batting, and the backing. This stitching holds the quilt together, adds durability, and creates the finished look on both the front and back. The quilting can be done as an overall pattern or customized for each block, depending on the design.
The density of quilting also matters. The less dense the quilt, the less durable the quilt.
In the photo here, the Too Cool T-shirt Quilt is on the left. The Campus Quilt is on the right. There are more stitches in one block of the Too Cool T-shirt Quilt than there is in the entire Campus Quilt.
