I am very excited to share with you my latest creation: The Daddy Quilt Kit! This kit includes everything you need to make your very own 3 x 3 square T Shirt Quilt Blanket. I call it the “Daddy” quilt because it’s a great way to use dad’s T shirts to make a special gift for baby!
You may remember that I made one for my great-niece, my new poster girl. Isn’t she sweet? She is demonstrating how the Daddy Quilt is perfect to lay on the floor for baby to play!
To test the quilt kit I turned to my blog friend Liz of Living My Sweet Life. She is a wonderful mom of young boys who shares her sewing pursuits on her blog. She reminds me a lot of me when I first started sewing. I was a young, stay-at-home mom who had a desire to create and turned to sewing to fill the nap and evening times. (Boy, do I miss those days!)
Instead of T shirts, Liz used her husband’s button down shirts to create this adorable quilt! What inspiration! I simply love the interesting patterns of the shirts!
Her son snagged the quilt as his own and brings it to bed with him every night. I am sure it is extra-special because it was made with “Dad’s” shirts!
Using the buttons was a fabulous design feature! Liz’s boys are not babies. I would not recommend using the button side of a shirt if you were making a quilt for a baby, but you certainly could use the back side of the shirt for a similar effect! Cut one of the shirts on the bias for an interesting design! Mix and match button-down shirts, T shirts, sweatshirts. You are only limited by your creativity!
I was so inspired by the Liz’s use of button-down shirts that I upcycled one of my husband’s shirts (it was sitting in my “mending” bag) into a drawstring bag.
You can read Liz’s post which describes her Daddy Quilt experience here.
In addition to the sweet red with mini, white dots fabric, I offer the kit in black, brown, and royal blue colors. These are unisex colors th
at work with many colors of tees. Each kit will be packaged in a unique, upcycled button-down shirt drawstring bag. This bag can be used to hold the finished quilt.
I’ve taken the boring work out of quilt-making with this kit! All you have to do is find nine T shirt sides. Liz said the entire project took about 3.5 hours. It’s a perfect project to sew in a weekend! You can break the project down as follows:
Friday night: Select and rough cut T shirts
Saturday morning: Interface shirts while watching your favorite TV show
Saturday afternoon: Sew top of quilt blanket
Sunday: Sew quilt top to backing and complete top-stitching
Sunday evening: Cuddle your baby in your quilt!
I am also open to discussing fabric options. For help I turn to my fabric fabric stores: Contemporary Cloth and Jo-Ann. Just contact me to discuss!
You’ll find my quilt kits here.
Don’t like the idea of sewing but love the idea of the Daddy Quilt? Find my custom items here.
I hope you will find the Daddy Quilt a practical and pretty item. These functional blankets are meant to be used: throw them on the floor, use them in the stroller, car, beach. They are fully washable. I look forward to seeing your finished creations.
What a great idea! I love the bag that comes with the quilt kit!
I love the button-downs on the older-boys’ quilts–such a great idea.
One of the very nicest things anyone did for me when my mother died unexpectedly was a friend who was a quilter–she went through my mother’s closets with me and helped me decide what to keep, what to donate, and what to quilt. She made me a quilt of my mother’s tees, bordered by some of her favorite dresses. It has been such a comfort and gift to me to literally be able to wrap myself in my memories of my mother in these years since she’s been gone. We have other t-shirt quilts in the house (and boxes in the attic of special t’s for our boys for later!) but I’m not sure any will ever surpass that one in meaning to me.
I hope others have great experiences with the daddy quilts–this is such a neat idea!
The kits are such a great idea. I love the whole daddy quilt idea, too, it’s so special. Your grand-niece is adorable!
Adorable. I’ve seen t-shirt quilts before but I really like your take on it. How sweet.
Thank you for letting me make this!!! It was a blast and I honestly still can’t believe how much it’s loved. My oldest came to bed with me last night and instead of bringing his “blankie” he bought the quilt I t-shirt made!!
What a lovely kit! I just learned how to sew, so I’m not quite ready to begin quilting yet. But, when I am good enough, I will definitely purchase a couple of your kits. 🙂 I’m so glad I found your site.
Thanks for sending me this link…this is a perfect thing to do with all of Gary’s old shirts, and he has a lot of old work shirts that have “blow-outs”! Maybe I could make it for Father’s day…I just love this idea…and if I can’t make the quilt, I can definitely make bags out of his shirts! He has Brook Brothers and Lands Ends shirts so they are very nice quality…too nice to throw away! I am excited about trying to repurpose them!
How do you go about fastening the plackets so the shirt fronts don’t open?
I simply button the shirts! You can also stitch them down. Sometimes I have to move my needle position to make sure I don’t hit the buttons.